Work, Covid, more work, low early season snow, and some other issues got me off to a slow start this year. FINALLY got these spindles installed a couple weeks ago, and got my first rides on them last weekend. The spindle install was pretty straight forward. Didn't have to fight the old ones to get them off, but did end up having to re-align the steering twice after picking an uneven section of my floor to do it the first time. Clearance around the lower ball joint nut on the new spindle is tight. I had to resort to using a box end wrench to tighten the nut as my socket and ratchet would not fit. Rolling the sled up on edge in the garage I was getting more feedback than I cared for with the skis trying to turn themselves. This was something that worried me as Ski-doo sleds do that and they have a twitch in the front end on edge that I don't like. I moved my powder pro skis back to the rear hole in their saddles. This seemed to reduce the feedback a bit. Also, the Elevate spindles were 1/2lb heavier each on my fish scale compared to the stock ones (including their respective upper ball joint hardware). I set my front floats up with 10psi more air pressure than I was running before per the Ice Age recommendations.
I didn't mess with trying to get my Ti lower arms to mount up as I was running short on time. That'll have to wait for another day. The steering stops on the spindles do not contact the stock 38" lowers and leave about 1/4" gap. The rear arm tube on the 36" arms is at a sharper angle so that makes sense. I'll need that extra 1/4" if those other Ti lowers are going to work! Due to their design the rear tube is further back. There is slightly more tie rod to a-arm clearance with the Elevate spindle as well. Which I will also need with the Ti arms.
With the skid I left the rear mounting point the same in the tunnel since the Kmod already raises the rear end. I did drill the front hole lower in the tunnel. I picked up a Ski-Doo Gen 4 limiter strap and center mounted it around the front arm between the front track shock tabs. I've had trouble since new with the Kmod limiters walking over, lining up with the anti-stab wheels, and then proceeding to beat the wheels up with the limiter hardware. The single center limiter seems to fix this problem. Kmod recommends setting the limiter strap so the front arm mount is 12.5" up on center from the bottom of the hyfax. Closest I could get with the holes in the ski-doo strap was 12.75". I was running it one hole out from recommended before to try and get some ski pressure off. I set the front track spring to Kmod's recommended length with the limiter set. After getting it mounted back in the sled and tightening/aligning the track I checked the front of the rails for angle with the track and clips. This was done with the rear end of the sled suspended off of the ground. There was more pressure between the track clips and the very front of the hyfax than I was comfortable with, and the anti-stab wheels were running tight on the track. I put a floor jack under the front arm location and took the pressure off the limiter, and drilled a new hole halfway between the limiter hole I was using and the next one. This pulled the front of the skid up about another 1/2". I let the jack back down and re-checked the track/rail interface. The clips were still contacting the hyfax starting at the very front. but I could at least spin the anti-stab wheels without them rubbing the track. The new limiter setting left the front track shock with a little more spring preload on it than it had before.
Ride review:
The front end seems to be lighter feeling front to back. This was the main thing I was trying to accomplish with this mod. The skis have felt very planted since I've been running the Kmod. If I climbed something before with the coupler set at 2 or 3 on the skid I would get off and flip the coupler back to 1 before descending anything. If I didn't the downhill handling went in the trash bin and took way more effort to do a u-turn and try to go back up or even get pointed across the thill. Now I can leave it in 2 or even 3 and ride around pretty normally without thinking about changing it. Coupler position 2 is my default now off-trail and I'll use 3 if I know I'm headed up through a tricky line. Could actually see myself using coupler 4 now in a really hairy spot. Front end seems to come up easier all around now. Can pull it up and make it come around for re-entry/bowtie type maneuvers better than before. Normally use coupler 1 down the trail, but even 2 is ok now. The trails we ran down were pretty smooth so I couldn't get a great feel for the rear suspension settings. I was bottoming out more easily on the rear than before on smaller jumps and g-outs. I ended up going up about 3 turns on the rear shock spring preload and in a couple clicks of compression. That helped, but need to get into some real bumps for further testing. Also running a tighter limiter setting than before is limiting the front track shock stroke and losing some travel there. The extra 25lb I put on working from home through the covid shutdown isn't helping things either. I noticed more vibration coming up through the floor boards. Likely from track clips on the front of the rails. Still need to tip the sled over and inspect how the hyfax is holding up.
Side to side effort while carving or side hilling seems to be about the same as it was before. Steering effort might be a little more than before. I have Proclimb 7 G2 skis for spring snow so I'll test those as well. I didn't notice any unwanted feedback through the bars like I was worried about. Getting a little more inside ski lift on the trail, but that's to be expected when you raise the ride height up 2".
So overall its a step in the right direction for what I was looking to accomplish. Not sure if it was worth the $1000, but It's done now and they look cool!
. And before anyone comments on changes to the skid I've got a Kmod that already rides higher and I've got some adjustments I'll make for it to match up with the new front end.
