hand warmers

[rsracin05]

my cousins girlfriend has the sled and says the hand warmers either dont work or not well enough something like that and said something about other people using some polaris warmers. Anybody done this or know of a fix for this thanks rs

[bigmike]

my cousins girlfriend has the sled and says the hand warmers either dont work or not well enough something like that and said something about other people using some polaris warmers. Anybody done this or know of a fix for this thanks rs[/b]

yep you need new handwarmers,well for me i hate to cut factory wiring ,always seems to bite ya in the end buy the doo ones ,they insatll in about a half hr.

[toothgod]

my cousins girlfriend has the sled and says the hand warmers either dont work or not well enough something like that and said something about other people using some polaris warmers. Anybody done this or know of a fix for this thanks rs[/b]

Unfortunately the hand warmers on the ski doos seem to be an after thought. I have two GTX 600 SDI, a 2005 and a 2007. Each of them have had their hand warmers go bad, the 05 handwarmers were replaced four times in the first year. Good luck.

[boondockracer]

if the handwarmers worked before then they just burnt out. last season i was riding and i felt something burning my hand and the hand warmers burnt a hole right through my gloves. what my dad just did for me is he stoped at a dealer near us and bought to set of handwarmers so today ill be get em going

[formula 670]

I too have on 06 600 SDI Renegade, my left one burnt out last year but I was able to get it working but I'm sure it will break again soon. The doo ones are crap IMO. I did my research and HOT GRIPS (its the brand name) are the best out there and you need the 3 wire ones, then you just need some wire connectors and they hook right up to the stock doo locations, pretty simple really, its just another $100 down the drain.

[dnaburns]

I too have on 06 600 SDI Renegade, my left one burnt out last year but I was able to get it working but I'm sure it will break again soon. The doo ones are crap IMO. I did my research and HOT GRIPS (its the brand name) are the best out there and you need the 3 wire ones, then you just need some wire connectors and they hook right up to the stock doo locations, pretty simple really, its just another $100 down the drain.[/b]

After many posts and searchs both here and Dootalk, I installed Hotgrips model 123's 2 weeks ago, did one ride last weekend and they were so warm on low that they got turned off more than on. It was 30 degrees but still they seem warmer than stock doo ones.
Bought them from Jim at Hotgrips. They have a website too. Paid about $75 per pair that included 2-part epoxy and also shiping.
Quit screwin around like I was with mine and my wife's, stop considering ski-doo grips, and get the Hotgrips. Between hers and mine we blew one grip per season, and end of last year we each had one burnt out. That was my final straw.
It was pretty easy and make sure you use a pencil solder gun and shrink tube, splice to the existing wires. I actually went and searched for video of how to solder wires and watched a video on popular mechanics. These connections are better and stronger than the wire itself.

This is a very easy do-it-yourself project. And the end result is a superior grip, both hotness and longevity.
Did I say screw Skidoo grips? - you are throwing your money away if you go back to them.

[formula 670]

Since you already did the job and it sounds like you used the existing connector and just spliced the wires, why not post a picture for us all to see and to help make sure we connect the wires properly. Thanks

[dnaburns]

Since you already did the job and it sounds like you used the existing connector and just spliced the wires, why not post a picture for us all to see and to help make sure we connect the wires properly. Thanks[/b]

Wish i could, but 1. the sleds are up north, and 2. the splices are hidden from view by the shrink tube.

To install the Hotgrips brand:
On the brake side, Take the brake clamp off the bars and drop brake handle aside. Take the 4 screws off the back of the plastic assembly that has the switches on it. Running through here is the wiring to your grips. Cant miss that wire. Cut off the old grip and snip wire right next to the grip for now, just to ensure you will have plenty of wire left to solder to. Now you need to glue on the new Hotgrips per those instructions, which consist of mixing the 2-part epoxy ( I used the inside of the package the tubes came in to mix the goo).
I waited a few hours to let it set up just so I wouldnt disturb the new grip, you dont want to weaken the epoxy.
Now what you want is to have the end result splice to be inside the plastic assembly you took apart before. Cut the new Hotgrips wiring and the original wiring so this happens here. I left both sides a little long so that I have extra for the future, either way it doesnt matter because you can wind the excess wiring inside the plastic housing when re-assembling.
Now strip all wires back about 1/2 inch. Slip about an inch long piece of shrink tube over each of the 3 wires, either on the new wires or the old ones, as long as the shrink tube is a couple inches away from the solder zone (the heat can extend up the wire and shrink your tubes before you want them to shrink). I also slipped a larger shrink tube over all 3 so that I could shrink tube all 3 of the individual shrink tubes when the time comes.
Now you want to overlap the 2 wires to be soldered. twist them to get them to hold long enough to solder. They will sorta look like one continuous wire if you can picture this. Then hold the hot-ass pencil iron underneath the connection. using 60-40 rosin-core solder wire, touch it to the top of the wires. The solder will melt towards the heat, through the 2 wires you are connecting. I put alot of solder on until the wires were totally dissapeared inside the solder. After they cool a minute, slide the tiny shrink tube over the connection and heat it so it shrinks right up over the connection. I use a heat gun but a lighter will work fine. Then I slid the big shrink tube over all 3 and shrunk it over it all so that the formerly bare splices are now under 2 layers of shrink tube.
Re-assemble the plastic block, put the brake lever back on.

Throttle side:
I made my connection above where the pin connector is, after sliding the wire loom up out of the way as far as possible. Here you will need to cut the wires closer to finished connection length, not so much room to hide excess wires. I fed the new Hotgrip wires down inside the throttle block and down the loom by temporarily tying the New wire to the existing wire and carefully pulling/ feeding them through everything. (Obviously after permanenly installing the new grip as the other side was done)
On this side the throttle block does not come apart so dont scratch your head too much trying to figure out how to get it apart.
Solder/ shrink tube like the other side and pull the loom back over all the wires.

BRP wires:
Red is High
The one with a stripe is low
The ground was black

Hotgrips brand:
Not entirely sure anymore, but thier instructions tell you which is which. The black was ground, I think they had a stripe one that was low and a yellow or red one for high.

I was amazed how easy it is to solder wires. This was my first time, used a borrowed solder pencil. felt like an expert after the first wire.

This whole job takes time, just because I never did any of this before, but it was easy as hell. If I did more of them I could probably cut the time from 2 hours to 20 minutes.

Once you start taking things apart you will see exactly what I mean with all this stuff.

Just remember, you can never screw up too bad, its only money.
Just kidding- go for it. If I can do it then you can too.

[formula 670]

Thanks for the post, the existing wire colourings are the most important to me, the rest is just time.

[sledhead747]

this seems to be a part that has different outcomes... any rev ive had and ppl i know.. the low is to hot and high just melts your gloves.. weird i think.