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My 858 sux

I like to hold mine pinned right out the box. If she dies she dies
I read the book a bit ago, all it says is it uses extra oil for three hours. Nothing about an rpm governor and the BOG didn't develop till later in the day.
I'd say lighter weights but it feels so weak.
When i was running without the side panel neither clutch looked to be shifting very much
Was super surprised i could hold an ice sidehill unlike my acender
Speaking of acender. I had three of those with no rpm governer.
Every CTEC acender had a break in limit in the ECU
 
What about Doo? Those things just seem unpredictable to me.
We don’t ride with many doos, so the newest doo I’ve rode is probably around a 2012, but all doos I’ve ridden since the rev came out have just felt cockeyed as all get out to me.
 
I rode a Gen5 briefly last season. Seems like a nice sled, but I had two issues with it... first, the throttle felt very twitchy. Second, it was VERY VERY hard to get up on one ski. I dunno how people ride them. A friend has a Lynx Shredder.. rode it too... felt very similar. BUT, he had lowered his bars all the way to the console because he's a "sit-down rider," so it was REALLY hard to get a feel of it.
 
Might be wrong place to ask but I was wondering if anyone had the artic cat shock package? I have a 24 600 with junk shocks. Iam getting a little better at riding (bot great but better) and wonder if it would be a good upgrade for me this year. No 858 in the picture maybe next year. Iam a small guy 160
 
I got the Mountain Cat with the fancy IQS computer adjustable shocks. I was thinking that if I had it to do again, I would just get the base model, or one step up with Cat's new adjustable shocks. I'm not sure the air shocks are worth it and I'm not nearly good enough to really make good use of the adjustability. BUT, I have it, so might as well use it. I'm hitting the gym four times a week starting next week so I can try to level up a bit sooner than later.

Talk to Ice Age... they have shock packages for the Catalyst.. at the very least they can offer some input.
 
Might be wrong place to ask but I was wondering if anyone had the artic cat shock package? I have a 24 600 with junk shocks. Iam getting a little better at riding (bot great but better) and wonder if it would be a good upgrade for me this year. No 858 in the picture maybe next year. Iam a small guy 160
BD-Xtreme/SSI has them at this link: http://www.bd-xtreme.com/index.php?..._not_ship_my_shocks_back_springs_not_included

Full set of AC5S shocks with Suspension Proz valving if that's what your looking for. $1900 USD for the set. These sets are already pre valved though, so really depends on what you are looking for. This also does not come with springs or spring cups.
 
Surprisingly I kind of liked those gold shocks by the end of the day. Seemed very squishy at first but that may have contributed to me being able to side hill.
Probably be some used for cheap here in the near future too.

Have had all the stuff to twin rail with floats in my bedroom all summer. I might give the single another shot

I have a gen 5 turbo. It sux too. I think it's our sugary snow. The front constantly plummets and the skis fold up. I see so many other people's vids riding super predictable but I think it's all snow conditions
 
I was hoping to experiment with suspension to see if it would improve my riding a bit. My sled is very squishy and it trenches a little bit. I was going to buy the ice age shocks bit got sticker shock at way over 2k for front and rear. I don’t allways like my front end feeling but I suppose o could change springs too? Just seems like a magic bullett to try the individual settings and become Chris burandt lol? I have no experience at all with suspension or set up but I have read a lot so now iam wanting to tey
 
Surprisingly I kind of liked those gold shocks by the end of the day. Seemed very squishy at first but that may have contributed to me being able to side hill.
Probably be some used for cheap here in the near future too.

Have had all the stuff to twin rail with floats in my bedroom all summer. I might give the single another shot

I have a gen 5 turbo. It sux too. I think it's our sugary snow. The front constantly plummets and the skis fold up. I see so many other people's vids riding super predictable but I think it's all snow conditions
I know what you mean about the sugary snow. Bighorns, Beartooths both have it and I have a ski nose drive and disappear all the time. Not much fun when that happens.
 
I think we all need to wait for some actual snow before we start dumping thousands more.

