Preparing to Ride

Safeguarding Yourself With Protective Gear and Clothing

Nothing can protect you completely; but knowing what to wear can reduce the chance of injury, as well as make your ride more comfortable. Never operate a snowmobile without these essential items.

Snowmobile Helmets Help Prevent Serious Head Injury

• Benefits
  • Snowmobile helmets are designed to protect your head and face in collisions or falls, from tree branches while riding, from the cold, and from loud noise.
  • Unlike motorcycle helmets, vents that you can open or close prevent fogging.
  • Snowmobile face shields have a double lens to resist fogging. Some face shields have built-in defrosters that plug into an outlet on the snowmobile.
• Selection
  • Make sure your helmet fits snugly, fastens securely, and doesn’t move or feel loose. Try on helmets over riding headgear.
  • Replace your helmet every five years. Made of fiberglass or plastic, helmets become brittle over time.
  • Place a strip of reflective tape on your helmet for extra visibility after dark.
  • Don’t paint your helmet. Solvents in the paint can weaken the shell.
  • Select a helmet with a safety-approval label from the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Goggles or Face Shield Keeps Debris out of Your Eyes

• Benefits
  • Branches, falling snow, and road debris can impair your vision and jeopardize your safety.
  • By shading your eyes, goggles or a face shield minimizes glare and distorted vision in bright sunlight.
    Note: Neither the snowmobile windshield nor sunglasses protect adequately.
• Selection
  • Ideally, combine sunglasses and a helmet-mounted face shield, which also widens the field of vision and keeps your face warmer. Sunglasses reduce glare and enhance contrast for better vision. They also reduce harmful ultraviolet rays that are concentrated when sunlight reflects off snow.
  • Purchase goggles with prescription lenses if necessary.
  • Wear lenses tinted for your lighting conditions: gray for bright days, yellow for overcast days, and clear for nights.
  • Choose products marked VESC-8 (or V-8) or Z87.1, or made of hard-coated polycarbonate.
  • Make sure eye protection is scratch-free, shatter-resistant, securely fastened, and well-ventilated to avoid fogging.

Gloves

• Gloves protect your hands from cold, as well as from injury during a fall or scrape.
• For the best protection, always choose gloves with:
  • Padding to protect your knuckles
  • Gauntlets to prevent cold air from entering your sleeves

Boots

• Heels prevent your feet from slipping off the footrests.
• Snowmobile boots protect the feet as well as the ankles and lower legs.
• Some boots have liners that you can remove for quicker drying.

Clothing

• Benefits
  • The proper clothing protects you from scratches as well as extremes of the weather.
  • A protective suit helps cushion you in falls or collisions.
  • Wearing a snowmobile suit may help you float for several minutes.
• Selection
  • Ideally, wear a snowmobile suit.
  • Alternatively, use pants with kneepads, long-sleeved shirt or jacket with chest and shoulder protectors, and a riding belt for lower-back support.

Snowmobile Suit

The ideal winter outfit for riders is a snowmobile suit. In addition to keeping you warm, a snowmobile suit will keep you afloat if you fall into freezing water. Because it traps air, it acts like a flotation device. Some suits also have flotation material sewn into the lining, and others have special air pockets that you can inflate by blowing into a tube.

Clothing should fit snugly and still be comfortable. Clothing that’s too loose can snag on your sled, twigs, and branches.