Got my Vapor from Blade installed today. Pretty straight forward. All the cables except for the power cable had to be lengthened. I had thought that the extensions were going to be put in before they were shipped as that was what was posted previously.

Installation comments:

1. They wires are VERY thin and may be easily vulnerable to damage if tugged on, or if they suffer any type of impact.

2. I found it easier to mount the speedo sensor and magnet on/at the rear sprocket than trying to fab something to the front wheel. Should be less of a chance for wire damage as well.

3. Attaching the tach wire to the coil terminal is easier than wrapping around the spark plug wire and may even work better. I have had trouble with several models of tachs locking up when using inductive pick up. To much RF energy confusing the tach. Might not be an issue w/ Vapor, but why risk it? Set the tach to 1 spark per revolution.

4. I used flat aluminum stock to make a mount for the computer. Just couldn't position it where I wanted w/ stock mounts, and the frame tubes were to big anyway.

5. Setting up the speedo data was a challenge. I marked the tire and the floor, then rolled if 3 revolutions, measured, and divided by 3 to get the distance. Thought that would be more accurate than doing it once. (error reduction). Came up with 65.7" per revolution. Just for giggles measured 1 revolution to test the theory. 67.5" WTF! So I tried 2 revolutions and came up w/ 69". More WTF. So I just took the 3 different numbers, averaged those and used 67.5. Close enough! Maybe somebody at the NE meet will have a GPS and I can adjust if I have to.

6. According to Vapor the fan comes on between 200-203 degrees and goes off at about 185.

This is a slick unit, well worth the hundred bucks if it holds up! Plan to spend another 10 bucks or so buying "stuff" to make it all work. I might even get the optional dashboard so I can move over the high beam, reverse, battery and turn signal indicators and get rid of the stock unit completely.

Good job, and thank's the the info.

I never tried the 3 revolutions average thing...

Might have to give that a try just to see?

I agree with alot of the things you say, the wires are very delicate and to short, and mounting is a pita. My vapor is sliding off every so often.


Looks like a nice mount!

Good job! There hasn't been near as many Vapor installs as I would have thought from the initial interest. I think the delays and confusion over the temp sensor just confused people. Disappointing the wires still aren't long enough, but easy enough to remedy.

Couple questions:
Is the Vapor dash an add-on (snap in??) to the Vapor tach or an entire new item?
Is the magnetic sensor cable that thick all the way up to the tach?

Awnser to Q2, yes from what i can recall.

The dash has to be an add on as it's on the trail tech web site for 40 bucks. (I'm guessing)

The sensor cable is thick for 3 ft or so then necks down to the same thin cable as the rest of the connections. The wires have a reasonably thick plastic conduit, the 2 wires inside inside are wrapped in paper (at least I think they were) and there is some sort of thread running through the copper wire strands. As shipped from the factory the wires are probably fairly stout. The problem is when you have to cut and splice there is so little copper wire that the splice is a very weak spot. the strands are VERY thin and there can't be more than a dozen or so of them. I taped the wires to a frame tube from before the splice, over the splice and past the end of it to prevent any movement. We will see how that holds up.

http://www.trailtech.net/022-PDA.html

ORK the supplied bar mount is a joke. You can make a nice one out of a dollars worth of aluminum strap and that allows you to put it where you want it instead of where it will fit. The instruction manual has a drill template in it. Paint it the same color as the buggy for an OEM look! If you want to keep it the way it is you could drill a small hole through the mount and frame tube, then screw in a small sheet metal screw to keep it from rotating/sliding.

Thanks for the info.

I'm going to install two this weekend. One on a 250 and a 150cc. I'll post picts of how I did mine. It always helps to see others ideas.

There are no Trailtech units made specifically for buggy installation. What they send is one that is close to what is needed and then it is up to us to adapt it to work.

For the money, they are nice little units. The test is....durability. They hold up well for ATV and motorcycles, so I don't see why they wouldn't do well with the buggys.

The mounting dash unit is an accessory to the computer.

Glade

I mounted speed sensor in the rear also. Came off the rear swing arm, directly above axle. Also installed heat sensor under plug. Wow, a lot of heat in that area. It appears the heat reading tops out at 400 degrees.
I measured wheel height and calculated. It appears to be within 1/2 mph with GPS. Will be rechecking. I e-mailed Trail-Tech about wiring. Reply was, "Nothing special". I extended with 22 ga stranded, soldered everything. Used the plastic corrugated split wire cover to enclose wires. I think things are secure and out of the way.

Jim[/quote]