Oh it's black Fridaeeee too late
 
I was hoping to experiment with suspension to see if it would improve my riding a bit. My sled is very squishy and it trenches a little bit. I was going to buy the ice age shocks bit got sticker shock at way over 2k for front and rear. I don’t allways like my front end feeling but I suppose o could change springs too? Just seems like a magic bullett to try the individual settings and become Chris burandt lol? I have no experience at all with suspension or set up but I have read a lot so now iam wanting to tey
A revalve and respring might be what you are looking for, especially if you want to keep it cheaper. The trenching is probably from the front track shock being too stiff, or the rear track shock being too soft. Try and mess around with the rear shock and make it stiffer.

My ascender would trench like a mofo and wouldn’t want to sidehill and then I put extra air in my rear shock and all of that went away. It is still plenty playful too. Hopefully this helps.

There’s some videos floating around YouTube of shock setup as well that could be of help
 
IMO... don't spend money on shocks or suspension work just yet. Give it half a season at least to try to figure out in more detail what you want the shock to be doing versus what it's doing right now.

An exception would be if you KNOW a shock is a problem... example.. my first year riding was 03-04 on a then-new Ski-Doo Rev 800 151. I remember specifically hitting a short but steep uphill (10-12' high) that several in my group went up before me. I picked a fresh line and hit it and got launched off my sled and thrown back into the snow because the front track shock (FTS) had no rebound damping (which is the speed at how fast the shock extends once compressed)... as in, it rebouned WAY too fast. So it was like a pogo stick. It compressed and BOING shot me right off the sled. I replaced it with something (don't even remember now what it was) and it was a huge improvement.

Sleds I've owned/ridden since haven't had that problem so I think they figured that much out. Plus newer sleds all have adjustable shocks to some degree so you can at least try to make them play nice. The fancy FOX ISQ shocks on my Mountain Cat have that lockout feature you can engage with a switch on the bars to prevent the rear track shock from compressing, reducing the chance of the nose of the sled wanting to lift on steep climbs. The IQ3 shocks have that too but it's a manual adjustment you have to get off the sled to set.

My '23 Khaos has the fancy adjustable Velocity shocks. They definitely affect the side-hill ability. When I got the sled, I didn't even know the dealer never properly set them; one side was softer than the other. It was a pain to lift the left ski and much too easy to left the right ski. Once I set them even, I then played with the low speed compression to make it less likely to tip all the way over but NOT want to stay flat on the ground. I got it to "okay" but never perfect. That's when I emailed Ice Age about maybe getting their IQ3 shocks. They asked questions about what I was experiencing and what I wanted, and I told them basically what I wrote above. They replied and said shocks aren't the answer, check out their "Elevate" spindles. So I read up on them and decided it was better to spend $500 on those than $1500 on shocks. I haven't ridden it yet, but I'm hoping it will make the sled more ridable for me.

So the moral of the story is to get more used to it, try to figure out where the problem is, THEN ask people who probably know more than you and see if they agree or have other ideas. Better to take your time and not waste money.
 
Surprisingly I kind of liked those gold shocks by the end of the day. Seemed very squishy at first but that may have contributed to me being able to side hill.
Probably be some used for cheap here in the near future too.

Have had all the stuff to twin rail with floats in my bedroom all summer. I might give the single another shot

I have a gen 5 turbo. It sux too. I think it's our sugary snow. The front constantly plummets and the skis fold up. I see so many other people's vids riding super predictable but I think it's all snow conditions
Had the same issue getting used to the Alpha rail after 30 years on the twin rail , try getting more Mid board get off the nose and see if that helps . I found that when you ride it rider forward the front end will eat you up , moved more Mid board and it helped not to far or the AZZ will wash on sidehill in certain snow , mite give it a shot 😎😎😎 that's with my front clicker set on 1 (whoopass mode) skids all set at 2. 2020 hardcore 165
 
The catalyst I have has no air or valves adjustment. Just a coil spring. I can in crease the spring pressure or decrease but that’s it. My older asscender has the shocks with the three place adjustment. I bet your right that guys will upgrade their 858 shocks to big money and sell the artic cat ones.
 
