38 inch arms or not

wasatchcomm said:

maybe a little tip on the install of the 38" kit
instead of drilling out all the rivets, you can just pull the rubber boot off and around them all, i did this yesterday, takes a little bit of effort getting the rubber boots back on , but not abig deal
when putting boot back on start at the bottom of the lsed and work your way up going from side to side...

also, you have to whack the old a arms pretty good to get them out of the spindles, dont be afraid to give them several good whacks!!!!

Click to expand...

No reason to drill the rivets to do this change, the boot is intended to go around them either way.

A arm changes on this sled are definitely WAY easier on this sled... unless you bend up other parts at the same time!!:nono:

When we changed a set of arms I did a time lapse with the GOpro... it was so fast it wasn't even worth posting it!!!:high5:

backcountryislife said:

When we changed a set of arms I did a time lapse with the GOpro... it was so fast it wasn't even worth posting it!!!:high5:

Click to expand...

Haha-love the time lapse, here is one I made for a buddy who hit two stumps within 10 minutes and decided to make a shock out of a stick in order to save his Walker Evans.

Lambert454 said:

Not really sure why you need the 38in kit? For me the sled lays over with ease, I think any narrower and the sled will just wont to tip over on the slightest slope. One can lay this sled on its side by just a slight weight transfer or a flick of the wrist not really sure why narrower will be better?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIp6GwJmZo&feature=g-upl&context=G286e64fAUAAAAAAABAA

After watching that where will a 38in kit help me?

Click to expand...

Well if u like laying ur sled down in tight areas and making quick U turns or tight changes in direction than ud def want it... kinda like how u fall off @ the end would not of had to throw ur body weight as much to try and make it over that... im looking forward to doing this mod this summer. gonna ride it out this year the way it is. :face-icon-small-coo

float'n shocks

all the 2012 fox floats I have installed the spacers in were put together like a rusty mack truck.............corporate paranoia, nothings coming apart at cat's expense. In the past I have encouraged interested riders to service their float shock themselves. Shoud almost come apart by hand. Whoa, not these stilts, might as well send em to a shock rebuilder with good tools. Keep think I'm going to ruin my spanner with a 2' cheater on it taking off the main shock cap. Just totally unnecessary..............like the mechanic that put your spark plugs in with his best 24" 1/2" drive ?? Like to get ahold of the guy and kick his aXXX for superior stupidity.

CATSLEDMAN1 said:

all the 2012 fox floats I have installed the spacers in were put together like a rusty mack truck.............corporate paranoia, nothings coming apart at cat's expense. In the past I have encouraged interested riders to service their float shock themselves. Shoud almost come apart by hand. Whoa, not these stilts, might as well send em to a shock rebuilder with good tools. Keep think I'm going to ruin my spanner with a 2' cheater on it taking off the main shock cap. Just totally unnecessary..............like the mechanic that put your spark plugs in with his best 24" 1/2" drive ?? Like to get ahold of the guy and kick his aXXX for superior stupidity.

Click to expand...

no kidding,,,

i took my shocks to two different shock guys, neither one could get the top piston off, one of the guys ordered the "fox float shock spanner wrench"
looks like it has longer pins and a cheater bar that comes with it.....

we heated up the shock and still could not get it to open up....

service manual says to hand tighten, the guy putting them together didnt read the service manual...

like castle says, rusted up mack truck...

you better have a deep pinned spanner wrench and a cheater bar or they are not coming off!!!

Maybe that's why my dealer charged me so much!

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

Geo,

you mention that you "planned" for running the 38's without a spacer...

How did that work out?

I've done that on my M's for years, but not sure how it would work on the PC... (IE: what will/ won't rub)
At very least though, it should pull the upper spindle in a bit if it works like the M did, which would be a good thing imo.

One thing i didn't like about my pc, well at least took time to acclimate to, was the balance point. Wanted to stay flat for so long and then boom tips to far....on my 10' m8 I was "wrong foot forward"champion of the universe. With this thing, if I went WFF I would go too far. Most all manuevers, except the steepest side hills were done from straddling the sled but over all, with more effort. No likely.

Will the 38" arms next yr give me the more evenly balanced feel of the 10'-11'?

The narrow balance point does not chamge but the roll in is more natural so it does help some

Sorry about the thumbs down, dang tiny phone and big sausage fingers.

I really believe this is a great chassis and will evolve into a great mountain chassis too. Maybe not with AC test riders but someone they hire.

