Extreme claims require extreme scrutiny!!!

Simmons Patent # 5,836,594

Abstract

A snowmobile ski having a front portion the bottom of which is slightly concave. On each side of the middle portion of the snowmobile ski there is a downwardly extending longitudinal side portion. At the front of each downwardly extending longitudinal side portion are located a forward-facing horizontal wedge and a forward-facing vertical wedge. At the rear of each downwardly extending longitudinal side portion are placed a rear-facing horizontal wedge and a rear-facing vertical wedge. A flexible loop is attached to and mounted flush with, the bottom of the front portion of the snowmobile ski. The flexible loop curves on front of, and above, the front portion of the snowmobile ski, before being slidably attached to the top of the front portion of the snowmobile ski. The middle portion of the snowmobile ski is thicker than the front portion or the rear portion of the snowmobile ski.

Except for the irrelevant slidably attached front loop this abstract describes the 1963 Arctic Cat ski just as well.

The loop is irrelevant because a formed plastic version of the Arctic Cat ski would function the same. Loops are used to pull sleds out of deep snow when they get stuck.

As you can see, all protrusions are tapered front and rear to minimize resistance to movement on the Arctic Cat ski.

The length of the keels would be determined by the amount of ski pressure. Of course shorter means less effort is needed to turn the handlebars. The addition of the shorter wear rods on the contact area demonstrates this.

If you are smarter than a 5th grader you would realize the Summary of the Invention is BOGUS!!! They conveniently overlooked the increases in ski pressure and trail structure over the years. If Arctic Cat had taken their 1963 dual keel steel ski to plastic companies all their designs would have been similar. Everything they did was obvious, at the time, when making a plastic version of a longitudinal triangular grooved ski!!! Plastic skis need more mass and more gradual contours to maintain rigidity, durability and some flexibility.

TO PROVE MY POINT SIMMONS INTRODUCED THEIR "EASY TURN" WEAR RODS IN 1996. These rods went from 15" to 11 ½" long. That's just over 23% shorter.

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