Burandt Board Install

[Rob1334]

Well decided to pull the trigger on the new Burandt HD Powder Trac Boards.

I was looking for something different that would stiffen the boards up and add better snow evacuation for this year as I thought the boards on my 11 had some room for improvement. The price on these are $250 which is cheap considering some of the insert’s cost almost that much, and this replaces everything, so decided to give it a go. Plus cheaper than buying a 13 haha.

Here’s the kit:



Pretty simple instructions and everything you need.

Step one, flip the sled up on the side after you take the body panels off, drill out the lower rivets that hold the bottom plastics on.



After getting everything drilled out slap the template on the bottom of the running board and line everything up. Use a LOT of tape to hold things in place, once you start cutting it just kind of rips away so the better you have it taped down the easier it is.



As for cutting them out, I went and picked this jigsaw up at Sears, I would recommend getting a second battery cause waiting for a charge sucks, and they gave me a warranty on the battery for $3 for 3 years so now both batteries are covered.. haha Got a few metal blades, some metal cut off wheels for a dremel, and a couple of the carbide drill bits for the dremel. The jigsaw cuts really good on that and was a good buy, was easy to cut the material you stand on with that and go back and cut the detail cut along the 90* of the tunnel later. The dremel worked great for rounding off the tabs you leave to rivet too as it was a little tricky to get the jigsaw to cut around them without binding. The drill worked really slick but it had a mind of its own at high rpm and easily could have made my 155 a 121 haha, but worked good for detail cuts. The dremel did crap out on us and burned up, it was a Craftsman brand so either we let it go at WOT for too long running it hard or just not built for that kind of use, either way Craftsman warranty. Even though it takes a while to cut this all out, take your time and clean up all the cuts when done, was not too bad of a process just took a little time.

Fatdog running the Jigsaw




One side cut off


Next step was to clean up the side, place the new board on, and if everything lined up rivet the back on. Air rivet tool works great BTW. Drill out the holes where the rivets all go, rivet everything together, bolt the outside bar to both the front and rear, and then rivet the plastics back on. An optional step here was to trim the bottom of the fender back which we did, real easy step and looks much better. Easy steps here after all the cutting, kinda nice how fast this part of the process goes. I know some people will recommend using the LORD’s adhesive to bond along the inside, but honestly I thought that would be overkill for the process. There is a good amount of material on the inside edge and once riveted it is really stiff. Most the weight still is on the outside edge holding the weight, I figured by the time you grind of the inside edge of the powder coating, add adhesive, etc. it wasn’t worth it to me. Hope I am right on this.







One side all done, flip the sled over the other side and repeat the process.




I really need to thank Fatdog and RMK-King on here for their help. It would never have been a one night process if I did this alone, I am to hesitant and they ripped right into this. Their payment of pizza, beer, and whiskey was something I could deal with.. haha I owe them big time, but now we have the process down and next ones should go much faster.


If anyone needs a set of gently used 2011 RMK boards they will be going up in the swapmeet shortly, any reasonable offer will be accepted and pickup only… haha

[Sapling]

Nice work. Are the new ones wider at all?

[Rob1334]

Nope, we measured them and they are the exact same width.

[Sapling]

So bigger holes and stiffness is all you get from the change?

[Rob1334]

Bigger holes and powder coating for snow evacuation, greatly increses how strong the running boards are (stock ones have been known to bend pretty easy, mine already had a nice bow to them), and grip on them is increaded over the stock boards that came on the first two years of the pro.

[FatDog]

The updated "Burandt Boards" are pretty slick!!!

The mini jigsaw and the dremel tool probably worked the best. With the jigsaw you could make a good run / cut and rough cut the riveting tabs. Then just go back with the dremel and put a finish cut the tabs.

After doing a set, I would say the next set would go a lot smoother and quicker. There's just something about cutting a perfectly good sled to pieces that makes you stand back and wonder WTF are we doing?

The finish on the Burandt Boards are really nice and the mounting is super clean using all existing mounting holes.

Probably a little easier then Better Boards as you have a little less cutting and a little less riveting.

All in all, a very nice product at a good price that Polaris came out with.
__________________

[FatDog]

O, and as far as "jumping right in" and commencing to cutting, it's a lot easier when it's NOT your sled, ha ha!!!

I figured WTF why not, if I "F" this up, I can just go home, ha ha !!!

Holy crap by the looks of that one pic I must have gotten a $hit ton of aluminum dust and shavings in my hair????????

[Rob1334]

Yes, the flash reflection in the picture is aluminum.. not a bald spot. LMFAO

[Twisted Boost]

Good work student and great thread!!!!!!!

[pernikm]

does anyone know if they would fit a dragon? I notice the foot well is a bit different on a pro.