Suspension Setup for 174s ...

Just wondering if anyone has experimented with the Ice Age pivot rail and Fox QS3 or other shocks?

Seems to me the 174 is a lot different animal the the 155/163 sleds are ....

I'm considering maybe doing a full set of the Fox QS3 Floats and the Ice Age Pivot Rail, but I wanted to post up and see if anyone had any advice on this before I spent that kind of cash

crashnbash said:

The 174 is quite different from the 163. The biggest difference is that the bulk head is tipped down on the 174.
I personally feel that the spring rate on the front track shock is way to light. Mine has improved a lot by simply putting a heavier spring in.

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I'm running the Zbroz front track shock spring right now, its supposed to be a higher spring rate than stock (I don't know what rate it is though).

I haven't messed with the clickers at all yet.

IDK, I'll put some more seat time in on it and see what I think. Honestly I would have just put the factory Polaris fat boy spring in this just like I did my 163 but I had the Zbroz spring set just sitting there and wanted to try it out *shrug*

Ok, so I spent most of last week in Cooke City on my 174, and I'm definatley gelling with this sled .... Overall I'm definatley not regretting going from the 163 to the 174 for me at this point in life the way I ride.

BUT.

I came up with this zany idea, primarily because Zbroz already did for the front ski shocks ...

But, what would happen if you installed a dual-rate rear track shock on this sled? Would you get a bit more weight transfer initially thereby making the front end pop up just a little bit quicker/easier but then still have the bottoming resistance?

Same concept as their dual-rate ski shocks, just on the rear track shock?

I'm sort of thinking about calling them to chat about the idea and see if they could rig up a custom rear track shock spring for me to try ....

Decided to do some tweaking on the sled today, and I'm glad I did ...

So, suspension setup is full Zbroz spring kit, so dual-rate ski shock springs, their front and rear track shock springs as ordered for a 270-lb rider.

I decided to ditch my swaybar for the ride today, pre-load the front track shocks up 4 turns (it was originally installed at the stock length), and stiffen up the compression 2 clicks on the ski shocks.

This is the same setup I tried on my 163 and wound up going back to stock last season ...

SO!

This setup actually works -WAY- better on the 174 than it did on the 163. The sled felt a lot more planted in low-snow off-kilter situations than it did with the swaybar in.

The sled is still not as easy to get the nose up on like the shorter sleds, but taking the swaybar out and preloading the front track shock was a definite improvement for me. I may try pre-loading the front track shock a couple more turns, but I don't want to preload the crap out of it because I don't want it to be too bouncy ....

I'll report back once we get a bit better base, I was kinda worried my skis were gonna catch a rock today .... but if how the sled performed without the swaybar today was any indication of how it will perform in better snow, I'm sold.

It did feel to me like perhaps the Zbroz ski shock springs could afford to be even slightly stiffer, but not by a lot, say maybe 8% stiffer on both coils .... I may call them and see if they can rig something up like that.

But at any rate, thought I'd post an update on this

Matte Murder said:

50 doo and selling thru the dealers. This set up is MUCH better all over.
I was wondering if doing a dual spring set up on the RTS would give you a similar ski lift/rear sag right on take off?

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I've been meaning to call Zbroz and see what they think about that idea, but I think on the long track sleds it may be a good idea....

Ok, so I'm still messing around with this .... Last season, I wound up removing my swaybar and running a set of Zbroz dual-rate springs. It was your typical swaybarless setup, easy to turn in some situations, harder in others .... but the issue I had was the Zbroz front springs kept binding up.

Fast forward to this season - I switched out to a set of Raptor triple-rate springs for the ski shocks and rear track shock. After one ride, I'm quite impressed with how much better the sled felt with those three shocks .... I didn't pull the skid to put the triple rate track shock on for that ride, becaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuse ...

I wound up drilling out the lower front mount point for the skid, so the front suspension arm is now dropped about 3/4" or so from where it comes stock on the Axys RMKs .... And did a Mtntk tunnel chop kit to boot.

Has anybody else tried dropping the front arm suspension mount point on their 174? Any issues with the tunnel warping around the open hole or anything? I was thinking maybe I'd put a bolt in there to add some stiffness to it just to be safe.

In theory lowering that front mount point should help with more weight transfer to the rear and hopefully make the front end a little more playful? That's the big issue I've had on the 174 .... it doesn't "squat and hook" as well as I want it to.

Hopefully I'll be able to get out on the sled this weekend and find out if it works