Sway bar removed, skis narrowed, and have it corner. Can i do it all?

[snow4me]

Removed my sway bar and narrowed my skis all the way in but my cornering has gone to hell. I expected that to happen but is there any way to have it all? The rest of the suspension is as it left the factory with the exception of the rear most spring which I have cranked all the way up because I usually clean my plate at dinner. LoL! I am getting a ton of inside ski lift and it won't turn in the powder worth a damn. Coming from using powder pros on my last sled, I am disappointed in the grippers for their lack of flotation. I know lots of guys like them but I am not wild about them. Probably will be getting a set of powder pros and some shapers for the RMK soon. Any ideas on how to get it to trail ride a bit better as I am 50/50 on and off trail for the most part. Thanks!

 

[sledneck_03]

Removed my sway bar and narrowed my skis all the way in but my cornering has gone to hell. I expected that to happen but is there any way to have it all? The rest of the suspension is as it left the factory with the exception of the rear most spring which I have cranked all the way up because I usually clean my plate at dinner. LoL! I am getting a ton of inside ski lift and it won't turn in the powder worth a damn. Coming from using powder pros on my last sled, I am disappointed in the grippers for their lack of flotation. I know lots of guys like them but I am not wild about them. Probably will be getting a set of powder pros and some shapers for the RMK soon. Any ideas on how to get it to trail ride a bit better as I am 50/50 on and off trail for the most part. Thanks!

you need to valve your shocks to compensate for the lack of a sway bar.

 

[Rick!]

you would need to throw on the Assault 130lb front springs on to have some semblance of handling. YMMV

 

[NapaMatt]

??

Did u crank up the front shock in the rear skid??

Too much.. will not give enough ski pressure to be able to turn

i cranked it up.. Didn't like it at all trenched BAD

Backed it down.. loving it..

Also Sway Bar removed, Skis CUT, narrowest setting

 

[srosscojw]

put the sway bar back in. I still cant figure out why people insist on removing the sway bar? IMO this actually makes the sled harder to control in all situations.

 

[NapaMatt]

Taking the sway bar out..

It only changed to way it handled on the trail..

It takes less force to hold a side hill

IMO???

 

[Mark's RMK]

Sway Bar

I'm thinking of buying the Pro Assault (either a left over 2011 or a sno-check 2012) but if it has no sway bar will I have trouble riding trails in MN? I'm assuming maybe the shocks are set up right from the factory for the omission of the sway bar?

Thx.

 

[srosscojw]

Taking the sway bar out..

It only changed to way it handled on the trail..

It takes less force to hold a side hill

IMO???

Personally, this is the easiest sled to sidehill anyways... even with the sway bar? You still need to get to and from the POW.

 

[NapaMatt]

Yes the Pro is the easiest! to side hill Period!

It gets better.. when u cut the ski's ..

My .o2

 

[NapaMatt]

I'm thinking of buying the Pro Assault (either a left over 2011 or a sno-check 2012) but if it has no sway bar will I have trouble riding trails in MN? I'm assuming maybe the shocks are set up right from the factory for the omission of the sway bar?

Thx.

No.. you will be able to ride trails in Mn Just fine..

Use the scratchers!

 

[Mark's RMK]

Track

I think the Assault track will work better than the 5.1 in MN. We ride Edge RMK's with 2" lugs alot with scratchers and don't have any problems. Just watch the heat and the slides getting sticky.

What do you think of the SLP hyperfax slides? Besides being kind of pricey?

 

[NapaMatt]

They work..

I got on 960 miles..

Hyfax still Looking like NEW

 

[t 800]

evol x shocks that are dialed in will give you what you are looking for with the swaybar removed.

 

[green_denali]

evol x shocks that are dialed in will give you what you are looking for with the swaybar removed.

what he said X2

 

[snow4me]

The main reason for my decision to remove the sway bar was to keep the sled from bucking me on landings. When one ski would hit the ground, the other would get forced down and try and pitch me off. The front track spring looks to be set loose from the factory with little preload on it.

 

[Tec]

Taking the sway bar out..

It only changed to way it handled on the trail..

It takes less force to hold a side hill

IMO???

LOL what force? My dog could side hill a Pro.

evol x shocks that are dialed in will give you what you are looking for with the swaybar removed.

$1500 bucks to remove the swaybar Nice!

