Fox shocks

I have them on my 2018 175 and they are amazing, you cannot compare them to the stock KYBs. The biggest difference is on a bumpy trail you can travel with a lot more speed through them and the sled handles amazingly. I have 2 friends with the stock KYBs and they heat up so badly on the bumpy trail that they failed and needed to be replace. not to mention the simplicity of adjusting them for snow conditions and terrain. There is a lodge out our way that puts them on many of their guides sleds and put 5000-7000 kms on a season and they have never had any issues with them and swear by them.

Does anyone have any real experience with the Fox iQS shocks? I might look for an off season deal on them if they're really much better than the regular Fox shocks.

I looked hard at the IQS but couldn't stomach $4k for the upgrade. It'd be awesome to have shock control/adjustment on the handlebars, but reality is my riding is in fairly consistent terrain and I couldn't justify the premium.



Wound up with Tom's Fox Evol kit and couldn't be happier. The four shock upgrade and torsion spring delete totally transformed the sled. I had to ride to believe, and now I'm a full believer.



By activating the lockout (well, the firmest setting) on the rear skid shock for increased traction in the deep snow, the sled really side hills and climbs with much better predictability and power.



I considered the coil over option but after discussing my situation with Tom, realized it wasn't necessary for the type of riding I do (deep pow and timber) or my weight (190 with all gear). If I was heavier or a rad jumper type, I'd probably be on the coil over Fox setup. YMMV.

dooguy said:

would most people say revalved kyb x shocks are pretty much equal to fox 1.5 zero pro coil shocks?

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This is what I did and I'm very happy with the results. I haven't run Fox so I don't have a comparison.

The stock X shocks in my opinion are way to soft in both spring and damping especially on the 175. You can just look at the wire diameter on them and see they are really light springs. I am also a really big guy at 275lbs ready to ride which makes them extremely light. The sled doesn’t want to turn very well on the trail and the sled wants to flop over onto the downhill ski on uneven terrain. When you initiate a side hill the sled rolls over really easy but its not really rolling over onto the uphill ski it’s just compressing the shock on that side. When you are in a side hill in deep show the shock compresses to bottom out and then rebounds back which gives you a porpoising effect of the front of the sled getting buried in the snow and then popping out. Hard to maintain an edge or line when this is happening. It also is why the sled will turn up hill on you unless you are really on top of it every second. The sled also takes a lot of effort to get it to carve in really deep snow. The shocks just give up, compress fully and the sled can be really laid over and still not turn in a smooth carve.
The rear of the sled is much better stock. The shocks aren’t great but they work pretty darn good. I can run down a whooped out trail much faster and more comfortably on a stock doo than a stock Poo for sure. Also, the stock torsion springs help to tame some of the t motion effect by spreading out the torsion springs to the rails.
The Fox QRS 1.5 spring shocks work MUCH better than stock. The spring rate is much higher and will work WAY better in all the situations listed above. The compression valving is still too soft and the three compression setting felt very similar to me. I pretty much just left them on 2 or 3. Way easier to actually get the sled up on edge, the porpoising effect is for the most part gone, you can cut thru trenches a lot better and the sled really carves will in deep snow. The rebound damping is pretty good also although I have to run them about 14-15 clicks up from full soft to get them dialed in. I would rather be in the middle of the adjustment range tho.
I did the rear shocks too. I have pretty much left them on setting 2 on compression and about 11 on rebound on the RTS. The front shock I run the spring with barely any pre load so the sled will get up on the snow better and not trench as bad.
I had Tom do a revalve on my ski shocks and I am super happy with it. The one setting is the same as the stock 3 and 2 and 3 are now stiffer. I really like them on 3 when the snow is really deep or I have a fast trail ride to get to the back country. The rebound settings are not in the middle of the range at about 11. Makes the sled much better everywhere but where i really noticed it was side hilling thru ruts, really steeep sidehills an climbing thru the trees. It’s about $100 for the revalve and my shocks were only gone 6 days total including shipping both ways.

For anyone who doesn’t want to read that wall of text I will give you the Readers Digest version here.
1. Stock X shocks suck badly up front
2. Stock X shocks are decent on the rear
3. Fox QRS shocks are great on the front
4. Fox QRS shocks are better than stock X shocks on the rear
5. Toms revalve on the front Fox shocks makes them AWESOME!
If you buy these shocks from Toms you get them awesome right out of the box and they cost the same as anywhere else.

dooguy said:

would most people say revalved kyb x shocks are pretty much equal to fox 1.5 zero pro coil shocks?

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There is absolutely no camparison in the two. KYB's don't have compression adjustment. Unless you ride in the same snow conditions all the time KYB's are useless. It's pathetic that skidoo sell there sleds with such crappy shocks.

Most people think t-motion makes the summit unpredictable when in reality it is the crappy shocks that are causing the problems. If you switch to Fox qs3's you will never be able to go back to stock once you see the difference in performance.

Dooguy call or email(better option) Tom at Toms Snowmobile. He will sort you out for sure. You can get $250-300 for the stock X shocks too. Very easy to sell.