Snowmobile Examination

Video Transcript

"Alright, in this clip we're going to talk about how to check the sled over before you start it up, because you don't want to get out on the trail and have a loose nut or bolt that you could have fixed right here in the parking area. So we just kind of just do a walk-around first and just look at the general condition of the sled. And you're just checking to make sure everything looks tight. There's no big dents or bent skis. Looks like everything's in order. You want to check the tension of your track. So just kind of give a push on here. It should be pretty tight. You can check your owner's manual for the exact specifications on it. Check the condition of the track while you're down here to make sure that it's not broken or if there's any big cuts that could make the track fall off while you're riding. There's some adjuster nuts here to adjust the track tension, and you can find out about all that in the owner's manual for your snowmobile. And if you rented one, these guys keep up on their maintenance really well, so they'll definitely have checked the track and everything over. But you still want to give a good walk-around, just in case you see anything they might not have noticed. Alright, you can go ahead and lift the hood up. So we've already filled our tank with gas. This engine is a two-stroke motor, so it also burns oil, because it doesn't have any oil like your car does down in the bottom of the crankcase. So, we got our oil here. Make sure that's good and topped off, because if you run out of oil, then your engine's going to quit. It's water-cooled, so we have a reservoir here for the water. And just kind of make sure that the reservoir has water in it, or coolant. There's an on and off switch for the fuel, so in storing and trailering, we turn the switch to off so the fuel doesn't fill up the carburetor's. So we want to turn that on and just give a quick look around. Make sure the brake -- looks like it works good. The pull starter: the cord looks like it's in good condition. So this is where the drive belt is housed. I talked about having a spare belt earlier. Here's the belt here, and we can just check the condition of the belt. "