Gripper vs. 850 ski

madmax · Dec 1, 2016

Got 40 miles on my 850 the other afternoon. Really liked the sled. Skis are ok for stock skis, but I think there is better. Have really liked the the Polaris gripper ski on my other sleds and happened to have a spare set in the garage. Here is the comparison. The two skis almost weigh the the same. I was surprised the doo ski was slightly (couple onces) lighter. The keel on the doo ski is very deep, about a 1/2" deeper than the gripper. The gripper ski is a little wider, about 3/8". The gripper bolt fits nicely through the doo spindle. I was very surprised to see how almost perfectly the the doo ski rubber fits in the gripper ski, almost like it was designed to go there. Haven't riden with the grippers on yet, but will report back after.

850 ski doo ski weight

Polaris gripper ski weight (with doo rubber installed)

Doo ski width

Gripper ski width

Doo ski on left, gripper on right

Motodrew · Dec 1, 2016

I would prefer the deeper keel in gnar pow.

Ace Freely · Dec 1, 2016

There was a thread on here about what was needed to switch to the Gripper...

Ace

Dworek · Dec 8, 2016

madmax said:
Got 40 miles on my 850 the other afternoon. Really liked the sled. Skis are ok for stock skis, but I think there is better. Have really liked the the Polaris gripper ski on my other sleds and happened to have a spare set in the garage. Here is the comparison. The two skis almost weigh the the same. I was surprised the doo ski was slightly (couple onces) lighter. The keel on the doo ski is very deep, about a 1/2" deeper than the gripper. The gripper ski is a little wider, about 3/8". The gripper bolt fits nicely through the doo spindle. I was very surprised to see how almost perfectly the the doo ski rubber fits in the gripper ski, almost like it was designed to go there. Haven't riden with the grippers on yet, but will report back after.

850 ski doo ski weight

Polaris gripper ski weight (with doo rubber installed)

Doo ski width

Gripper ski width

Doo ski on left, gripper on right

Have you had time to go for a ride after installing the Grippers?

How was the install and do they perform better than the stock DS3? Did the Doo spacers fit nicely or did you have to grind or tweak to get them to fit?

Looking into installing a set of Grippers myself.

mecham · Dec 8, 2016

Grippers

Dworek said:
Have you had time to go for a ride after installing the Grippers?

How was the install and do they perform better than the stock DS3? Did the Doo spacers fit nicely or did you have to grind or tweak to get them to fit?

Looking into installing a set of Grippers myself.

The Grippers mount very easy and nicely on the 850's. Iv been running them on my Summit X 850 for several rides now and like them much more than the stock skis. To mount them you have to use the Polaris ski mounting bolt, Skidoo ski rubber, Skidoo axel sleeve and Skidoo plastic spacers, and I added a 2 washers (against the ski on both outsides of the plastic spacers).

Dworek · Dec 8, 2016

mecham said:
The Grippers mount very easy and nicely on the 850's. Iv been running them on my Summit X 850 for several rides now and like them much more than the stock skis. To mount them you have to use the Polaris ski mounting bolt, Skidoo ski rubber, Skidoo axel sleeve and Skidoo plastic spacers, and I added a 2 washers (against the ski on both outsides of the plastic spacers).

Sounds great, thank's for your reply!

A picture would have been very nice.

Blue Light · Dec 8, 2016

And Simmons are even better.

mountainhorse · Dec 8, 2016

Care to elaborate Blue??

.

Blue Light · Dec 8, 2016

Well I'm partial to Simmons skis so know that when reading my opinion.

I've ran them on everything for years despite what others complain about with regard to Simmons. I think they hold the hill, float and generally out perform everything else I've tried.

The biggest complaint (I've complained at times too) is more steering effort is required with them...agreed. However, the G4 has incredibly light steering so any increased effort is definitely manageable.

Also, I'm willing to sacrifice performance in all areas for deep snow performance. Incidentally that's also why I generally won't spend money on suspension, as long as it gets up on the snow I don't really care about trail handling characteristics. Its rare that someone comes up with a part that radically changes a sled's deep snow performance, overall geometry usually dictates most of it.

I think Simmons skis help in the deep and really like them on my G4.

IMO about 90% of what's marketed for snowmobile performance doesn't work, I try to buy the 10% that does.

BL

powdermuncher · Dec 9, 2016

What Gen Simons are you running?

mountainhorse · Dec 9, 2016

x2^^^

Post up some pics !!

.

Blue Light · Dec 9, 2016

Gen I on G4.

Something heavy like TNytro, Gen II or III.

madmax · Dec 9, 2016

Haven't seen anyone run Simmons on anything but a 4-stroke in a very long time. Wouldn't mind giving them spin.

powdermuncher · Dec 10, 2016

We all had Simons gen 2s on the Yamaha's with a generous sidecut mod the gen 2s actually work surprisingly well.

Once you have 4 or 5 sleds go down a trail with the Simons skis they are horrible -- darting in the other tracks. If you are the only one with Simons skis they are awesome .

Gen 1 is a good ski although a bit heavier than some others.
I would have absolutely no issue running a pair of them.

For now I will give my 8" powder-hounds a go the XM liked them a lot the G4 is a lot lighter on the front end will report back with my finding. I Actually have a old set of gen1 on a old sled out back if I need a comparison

gravelpete · Dec 20, 2016

Any more feedback about running Polaris grippers on the gen 4?

Rotax_Kid · Dec 21, 2016

I have no miles on the grippers yet, but I"ll be curious to see how the Doo rubbers hold up. I'm not sure how comfy I am with how they sit in the rear portion of the ski. I can forsee them splitting by season end. I Haven't tried to make the Polaris rubbers fit, but am going to give it a shot tonight. Like advertised from others, last set of Polaris rubbers barely lasted a season and are very soft. Wish a guy could get a harder durometer.

madmax · Dec 21, 2016

gravelpete said:
Any more feedback about running Polaris grippers on the gen 4?

I have two rides on my grippers. I really like them. I like the they they handle in the powder a little bit more than the stock doo skis. Hold a side hill very well.

Trailsweeper · Dec 31, 2016

Has anyone running the grippers had an issue with this yet? I'm thinking I might try trimming them a bit.

Trailsweeper · Dec 31, 2016

Here's a couple of pics of what I did. Trimming it gives the ski a much better range of motion. 1st pic you can see that the plastic is flexed and indents just from rocking the ski up and down a little in the garage.

I think it was already mentioned but the poo ski bolt works fine. I used the doo nut and washer and rubber. For spacers I used 1 poo spacer along with the doo plastic one trimmed down to 16mm.

force4rmr · Feb 3, 2017

For those running Grippers on the Gen 4's which rubbers are you using? Looks like the Poo rubber fits the Ras 3 spindle decently but do they hold up well ? When I place the Doo rubbers in the saddle there's over a 1/2" space at the front of the rubber, so not sure which option is best ???

Gripper vs. 850 ski

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