I have to admit—what you are about to read took me a long time to prepare. It wasn’t a particularly difficult article to write, yet day after day I couldn’t bring myself to complete what I had started. The difficulty was a direct result of the tears in my eyes—tears from laughing to the point my stomach hurt, and it was contagious. Welcome to the world of whoopsies.
As mountain freeride snowmobilers, we go to great lengths to prepare and educate ourselves to create an element of safety and responsibility. Layering our clothing and wearing avalanche packs, GPS’s and radios, amongst other preparations, help to ensure success—but we are still human. It’s that human factor that had me laughing till I cried when I was writing this story. Prepare yourself—here is a compilation of some of the best whoopsies I have ever read, as supplied by forum members from SnowandMud.com.
Parking lot mishaps
I know this one from personal experience. I had never had reverse till one magnificent day I was perched upon my glorious new M8 with reverse. Don’t back up fast and turn at the same time or you’ll find yourself upside down faster than you can say “oh crap.”
I also learned that it’s important to replace your oil cap after topping up your oil. (Refer to the above paragraph). You will be upside down, and the smell of burning oil all over your pipe won’t be nice, nor is the clean-up time it takes to get all of that goop out of your belly pan.
Gas caps—righty tighty, lefty loosey
Here’s what freerider Jonathan Jean has to say about gas caps:
“One time, after fuelling up I didn't tighten my gas cap on tight enough and my first stuck of the day I rolled the sled and yeah, you can imagine what comes next. It was a pretty embarrassing moment.”
Tie one on
Sleds—tie them down or Superclamp them down prior to leaving. That makes the trip much more enjoyable when you arrive home with your sleds.
Here is some wisdom from forum member Zeebs:
“Never trust your riding buddies to load your sled or quad. You might just get to the destination, open the trailer and wonder where it went.”
Use the tether
Riding with a tether is not only smart but it could save your life. On the other hand, it can be the sneaky little gremlin that knocks a grown man to his knees in frustration. Why? Because it is doing exactly what it was designed to do. There is a learning curve when it comes to your tether—when you rode without one, you could simply get up off your sled, do what you had to do, jump back on, then pull the cord and go.
The tether is designed to save a sledder’s life by shutting down the engine if the rider falls off. This is so important as so many needless deaths and injuries have occurred when riders have been trapped beneath their sleds as their track spins violently because the throttle was jammed wide open. Sometimes tethers can come loose, sometimes we pull them out and forget, then curse our sled because it won’t start. When you are checking for fuel and spark, remember to check your tether connection before losing your mind.
Fill it up
What you are about to read had me laughing so hard I really was crying, and worse yet I was at work. My boss came over, and asked me what I was laughing at. After I read the following post by Northern Bear, he too was in tears.
“Going for a night ride, I wondered how much gas my sled still had left in it. I couldn’t see the level in the little sight glass thingy on the side, so I popped open the gas cap and used a lighter to see the gas level in the tank. Instead of closing the cap to smother the flames, I ran around like a total idiot looking for a fire extinguisher. But I still went for a ride after the fact.”
Fill up your sled before you go riding, and if you are on a thirsty ride, or going on a long journey, pack gas.
One rider spoke of the nagging, gut-wrenching anxiety of riding when you aren’t sure if you’re actually going to make it home or not. Fill your sled right up each time you ride, even if you think you’re only going to go on a little ride. Stuff happens—sometimes it’s because of our own curiosity—so just be safe rather than freezing your butt off being towed home. It’s awesome being the human popsicle as you get pelted by track shrapnel from the poor person who has to pull you out. (Yeah, and buy them a belt for their troubles too, okay?).
Here is what my buddy Dean had to say about a real-life experience:
“One time a guy’s sled quit while we were breaking trail through three feet of fresh powder for our poker run. Well, the group of rocket scientists we are, we proceed to tear the sled apart and investigate every possibility. We checked every inch of wire, checked the spark and tried different ecm off different sleds. After about an hour and 8,000 pulls, we realized it was out of gas. It must have been tired from riding through that deep snow I guess.”
Got the right gear?
