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Installation and Review: KMOD Gen II Coupling Suspension

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ruffryder

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Probably stronger due the the joining of the two wheels and a much reduced ability for the wheels / bearings to wobble out the shaft.

Are those 8" wheels?
 

christopher

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I remember him making mention of one wheeled landings on the billet wheels and being concerned with how well they would hold up over time being punished hard.
 

KMOD

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I remember him making mention of one wheeled landings on the billet wheels and being concerned with how well they would hold up over time being punished hard.

Your billet wheels are plenty strong, the concern was for the stock 8'' plastic wheel on a tail stand, I have had some of those bend.

BTW I hate Billet wheels unless they have a rubber tire on them, I have run some before and in certin snow conditions the snow will stick to them creating ice chunks and extreme vibration, so much you think there is a bearing going out in the vehicle some where.
But if you like the bling there is nothing better than the looks of the billet, and i have heard that with the right machining they dont collect the snow as bad but I havent tested those.
Kevin
 

christopher

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I will say that over last season I NEVER had any snow adhesion to the rear OFT billet wheels.

They are always completely clean of any accumulated snow.
 
T

TRUEBLUEMAX

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I actually have a billet wheel that is broken but it is made nothing like the OFT wheels. It is made very thin on the outside edge. If you break the OFT wheels there is going to be some damage to you or the sled. I do see how it would make the wheels more stable and not wobble.

My vote is still for a little bling.
 

christopher

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Handlebars are on.
Waiting on Grip Heaters and new grips.
Started reassembling all the wiring.
Clutch weights should be here in a couple days along with a new primary spring.

Lucky for me we have LOUSY SNOW so I am not missing out on any real riding yet.

Expect the first test run of the engine next week.
 
M

Mcx Nytro

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WELL?????Any ride time?? am looking at this skid for an M8. I had the timbersled in my nytro but wasn't impressed with the ride on the rougher trails. I had resi. on it and tried a lot of different pressures, so looking for some info on this skid...T:fish2:
 

christopher

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Sorry for the log delay.
On Monday I got the sled out on the snow for the very first time.
This was JUST a trail ride where I put 30 miles onto the sled to find out if I had made any significant installation errors on ANY of the many mods I did over the summer.

I took the sled up to the Rexburg bench and had the snot kicked out of me on the washboard trail. I thought the ride was BRUTAL and did not like it at all.

Keven from KMOD saw my comments and gave me a call. He had me measure the amount of pre-load in the front and rear spring and make a 0.5 inch adjustment, DEcompressing both of the springs, and removing TWO clicks from the rear shock.

DAY AND NIGHT DIFFERENCE!

Saturday I took the sled to Island Park for the first REAL day of riding.

I put about 45 miles on the sled total, half on trail, half just playing on the hills and in the trees and meadows. Had a VERY good mix of riding terrain!

That minor adjustment made a huge difference in "comfort". I was very surprised at how big an impact it made! Just twisting the spring a couple revolutions transformed this suspension from Harsh to "Sweet".

Now, About the Raptor Clicker Shocks.
I dialed out just "2" clicks on the rear shock and it made a very noticeable change in how the rear end behaved on the sled. There is ABSOLUTELY a sweet spot on these shocks that has to be found by just putting you hand under the shock and adding or subtracting a click or two WHILE your out there riding the sled.

While Keven had told me repeatedly that the KMOD suspension was "HIGHLY TUNABLE" I really did not appreciate it till I played with it and then rode it from one setting to the next.

I can clearly see myself stopping for just a moment and making a minor adjustment to this suspension as my riding changes during the course of the day! You may have to knock a little snow off the bottom the of the shock to clear the clicker, but aside from that, no tools are required to adjust this suspension, just reach in and twist!


Performance.
With my MPI Stage 1 Supercharger building around 200hp, I was NEVER able to get the front end of the sled to lift up. The coupling suspension behaved EXACTLY as Keven said it would. The nose stayed WELL PLANTED under all conditions regardless of power setting.