That break point in the tip over is really created by the suspention and skies not the balance in the chassis.
The stock skis are retarded. Those boards with the full length keel and wear bar are way too stiff to respond to anything in fresh snow. As soon as the back of the ski has some pressusre it points the spearhead front down and the ski pulls the sled in with it.
I looked to the XP for my answers (lol, guess it's true). I installed the DS ski and it changed my sled in the powder. It's nothing fancy or wide but it never takes the sled anywhere your are not intending to go. Designed not to dive. Also you think you have light steering now, wait til you try a good ski. It's like they are not there. I think that's the way a ski should be.
I had run original Simmons for most the season and they were very good at speed but very armstrong steering in technical stuff. Installed the stockers for a ride and realized how terrible they are and how much they effected the sled. I almost went over the bars a couple of times til I started thinking again. Carving was twichy and unpredictable. I was actually amazed at how much they controlled the sled when I didn't want them to.

The other thing, that I going to say eliminated a tipping point, was my spring selection on the front. I constantly try to improve and make a metal note of something to try next ride if I find an uncomfortable situation.
When I finally got the narrow front end I installed my front shocks as they were. They were too stiff for the 38" set-up. So I went with a softer spring and less preload, better, then a stiffer spring with zero preload, worse, then a 100 lb spring with alot of preload. Bingo. The predictability and ease went up 200%, especially on throttle to off throttle and back. I didn't realize how much effort i was putting into riding until these two things came together.
I never thought I would get rid of the feel of a plastic wall in front of me but it's gone. I figured I would end riding this sled like an old English bike for ever (throttle through every turn) but that's gone too.

This is a very nice chassis. A flat land base but it will evolve into a dream ride in the mountians. Cat just needs to hire a mountian rider and listen. Like Mr. Rasmussen.

geo,

si the ds ski the ski that is on the 2012 ski doo's?
i rode a 2012 freeride and the first thing that jumped out at me was the skis, i thought they were awesome, felt like power steering and they worked well every which way i turned....

Yes

thank you sir!

What will happen if you install the 38front end with the stock shocks? Evol shocks

We put the 38's on for the weekend, and didn't put the spacer in the shock, as I like running my sleds with extra suspension up front for hard landings.

Worked very well, I pulled 5 psi from the shock (have some other suggestions from GEO I MAY try... but it feels much better how it is.


The downhill performance feels the same until you start countersteering... the downhill ski starts grabbing quicker now as the weight gets on top of the ski better... this does two things, it allows the sled to slow down quicker as the skis are "edging" and it begins the roll of the sled, allowing for downhill turns much easier.

The predictability was good... no unexpected wobbliness or any other problems, and it felt very normal.

Now for the better than expected news: for some reason I didn't find that it paneled out any worse than before on the couple small downhills I slid it down... I expected to see a serious tradeoff from that dept, in exchange for easier handling, but was pleasantly surprised that it didn't seem to be an issue.

can't imagine going back to 40's... this was a huge improvement. (AND YOU LOSE A POUND OFF THE FRONT OF THE SLED... WHOOOPWHOOOP!!!)

Pretty What I found as well. But I really didn't think the panel out issue would change much so that wasn't a big surprise to me. I was how ever surprised that the sled did not really loose any stability and the balance point did not narrow up at all, in fact since the pull over is easier I found the balance point easier to hit then before.

38's are a must for this sled. They go a long way to making this thing handle like it should, I have no idea why it came with 40's to start with, seems cat really had no idea what mountain riding was about when they first built this sled. At least now they are starting to make some positive changes.

Spacers

So what is the purpose of the spacer if it works without installing them. I sent my shocks off to have the spacer installed but now wondering if i should cancel that way if i take out an a-arm i could easily put the stock ones back on

i have heard mixed reviews on the ds from doo riders. i like the gripper skis from polaris, i have never heard a bad thing said about them. if i go pc8 for next year, i will be buying a set of grippers. they are making them in white for this year, should look good with the green and white snopro.

sledhead13c said:

So what is the purpose of the spacer if it works without installing them. I sent my shocks off to have the spacer installed but now wondering if i should cancel that way if i take out an a-arm i could easily put the stock ones back on

Click to expand...

Not installing the spacer will make you to either have more ski pressure than previously desired, or will require you to drop PSI to decrease ski pressure.


For some this may not be ideal, for others it works just fine.