I searched- carb tuning q's

We had a bunch of xlt's in our group back in the day. I wrenched on all of them. Those sleds are extremely picky about having the carbs precisely syncronized. It is not that terribley hard to do, but you do need a vacum guage to fine tune them. The run like you are describing yours when they are off by a small amount. Get them right on, and all of a sudden it will run very very crisp. The difference is amazing. Imo, it would be well worth your while to take it to a shop that you trust, and spend 1 hour of labor to have them sync your carbs for you.

To get you started in the right direction though, remove your airbox and hold the throttle at wot. feel across the tops of the carbs on the inside. All 3 slides should be flush with the top of the bore. Adjust the throttle cable where it goes into the carb to make this happen. Next, fine a drill bit that just barely fits under the slide when the slide is in the idle position. Check all 3 carbs and get that distance equal. You do this adjustment by tuning the big screw on the side of the carb in to raise it, out to lower it. Be very careful on moving your throttle cables around in different positions. This creates them to be different lengths, and mess it all up. Always route it the same and don't twist it over. From there you will need to fine tune with a vacum guage and get your small air screws correct, and raise or lower your idle to where it needs to be. Good luck.