Now, in all honestly, I must say that I did NOT try the UN-coupled position yesterday. I will get the sled back up there next week and make a point of putting it into the uncoupled mode just to get a comparison of how it behaves.

But if the whole point of a coupled suspension is to keep your nose on the ground and deliver maximum traction to the snow, then the KMOD did exactly as advertised!


Trenching.
Everyone who has a Nytro knows its a Trench-Monster.
The snow yesterday was pretty good, better in fact than what I was expecting. About 1 foot of fresh on a reasonable slab with another couple feet of sugar below it. In many places I got off my sled and sunk right to my waist line. Sometime I could walk on the slab, but more often than not I would break through and drop another foot or two into the snow.

That said.
I never got stuck, NOT ONCE all day long!
The sled NEVER trenched.
I was really quite surprised!

On Monday I trenched 3 times in a 1000 feet.
Yesterday I didn't have a single real stuck at all.

Is this the skid?
Is this the new Ascent Track?
Is it a combination of both.

Honestly don't know YET.

But I know I AM DARN HAPPY with this so far and plan on putting a WHOLE LOT more miles on it before we have the forum ride at Togwotte Lodge in Feb and head up to Revelstoke and Pemberton in March!

So Far, I AM A VERY HAPPY KMOD CUSTOMER!!
 

christopher

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The more I ride with this new suspension, the MORE I am liking it.
Really hard to imagine anyone NOT liking this as a replacement to their OEM rear suspension.

Coupled with the skinz Concept A-Arms, its an amazing combination for your Nytro!!
 

christopher

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This skid is far MORE adjustable than I understood.
I thought I finally "GOT IT" but I didn't.

This really allows you to TUNE it for each and every ride your on.
I continue to be impressed with it's flexibility.
 

WyoBoy1000

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I think you gained everywhere and every factor plays a role, you will never be able to go back.
I think the kmod plays a larger role by amplifying the ability of everything else but nothing really makes it shine more than it already does. Its more noticeable with boost but still the same function, just better results.
 

christopher

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Tomorrow we load up the sled and head to Canada for the next week.
This should be the best test of this suspension to date.
Will have LOTS of varied terrain to play on and ample opportunity to see how it performs in FRESH DEEP POWDER, something we have been painfully lacking in South Eastern Idaho this year.
 

christopher

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One year later...

Last year when I installed this KMOD suspension Kevin convinced me to try the new Raptor Clicker Shocks as part of the package. This summer I added them all around to the front end as well.

I also upgraded to the new KMOD 4 position adjustable billet aluminum control "thingamajigy" that controls the amount of coupling the suspension offers.

This last weekend 40 of us from the forum went up to Cooke City for the annual SnoWest Forum Ride.

I had 3 days of absolutely GLORIOUS mountain powder to play in. Arguably one of the best rides of my life! And I wanted to report back just how well the suspension worked!

Honestly, just couldn't be any happier!

The KMOD with the Raptors and the Ascent Track is damn near unstoppable!

Time and time again the sled was limited ONLY by my lack of skill, it would go anywhere I pointed it and do anything I was capable of asking it.
 

christopher

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Time to "Re-Tune" my KMOD.

One of the interesting things about the KMOD suspension is that it is HIGHLY tunable for specific riding.

For the last 2 years mine has been set up for runing hard and fast in the wide open spaces. That means she climbs like a mountain goat, but takes more effort to roll over.

So I called Kevin last night and asked him to walk me through reconfiguring all of the shocks and the straps to put the suspension into BoonDocking mode.

Kevin in reply asked me to lift the sled up off the ground where the track would be free hanging and both skies would be free hanging and take spring measurements.

This afternoon I will do that and give him those numbers and get a new set of "Lengths" to reset all for springs on the Raptor Clickers.
 

christopher

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KMOD was kind enough to give me a new set of settings for all 4 shocks with the goal of making the sled more "Flikable".

She is all dialed in now and ready to go chase some powder tomorrow.
 
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