Adjusting spring pressure can help or hinder the performance of your sled a lot. Take the time and make the adjustment that works best for you. Just like dirt bikes, sled suspension can be the best and easiest way to improve your ride. I do have the new Arctic Cat shocks and they are very comparable to the Fox coilovers on my 21 hardcore.
 
IMO... don't spend money on shocks or suspension work just yet. Give it half a season at least to try to figure out in more detail what you want the shock to be doing versus what it's doing right now.

An exception would be if you KNOW a shock is a problem... example.. my first year riding was 03-04 on a then-new Ski-Doo Rev 800 151. I remember specifically hitting a short but steep uphill (10-12' high) that several in my group went up before me. I picked a fresh line and hit it and got launched off my sled and thrown back into the snow because the front track shock (FTS) had no rebound damping (which is the speed at how fast the shock extends once compressed)... as in, it rebouned WAY too fast. So it was like a pogo stick. It compressed and BOING shot me right off the sled. I replaced it with something (don't even remember now what it was) and it was a huge improvement.

Sleds I've owned/ridden since haven't had that problem so I think they figured that much out. Plus newer sleds all have adjustable shocks to some degree so you can at least try to make them play nice. The fancy FOX ISQ shocks on my Mountain Cat have that lockout feature you can engage with a switch on the bars to prevent the rear track shock from compressing, reducing the chance of the nose of the sled wanting to lift on steep climbs. The IQ3 shocks have that too but it's a manual adjustment you have to get off the sled to set.

My '23 Khaos has the fancy adjustable Velocity shocks. They definitely affect the side-hill ability. When I got the sled, I didn't even know the dealer never properly set them; one side was softer than the other. It was a pain to lift the left ski and much too easy to left the right ski. Once I set them even, I then played with the low speed compression to make it less likely to tip all the way over but NOT want to stay flat on the ground. I got it to "okay" but never perfect. That's when I emailed Ice Age about maybe getting their IQ3 shocks. They asked questions about what I was experiencing and what I wanted, and I told them basically what I wrote above. They replied and said shocks aren't the answer, check out their "Elevate" spindles. So I read up on them and decided it was better to spend $500 on those than $1500 on shocks. I haven't ridden it yet, but I'm hoping it will make the sled more ridable for me.

So the moral of the story is to get more used to it, try to figure out where the problem is, THEN ask people who probably know more than you and see if they agree or have other ideas. Better to take your time and not waste money.
That makes a lot of sense. Shouldn't be news to any regulars here, but anyone thinking they *need* new shocks who hasn't thoroughly explored their sled setup to address their complaints is probably wrong. For anyone with money to burn wanting the absolute best, a shock upgrade is a no-brainer. For an average rider with an average budget though, a re-valve gets you a lot for not a lot of money. Unless you hate it and are pretty sure it's the shocks, maybe ride it out for the season, then have them done in the off-season. Even for someone fine with the stock shocks, it's not a bad idea; I'm not sure what oil Cat specs in their shocks, but most WE shocks come with cheap stuff that degrades quickly. Maybe it's so when people hop on a new Poo after a couple seasons on theirs, they're guaranteed to think "Wow, so much better!" Not knowing they'd get most of that back by having their shocks done.
 
Opinion… if you are getting your chit beat on the trail, know how to adjust shocks, and have money to burn, aftermarket shocks are good idea.

If you are a subpar rider, and want to improve your skills… more seat time is your only worthwhile “investment”. And more specifically seat time with people who are better riders than you.
 
Hahahaha! Iam not sub par just a newer rider and I started a bit late so iam old lol! Just curious what the 858 guys thought about the artic cat shock package since it’s new. I was surprised that my brand new sled had cheap shocks but I will also say I actually like the sled and it has improved my riding dramatically and it has carried over to other sleds I’ve ridden. I honestly think it is a great tool for new riders , young and old riders maybe just smaller people. I’d like a new one every year lol but I agree that seat time is what I need! I did put over 600 miles on my sled last year so I was proud of that. With a.busy family and a laundry list a mile long that’s pretty good lol. I need to do the shock static set up in a day or two so I’ll see if I can learn a little more .
 
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