They were GREAT!!! Snow would fall right through. This meant that I never had to worry about losing my footing due to snow buildup.
Then one day another sled presented itself which was too good of a deal to pass up. I sold my sled with the WRP running boards to my dad, and bought the new sled. It has stock running boards. I road last season, and I was constantly kicking snow with my feet to get rid of build up. It was annoying, and quite frankly a little dangerous. Why was it dangerous? Because I would jump over the seat to ride wrong foot forward, and slide off the running board, and ultimately fall off the sled. Now this didn't happen often, but it did happen.
So I set out to buy running board washouts for my new sled. I looked at the WRP boards first... they were $400+. Too expensive. I really like the look of Skinz Airframes, and the reviews are great.
I looked them up and they are about as much as the WRP's. I decided I could possible fabricate my own. After designing up a set on solidworks, and getting a bill of materials I figured I would need a little less than 20' of tubing to build my own. Chromolly is about $9.50 a ft. So rounding up, they would cost me $200 raw materials alone. Then i figured another $50-100 in powder coating them. So I decided that my labor to fab them up wasn't worth the $100 - $150 savings.
I looked into modifying the 2013 Polaris Pro's running boards to fit my ski doo, but that wasn't going to be possible once I really looked into it.
There are much cheaper insert solutions available, but I don't really like the look, and they don't clear away the snow as well as the WRP's or Airframes. Also deep down I really didn't want to go with an insert.
Eventually after weeks of research and planning I found what I ultimately bought.
Technically it is an insert, but It is a little different than other inserts. it is made of billet Aluminum. It also cuts away all of your running board, and reuses the outside rail only. I also got a good deal on them from www.KaNPowersports.com. They cost right about in the middle of the insert price point, and the full running board replacement price point. They came in the mail today. I will document the installation and write about it here. I am excited...
Thanks for reading,
DPS
