When I bought my Polaris in 1994 I noticed that the end of the running boards were not finished off like other manufacturers sleds.  Well, that got me to thinking, how could I design something that would finish off the tunnel and still look factory?  We started testing and ran several different designs that winter.  During the early part of the winter of the 95-96 season we were well on our way to having a tunnel cap that worked far better than we expected.  When we went on the snowmobile show circuit we heard comments like "Great accessory, this should be standard from the factory".  While testing we used an XCR with a 10" suspension and an XLT with a 12" suspension.  Along with finishing off the tunnel we soon learned that when in reverse the snow flap would not get caught on the studs.  Because of its aerodynamic shape it helped eliminate snow build-up on the tail light and on our backs.  We then submitted it for a design patent and were awarded a patent in January of 1997.