Three ways to heat your hands on a sled

Why your hands get cold on a snowmobile

At trail speed the wind works on the back of your hands for hours. Your thumb sits still on the throttle and your fingers stay curled around the bars, so they do little to warm themselves.

Heated grips help, but they warm the palms. One owner who switched from grips to our heated gloves summed it up: grips meant warm palms and cold thumbs, and the heated gloves fixed that.

To block the wind instead, see ATV cab enclosure vs handlebar muffs.

Heated snowmobile gloves or heated glove liners?

Liners are a thin heated glove you wear under your own glove, while heated gloves build the heat and the weather protection into one glove. Our guide to heated gloves vs heated glove liners compares them side by side.

• Gen-X4 Heated Gloves are soft drum-dyed leather with an extra-long gauntlet and a hook-and-loop wrist closure. ZEPTO fibres heat the entire length of each finger, the thumb and the back of the hand, and a windproof and waterproof breathable PORELLE insert keeps hands dry. The left thumb has a squeegee to wipe your visor. As a pair they draw 2.1 amps for 29 watts of heat.
• Gen-X4 Heated Glove Liners are 85% polyester and 15% lycra, with ZEPTO fibres that heat the full length of every finger and thumb. As a pair they draw 1.8 amps for 25 watts. We recommend wearing them under a waterproof glove.

The Knuckle Armor Heated Gloves are our other 12V heated glove, and their page names snowmobiles and ATVs as well as motorcycles: cowhide leather, ZEPTO heat to every fingertip, TPU knuckle protection, PrimaLoft Silver 80g insulation and a breathable, water-resistant PORELL membrane. The trade-off on a sled: their cuff is sized to fit under your jacket sleeve, where the Gen-X4 gloves have an extra-long gauntlet. They use the same wiring.

Option 1: 12V heated gloves wired to the sled

Wiring is sold separately and depends on what else you wear:

The Coax Battery Cord goes red to positive and black to negative on the sled's battery, is 20 inches long and has a built-in 15 amp fuse. The Gen-X4 Heated Jacket Liner has hideaway glove plugs at the end of each sleeve: one cord from the sled to the jacket, and the gloves plug in at the cuffs. With the Dual Temperature Controller you set the jacket and the gloves to two separate temperatures, seven levels each, as long as everything together stays under 15 amps.

Before you wire anything, check your sled's owner's manual for its spare electrical capacity and what any outlet is rated for; it varies by machine. Add up what you will plug in: the jacket liner draws 6.4 amps, the Gen-X4 gloves 2.1 amps, the Knuckle Armor gloves 2.2 amps and the liners 1.8 amps as a pair. Route the cords so nothing snags on the bars or the steering, and unplug before you climb off.

Option 2: heated liners under the gloves you own

If your snowmobile gloves already fit well, liners add the heat without replacing them. They wire exactly like the gloves above. Two things matter:

• A waterproof outer glove. The liner page recommends wearing them under a waterproof glove, so check that the gloves you plan to wear over them are waterproof.
• Room inside. One owner says the liners fit under a glove without much bulk, but suggests going a size up on the glove you wear over them.

Option 3: a battery setup off the sled

Ice fishing, shovelling out the driveway, a long stop at the shelter: a ZR5 or ZR8 Portable Battery Kit runs the same gloves or liners without the sled. Gloves or liners on their own connect with the Y-Glove-Cord for ZR5 and ZR8 Batteries. The battery has three heat levels of its own, so our temperature controllers are not used with it.

On a full charge, our battery manuals give roughly these hours of continuous use:

• Heated gloves: ZR8 about 3.8 hours on high, 5.7 on medium and 11.5 on low; ZR5 about 2.5, 3.7 and 7.5.
• Heated glove liners: ZR8 about 4.4 hours on high, 6.6 on medium and 13.5 on low; ZR5 about 2.9, 4.3 and 8.8.

Cold and battery age change these numbers. One firm limit: the ZR8 is rated for 8 amps and the ZR5 for 5.2 amps, and a jacket liner plus gloves or glove liners goes over the ZR8's maximum. If you wear both off the sled, give the hands their own battery. Our guide to how long heated clothing batteries last covers charging and storage.

Which heated glove setup should you buy?

• You want one warm, waterproof glove for long trail days: the Gen-X4 Heated Gloves, wired to the sled.
• You like the snowmobile gloves you have: the Gen-X4 Heated Glove Liners underneath, with a waterproof outer.
• You already wear, or plan to add, a heated jacket liner: run the gloves from its cuff plugs on a Dual Temperature Controller.

To heat the rest of you, our heated snowmobile gear layer system covers jacket, feet, legs and seat, and the whole range is in our heated clothing collection.

Questions riders ask us

Do you make heated snowmobile mitts?

The heated hand gear in this guide is gloves and glove liners. The Gen-X4 Heated Glove Liners are made to go under a glove, and their page recommends a waterproof one; it does not cover wearing them under mitts.

Do I need a temperature controller?

You need a cord either way. A controller is optional, but owners recommend one: the gloves and liners get quite warm, and without one your only choice is on or off. The Y-cord with Temperature Controller does it for gloves alone; the Dual Temperature Controller suits a jacket liner plus gloves.

Can I run my heated visor and my gloves from the same outlet?

If your sled has a female RCA outlet, the Male RCA to Female Coax and Female RCA Adapter powers a heated visor and heated clothing together. Check your owner's manual for what that outlet can carry first.

Will the glove liners plug into my Gen-X3 jacket?

Yes. The Gen-X4 gloves and liners are made to pair with the Gen-X3 and Gen-X4 heated jacket and vest liners.

How should they fit?

One owner found the leather gloves a little snug at first and expects them to stretch, as leather does with use. The liners are stretchy; if you have long fingers, consider the next size up. More answers are in our heated clothing FAQ.