Another 06 900 Sway Bar Question

From the brief time I've had my sled on the snow with the Carl's swaybar this season, I can see where it helps on RMK's that were not equipped with adjustable front shocks ... It did seem to help my front end from diving while on one ski climbing up the side of a hill ...

However, it also seemed that in certain snow conditions on slight grades when I didn't WANT to be on one ski it wanted put the sled on the downside ski on the hill ...

I'm still running the stock skis, which I've read is a big part of this problem...I'm planning on upgrading to Powder Pros some day soon hopefully.

Anyways, I think honestly the biggest reason you would want to run the swaybar are if you don't have the adjustable front shocks, or you still want the sled to be able to corner reasonably well on the trail.

If you are trying to set your sled up PURLEY for riding the deep pow I don't really see why you would keep the swaybar, as it just makes the sled easier to lean over if you remove it in this case.

I agree with DM above.... more apparent on the stock non rebuildable shocks.

The front track spring helps out with "lightening" the steering effort and affects transfer. The sway issue is seperate from this.

Carls recommendation is to actually run the 900 Fusion front sway bar, which is larger in diameter. On the 900's this seems to keep the front end steadier on the sidehills than the stock bar because it allows the skis to Punch thru the snow on a side hill instead of stay on top... which is great in the ID powder, but on stiffer spring or West coast snow, I think it's not the way to go.... Again IMO based on having the larger bar in my sled.

From Carl's webside:
Larger Swaybar Kit. By changing to our recommended swaybar the result is less diving on the hill when trying to sidehill.

Click to expand...

The diving is mimized because the front end is stiffend up drastically, but this comes at the cost of not being able to pull the sled over as easily... simple physics of a larger diameter swaybar.

If you want decent on trail performance with the benefits of vastly improved off trail boondocking abilites from removing the swaybar.... add triple rate springs to your snow checked shocks (aluminum rebuildables)... The standard-issue steel body non-rebuildable shocks will not take the triple rates.

Triple rate springs, which are too expensive for the bean-counters at the factory will allow you to run a stiffer initial rate spring but not be too harsh at the bottom of the stroke... which is where the secondary "tender" springs come into play. This keeps the side to side "sway" motion under check, while still having the full function/travel of the shock.

In my experience with Floats on my sled, If you are running Floats, I dont recommend removing the sway bar as you will will need to run too high of initial pressure to get it to handle on the trail, this will limit the full travel of the shock and make it harsh in the upper 2/3'rds of the travel. UNLESS you run the add on Holz/Fox "evol" secondary IFP secondary air chambers (not to be confused with the auxilary air chambers which only increase air volume). This give the Floats a "multi stage" air spring that allows you to run stiffer inital pressure w/o the harshness or travel-limits.

In my own experience, I do not recommend the WE airs for the front without the swaybar, especially on the 900... even with a Fabraft add on adjustable chamber.

Pulling the swaybar can give you great mountain handling AND decent on trail performance, but... IMO... you will need to invest a bit of money into springs and valving.

Do you have the Holz front spindles?

Thats my $0.02

Hay mountain, i have the aluminum shocks and I was wondering what tipple rate springs i should run? Right now i have the 225lbs springs (wight) and the stock sway bar. I only ride in the very deep snow of Rock Creak MT and Cooke city MT so on trail performance is unneeded. I do need some good reliable springs for jumping though. I do allot of drops off small cliffs, sometimes 15-25 feet and i always find a good creak or rock to jump in a meadow so i need some good plush springs.

The only other time my sled leaves me wanting more is down hill side hills. If i have to do a 180 on a steap hill at an angle i would rather make a new trail then try and get that 900 to do what i want. Any help is greatly appreciated

Also, what valveing do i need to do? I am 200 pounds in riding gear.

You need to contact the boys at www.ARS-FX.com...

They can take care of your needs for springs and valving...

PLUS

They know the IQ RMK chassis VERY well.

Plush that bottoms out quickly is as innapropriate as too stiff would be.

Pulling the swaybar would help with the uphill carving turns. That and not going too wide with the front end.

powder pros

Hey blackhills, are you saying that even with the pros, letting off throt in deep pow still puts you over the bars?

Mine used to dive pretty bad too. I put them both on at the same time and the front end does feel alot better. I'd try the spring first I think its helping the most.


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06 900 RMK 166

good discussion on 900 sway bar option/function

I had the sway bar in all last season... yanked it out this summer. Sled always wanted to stay right-side up, even when I didn't want it to. Now even just playing in my garage, it feels much tippier without the sway bar.

We'll see how it rides once the snow starts flying... hopefully soon.

i have added the front track spring, and in my opinion it did help the front end dive noticeably

my dad put the gen II's on his 900 and loves them, it doesn't dive. It seems easier to hold a side hill as well (more predictable i guess) but you do notice heavier steering in set up/spring snow (as should be expected, i guess)

From experience I would leave the swaybar in or go with the Fusion bar, definately do not take out, just my opinion though. Center spring helps tremendously, but leave some bar in of some sort.

Here are my thoughts and EXPERIENCE. My gen II was better all around w/o it. I have a 07 600 RMK w the walkers. I took my sway bar out in the beginning of 07...It was SCAREY darty. Dealer says run your shocks at 125 psi. That helped a bunch. It was AWSOME in the deep pow, but the packed trail or crusty day it was freaking dangerous. I left my shocks aired up and put my bar back in...It will stay.

Mountain Horse,

Regarding your response to Dog Meat, would that also apply to the D8 with floats? I have both sleds, the 900 with the Fusion sway and Fox Zeros and the D8 with Fox Floats. Thanks in advance.

crf....

Put the zeros on the sled YOU ride most, IMO...

For the floats, you can run them w/o a swaybar BUT you would really need to run the Holz aux air chambers (similar to the Evol chamber on an EVOL X or R). I would also highly recommend sending in any floats to Toms (add is at the top of most of these pages) for the float upgrade... The new floats (regular, Evol, X, and R) for 2009 will already have these upgrades...

With the chamber and updates, you would be able to run the pressure in the main air-sleeve higher than normal without the harshness normally associated with that.