I would recommend them.

 

Protectors are a must

 

The top of the tunnel in your sled is 2 full length and width heat exchangers with coolant flowing through them. Throw a stud, or scratch too deeply into the tunnel surface under the seat and tank, ANYWHERE, and you will loose all your coolant before you know what happened. Could be a very costly repair. probably have to remove the skid and have it welded back up while its in the sled. The top heat exchangers are not serviceable seperately.They are part of the tunnel structure.

 

thanks what kind of a job would it be on the indy to put them on i see the flap is moulded and stiff and rivited.

 

tunnel strips


you need to remove rear bumper, drill out flap rivets and slide tunnel protectors through the openings in the rear close off panel that flap rivets to,YES THEY WENT BACK TO THE HOLES THERE LIKE THE 06 FUSIONS HAD,if polaris doesnt have tunnel wear strip kit aval yet you could make your own out of the old style sliders that fit the edge xc sleds,use the factory polaris white slides.HEMI

 

I haven't looked in the tunnel of an Indy, but I'd venture to say that Polaris didn't "factory-install" any tunnel protectors.

What you should see is 2 aluminum extrusions running the length of the tunnel-these are where the tunnel protectors slide on to.

Not sure about the Indys, but on my '10 Shift 600, I needed to remove the aluminum close-off panel that the snow flap was attached to and slide the protectors on. It's not too bad of a job, just a little time. Definately install them if studding the track

Here's a picture of what the (white) protectors looked like installed on my Shift:

 

Thanks for the pictures. Like I said before, I have never been particularly interested in studding so I didn't know exactly what I was looking at. Now that I see the pictures I see you are 100% correct. What I was seeing was the place where the protectors would go if I chose to install them.

 

Anyone know if the 2012 Rush Pro-R comes with the factory tunnel protectors? My sled sitting at dealer waiting to get fixed and am going to add studs when I get back. Is there a certain length of stud where they should be added or add regardless??

 

Anyone know if the 2012 Rush Pro-R comes with the factory tunnel protectors? My sled sitting at dealer waiting to get fixed and am going to add studs when I get back. Is there a certain length of stud where they should be added or add regardless??

The 12's have them built in from the factory.

 

You may want to go over to the Rush/Switchback (Pro-Ride) section and search there as that chassis is different than the Indy.

Rush/Switchback (Pro-Ride Chassis) - HCS Snowmobile Forums

 

Well the welder said, i have an hour into it so just forget it was no big deal...:thumbsup:

 

I'm trying to slide on the tunnel protectors on my GF's Indy SP and I can't get them on. I drilled out the rivots and pulled the snow flap but the crossover tube hangs down too low to slide them on. What the hell am I suppose to do?

 

You probably got these on by now but for anyone else, I encountered this too. But with wooden dowel or something soft & rubber mallet they were persuaded fairly easily. These hang a little below the crossover tube plus the track lugs stick up in this area & will also help keep studs from contacting the tube except for the most EXTREME circumstances I would think.
Extended flap too since was having high temp probs.:bc:

 

I put my wife's on without taking the snow flap off. Since you have the snow flap off it be should easier. First look at the aluminum extrusion that you have to slide the tunnel guards over. Most likely the ends of the aluminum are damaged, you will have to file lead in chamfers or use a hand grinder like a dremel but a file will do. Then look at the plastic guards, the side that leads into the tunnel you will have chamfer all lead in edges. This plastic is very soft, you can cut your lead ins with a utility knife or a file. Most likely you damaged the ends trying to it on already, no big deal but make sure clean up damaged ends or will never get them to go on. Now you are set to slide them on, you can start them with a little lube. Once started on straight by hand, then pound them on with a plastic hammer or use a piece of wood with a regular hammer. This is all providing you have the right part number tunnel guards. Make sure you dont put them on backwards or you mounting holes will be on the wrong side. As far as the cross member in the way, once you push up the tunnel and get it started it bend and go right long as you start it right. As one person pushing upwards, let GF hit the far with a hammer but watch out in case she misses.

 

ok Thanks Left Jim. I did start to get a cut in the slide groove and it got jammed up. I'll clean it up both the slides and rails. I do have a rubber mallet but was afraid to pound on it. I'll spray with some silicone too.
Pete

 

Good luck:bc2:

 

The extrusion, lip, fin, slide holder, protector holder, what ever you want to call it needs a good size chamfer like mentioned. After that they go on easy as pie..:thumbsup: I just had mine off and I swissed cheesed the protectors with a 3/4in wood spade bit. The protectors blocked snow from the coolers.

 

got a pic of what you did?

 

ya i just filed down the allumnium and went right on.

 

ya put 96 studboys make sure to put more then 96 in if your going to do it.

 

Is there a Polaris part number for Indy tunnel protectors? Not much info on where to get these. I have a friend with a 2013 indy 600 stretched to 136 with 1.352 cobra track and 1.45 woodys gold diggers.

 

It's on page 62 of the accessories catalog

http://cdn.polarisindustries.com/polaris/sno/2014/flipbooks/enus/index.html


It's in the same chart (which takes up the whole page) where they list the studs to match each model sled. They refer to it as a "ware strip kit"

 

Does $99 for wear strips seem expensive to anyone else? Looks like those are US prices.

 

That is the going price.

 

I think you can use a set of slides they should be cheaper someone else might know more about this.

 

Crazy I tell ya. 100 bucks for protectors and only a few bucks for slides when they are basically the same thing. I can't figure it out.:dunno:

 

Be careful It's the block and bolt that comes with it that you need to keep them protectors inplace:thumbsup:

 

they know how to get ya.

 

I never had to.

 

protectors

Yes it would be easy to make some,i would make sure to use the newer polaris white slides,the older edge and gen2 chassis had smaller less thick sliders,i would just go with the factory ones for easy install and not spending time fabbing something up,if you stick to the rec 1.075 stud length you wont have a issue with the rear cross over tube,another thing i noticed is the tunnel protectors up front are prob 5-6" longer than they need to be,they hang rite off the t-slots,the track will never hit in that part of the tunnel,when i pull mine out to drill holes in protectors iam going to cut this front sec off with the miter saw,the biggest thing is to cut the little sharp edges off the back t-slot,a small pair of ***** works great, and file down smooth the edge,it takes two min,then spray some silicone on the slides and they will go rite in, you dont even need to remove snowflap.HEMI

 

Thanks HEMI I just looked underneath and what I'm going to do is pull back the protectors to cover the cross over tube and put a new block mounting hole so it can't go forward or backward. I'll post a pic later. Good idea no There is about 3 1/2 - 4 " extra so it should work. Anyone see what I'm talking about? hit me with the negatives were all here to learn.

 

protectors


souds like a good idea,but i would leave them in the stock pos,theres some pretty good press on that tube when installing protectors,one good full bottom comp of rear sus might crack a weld on that cross over,if you want to get fancy you could make a small cutout in each protector, a u shaped one to go around cross over tube and keep the block in its stock pos?personnally i wouldnt do it,i would leave it factory,your studs wont hit tube.HEMI

 

How's This

 

OK I re-read your post, easy enough

 

So do you need to double up with 1.25 studs? I ordered my kit from the dealer....110$ later :wall:

It only comes with just the two strips. Instuctions say nothing about cutting them to make the doubled up section either. Says to just slide them on and tighten up the bolt into the block.

 

1,700miles with no issues just using it as a single.