J
JJ_0909
ACCOUNT CLOSED
Fun one for me... 
First things first. "What do I do with respect to my new snowchecked 850?"
As I stated above, anyone snowchecking (which is everyone) would be silly to *not* to go with the clickers. They are an entirely different shock than the monotubes and Axys RMK (non Assualt) clickers of the past.
Out of the crate they'll be awesome and if you are looking for something specific, a good tuner will get you dialed. Custom valved Walker Evans needles will absolutely go toe-to-toe with anything the aftermarket guys are cranking out. These are not the normal OEM junkers most discerning riders immediately sell but a really nice shock.
My point here is this entire conversation is more academic than it is realistic. Anyone snowchecking probably has an extra $500. Anyone with good aftermarket suspension on their current Axys is better off selling it and putting the extra in their pocket (as it'll sell for more than the WEs), leaving it on the sled or leaving it on the sled and selling it. All three options are going to yield the best results for the least amount of money and least amount of monkeying around. Plus, one ought to get a feel for what Polaris is doing out of the crate before they throw something aftermarket on anyway. There are times the aftermarket guys actually take a step backwards (I will abstain from this story for now )
As far as the rebound adjust comments, MH is right in that a rebound adjust will effect the compression side, but its very marginal (emphasis on VERY). There are some graphs showing this via Fox. I'll look around in a minute to show you.
I can find some videos showing how the rebound adjust works (via animated fluid flow) and why it doesn't effect the compression side to the extent you are suggesting.
The reason it can often feel as though you are firming up the compression side of the stroke as you add rebound damping is you are "packing down" the suspension (EG, the shock can't recover to a neutral position before the next hit).
Put another way, what you are doing is lowering the ride of your sled in successive bump environments by going to a slow setup. Lower in the stroke = higher point on the spring rate = firmer feeling setup. To add, it takes all liveliness out of the ride (spring resists for a longer period of time). Some like this. It absolutely feels more muted, the same way heavy low speed compression damping feels more muted.
Second, back to the topic at hand, as far as ways to compensate for a higher ride height MH is correct (as he usually is),if leaving sag the same (as in percentage of sag) opening up the FTS would be key to taking the weight off the skis. The degree one would need to do this would be best determined on scales. I'd wager it isn't very much. A new hole in your limiter a hair behind the OEM hole would probably do it with minimal change to the sled's trenching/get on snow characteristics. You could compliment this by running less preload on the FTS allowing the front arm to collapse easier (lowering your attack angle) and getting it to "pop" on the snow. There would be an upside to this setup too in that the sled would likely sidehill "flatter".
RTS too might need a mild change, but I'd wager this would require the least amount of change (if any).
Again, overall we are talking about relatively small changes to get the sled to do what it was intended from the factory with a slightly longer eye-to-eye shock.
For reference, I've gone *far* crazier to get my G4 to do what I wanted (eg, become more like an Axys). Opening limiter completely, totally different FTS spring rate, completely different RTS spring/damping curve bla bla bla
First things first. "What do I do with respect to my new snowchecked 850?"
As I stated above, anyone snowchecking (which is everyone) would be silly to *not* to go with the clickers. They are an entirely different shock than the monotubes and Axys RMK (non Assualt) clickers of the past.
Out of the crate they'll be awesome and if you are looking for something specific, a good tuner will get you dialed. Custom valved Walker Evans needles will absolutely go toe-to-toe with anything the aftermarket guys are cranking out. These are not the normal OEM junkers most discerning riders immediately sell but a really nice shock.
My point here is this entire conversation is more academic than it is realistic. Anyone snowchecking probably has an extra $500. Anyone with good aftermarket suspension on their current Axys is better off selling it and putting the extra in their pocket (as it'll sell for more than the WEs), leaving it on the sled or leaving it on the sled and selling it. All three options are going to yield the best results for the least amount of money and least amount of monkeying around. Plus, one ought to get a feel for what Polaris is doing out of the crate before they throw something aftermarket on anyway. There are times the aftermarket guys actually take a step backwards (I will abstain from this story for now
) As far as the rebound adjust comments, MH is right in that a rebound adjust will effect the compression side, but its very marginal (emphasis on VERY). There are some graphs showing this via Fox. I'll look around in a minute to show you.
I can find some videos showing how the rebound adjust works (via animated fluid flow) and why it doesn't effect the compression side to the extent you are suggesting.
The reason it can often feel as though you are firming up the compression side of the stroke as you add rebound damping is you are "packing down" the suspension (EG, the shock can't recover to a neutral position before the next hit).
Put another way, what you are doing is lowering the ride of your sled in successive bump environments by going to a slow setup. Lower in the stroke = higher point on the spring rate = firmer feeling setup. To add, it takes all liveliness out of the ride (spring resists for a longer period of time). Some like this. It absolutely feels more muted, the same way heavy low speed compression damping feels more muted.
Second, back to the topic at hand, as far as ways to compensate for a higher ride height MH is correct (as he usually is),if leaving sag the same (as in percentage of sag) opening up the FTS would be key to taking the weight off the skis. The degree one would need to do this would be best determined on scales. I'd wager it isn't very much. A new hole in your limiter a hair behind the OEM hole would probably do it with minimal change to the sled's trenching/get on snow characteristics. You could compliment this by running less preload on the FTS allowing the front arm to collapse easier (lowering your attack angle) and getting it to "pop" on the snow. There would be an upside to this setup too in that the sled would likely sidehill "flatter".
RTS too might need a mild change, but I'd wager this would require the least amount of change (if any).
Again, overall we are talking about relatively small changes to get the sled to do what it was intended from the factory with a slightly longer eye-to-eye shock.
For reference, I've gone *far* crazier to get my G4 to do what I wanted (eg, become more like an Axys). Opening limiter completely, totally different FTS spring rate, completely different RTS spring/damping curve bla bla bla