Hours of research, and a good dollar spent, produces gear that is suited for you. Comfort and warmth is where it’s at. What could possibly interfere with your enjoyment? How about forgetting your gear in the truck where it promptly freezes into a solid lump? Or as Oneoldfart explains:
“Grabbing the wrong gear bag (they were identical), getting to the hill seven hours later with the boys and realizing that the bibs, boots and jacket that your wife wears will never fit you. The bags are now different colours.”
Another tip is to bring your gear in and make sure it is completely dry for the next day. On that same note, make sure you clean out your storage compartments and bags after each ride. I have forgotten beef jerky in my tunnel bag, which wasn’t sealed, and it got soggy and rotten. Thankfully, the bag was machine washable.
Also, before you retire your sled for the season, clean out the storage compartment. Another SnowandMud.com user, Gibson, said that his friend didn’t do this. Rotting clothes and food created a smell so horrible he almost tossed his seat out.
All warm and toasty
A trick some people use is to warm up damp goggles on their pipe while they rest or eat lunch on the mountain. This is all good in theory, but I for one have completely melted the inner lens of my goggles. So I don’t do that anymore. The primary clutch is another alternative to the direct heat of your sled’s pipe. It has less heat transfer, but as Neilsledder on SnowandMud.com found out, mishaps can still occur.
He said:
“When I stop, I put my goggles on top of my primary clutch to thaw them out. It works really well and they never melt, just dry out good. Twice last year, I drove away thinking why the hell my sled is making that bad noise—only to realize that I left my goggles on the clutch. So then I got to ride the rest of the day without them. And not to mention I had to spend more money on a new pair.”
George of the jungle
I am notorious for hitting trees head on. Don’t look at the tree—that is something we all need to understand. If you look at it, you’ll hit it—but do pay attention to where you are going.
This is probably one of the most embarrassing moments forum member PBNFLD had ever experienced. He said he was cruising along a lake when he noticed some pretty ladies. They obviously noticed him, for they were pointing frantically in the direction straight ahead of him. He turned around just in time to realize he was going to nail a large group of trees and there was no avoiding it. He spent the entire day in front of the ladies, pulling his sled out of the foliage. It wasn’t quite the studly effect he was going for.
Loading problems
When you are loading a sled onto a trailer or a deck, be particularly cautious on ice. I went from hero to zero one time when my kids were watching me load up my sled. I started slipping backwards on ice, so I goosed ’er a little too much and went right over the tilt deck and into my truck.
I read another loading whoopsie from Sled XP user. Today’s lifted trucks can make a six-foot or a seven-foot ramp too steep upon entry and Sled XP initially had a mishap with his trailer that resulted in sleds skidding across a highway. He thought to himself, “I’ll fix that,” and bought himself a custom deck with a six-foot ramp. Upon loading his sled for the first time, he wasn’t having much success. He didn’t have enough momentum to climb all the way up the ramp. Well, when in doubt, throttle out, so he pinned it. Needless to say, he had more than enough momentum and he cleared the deck and smashed right into the cab. His buddies were laughing so hard that he was left on his own to push his sled off of his cab. On the plus side, they pushed the sleds up the ramp until he made an eight-foot ramp, and the only damage to his truck were ski marks on the roof.
The trouble with trucks
Some people, like Sean Maxwell, get very excited to ride. We can all relate to this. What we all probably don’t do is leave our truck door open and head off into the great wide open. Some leave their keys at home—and important keys, like the ones to the sleds, or even worse, the keys to the Fort Knox-like lock on the sled trailer where everyone’s sled is. My buddy, Jesse, even forgot his boots one day, so he kind of duct taped up his shoes and rode for the day. He was very excited to ride, and nothing was getting in the way.
One gentleman on SnowandMud.com, who calls himself Cat401, was extremely excited to share his love of sledding with his family. He said he and his family all went out and had a wonderful day. Upon returning, they realized that he had left the truck running the entire time they were riding. They had a warm and toasty ride home though.
The outpouring of whoopsies was huge. It seems we all have them. The sharing of these moments of embarrassment on SnowandMud.com even caught the eye of snowmobile clothing manufacturer Motorfist LLC. They awarded a new set of gloves to Northern Bear for his up-in-flames experience while checking his gas.
And this is only the first installment of bloops and blunders. Stay tuned—as the next shred season approaches, we’ll have Round 2 to share.