 

[elvis1280]

I don't own a pro but I rode with chris burandt on jan 3,4 and I asked him how he handled going to a sled with sway bar coming off cats without them. Erik who builds his sleds confirmed this also.
At first he removed the sway bars and the sled was too tippy. So they put em back on and weren't 100 percent happy so they made them out of a different material.
He also has evol x's which are amazing.
Like said above the pro is so easy to sidehill with the sway bars its scary. If you want to make the sled roll over with less effort without messing up the handling, take off your front outside idler wheels on the skid.
I will say this pro rmk is amazing and if cat makes a ski doo for 2012 like I have heard, I will be talking to you guys next season

 

[F-Bomb]

snow4me...I can't tell because I'm not on hand to ride your sled but your comments about your PRO lead me to believe your complete shock setup is way off. It might be as simple as adjusting your springs to setup your preload better for all of your sprung shocks front and back. 100% pulling the sway bar on the PRO messes up the all around handling characteristics. Some of the ride issues you describe are side affects of your rear suspension being to low as it works with the front suspension as you ride. The front and the back of this sled balance on each other. I cannot stress this enough to you guys. People that think that it doesn't matter simply need to ride a well setup sled to experience the true differences.

I'd coach you to buy new shocks but even with super premium shocks like the all new Fox Evol R front and back with Zero Pro setup like I have it is not going to help if you don't run the proper pressures and ride heights. Bad setup even with great shocks means you would be wasting money. (once again a balanced sled set up is everything) I've ran mine all messed up and it was a nightmare to ride as well.

First off you hinted that you may be a larger scale rider. The setup and shocks are for the average. If you are above average you may require a big guy setup. Also it's really important to have your skis aligned and setup correctly as well. You say it won't turn in the powder. Does that mean it is difficult to manuever the handle bars around (like they are stuck stiffly forward) or you turn the bars and the buggy just goes straight under power (what some refer too as pushy)? On the trail that is a problem that is easily corrected. In the powder that isn't how the sled works...they don't turn at all...they carve and to go around a corner or perform a turn you have to carve the vehicle not turn it with the bars.

Anyone that wants enhanced trail performance on the PRO. Use shocks that can adjust your ride height and run your front end 8.5 belly to ground..that is about an inch closer then the average stock setup..add 6" carbide wear bar instead of the factory stock 4" on the grippers. I have both SLP's and grippers on a couple of test sleds. I like the grippers in the all around and SLP skis for hillclimb racing and mushy spring because of the very aggressive center keel only. Put your sway bar back in and then test the skis in the inner or outer position. Inner is obviously better for carving or controlling the vehicle on edge and the wider position is superior on the trail or in rough multi-angled terrain. It's really confusing on your ride comments because my sled is flat out awesome at handling wildly off camber high speed situations like bombing back and forth across trails, bumps, and cut banks. Probably the best I've ever ridden as a combo of handling trail and deep powder on the same vehicle. Once again leads me to believe that you have a pretty serious setup issue. (I was also a demo tester last year and the test sleds felt that way as well....even far better then the stocker setups that you guys are riding right now...some of us in a circle that tested and now have production sleds think there is a conspiracy of what you guys got with shocks compared to what we felt last year.)

Also MN or anyone that is subjected to excessive trail use but wants or has the PRO...do what I discribed above plus trim your stock 5.1 track to 2.1". (I confidently advise everyone to do so irregardless of where and what you ride but that is for another day) Run your scratchers down all of the time and make sure you start out your runs by loading the hyfax track area with snow (it takes seconds to over heat and melt down if they don't start the run wet). I run no outer boggies on my setup because I mostly ride off trail. But we just ran 55 miles of testing a couple days ago with several straight minutes from top speed of 89mph and reducing to no less then 75mph on GPS and video camera. According to Camoplast who makes that track it should delam at that speed duration and heat buildup. Well it looks exactly like it did the day before just fine and all lugs still soundly in place (550 miles)! The trail was groomed but solid, frozen, and setup with a very slight haze left by track and carbides. Sled ran 125 h2o and no adverse wear on the sliders. It was actually quite a bit of fun to race this trail since the snow sucked and I was subjected to working this trail ride anyways.

 

[ndC7M8]

I will say this pro rmk is amazing and if cat makes a ski doo for 2012 like I have heard, I will be talking to you guys next season

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA thats frickin funny right there! Cat guys are so brand/sled loyal they won't even buy a new Arctic Cat model hahaha

 

[m8sandman]

chuck the gay bar and don't look back. i'll easily trade off a little ski lift in the corners on the trail for a much better boondocking sled!!!!!!!! why would a mt. rider want to try and fight both shocks all day long???? seems stupid to me to take and independent front end and couple it together so you have to compress both shocks instead of just one!!! might as well run a straight axle.
front shocks work fine without it in, if you know how to ride... if not then spend tons of extra coin for shocks!!!