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Narrowing options

mtbraun

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I am considering narrowing my 2014 HCR. Out here in Island Park, what little powder i found really struggled to get the sled to roll. I am not a very experienced rider, but my son rented an 850 Khaos which i rode, and it was substantially easier to maneuver in the meadows and trees. I just felt like i was fighting the sled all day long. We aren't much for trail riding so i am not concerned about the tradeoff. Is this just my lack of experience or would narrowing help the deeper powder handling characteristics?
 

boondocker97

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I rode a 2014 HCR back-to-back with a 38" width M8000 of the same year and there was a noticeable difference in effort to get it up on edge. The HCR is much more planted and was designed to handle that way. Going to a 38" stance with your current spindles will be an improvement and let you use your existing shocks with spacers installed. Going with a 36" kit and the new spindles will be very noticeable, but will require more work to your shocks to have them cut down or replace them all together. I personally like the 38" stance better for some additional stability, but I'm a big guy and maneuvering it doesn't take much more effort for me.
 

mtbraun

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You can put 2016+ spindles on but only go to 38” a-arms with stock your shocks. My 2012 had a 40” front end and when I went to 38” arms with stock shocks I liked it.
Ok, thanks. Sorry for all the questions. So I would order 2016+ M series upper and lower a-arms? I presume I'd need spacers in shocks?
 

boondocker97

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Spacers alone will not be enough to go from that wide 42/43" ski stance down to 36". There's not enough stroke left in the shocks. Need to have a suspension shop cut the bodies down or get new shocks.

The swap to the 36" front end requires upper a-arms, lower a-arms, spindles, and tie rods (plus the shock issue). Up until this year cat had a kit that was somewhat economical to do this, but they have now been discontinued. Depending on how attached you are to your current sled it might make more sense to sell it and pick up a 2016+ as there are more updates to the skid, track, and drivetrain.
 

mtbraun

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Spacers alone will not be enough to go from that wide 42/43" ski stance down to 36". There's not enough stroke left in the shocks. Need to have a suspension shop cut the bodies down or get new shocks.

The swap to the 36" front end requires upper a-arms, lower a-arms, spindles, and tie rods (plus the shock issue). Up until this year cat had a kit that was somewhat economical to do this, but they have now been discontinued. Depending on how attached you are to your current sled it might make more sense to sell it and pick up a 2016+ as there are more updates to the skid, track, and drivetrain.

Or I could do the BDX narrowing kit to 38" and keep original shocks, correct? That's only $400 and if it works seems like the best option.
 

boondocker97

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If this is the kit you are looking at you'll still need to source some lower a-arms and tie rods: http://www.bd-xtreme.com/index.php?id_product=26&controller=product&search_query=a-arm&results=93
FYI the spindles they use with that kit are considered by some to be a little on the weak side. I had that setup on my sled for a couple years and bent one and broke another. I've got it on the shelf with good spindles I would sell you cheap. Generally with the Cats you can narrow the stance by 2", have the spacers installed in the shocks, and everything will be correct geometry wise. Some like Suzzy-Q narrow the stance by 2", leave the shocks alone, and it works good for them. Sometimes this requires washers under the tie rod end to keep the rod from hitting the lower a-arm on full shock extension. So narrowing your stance 4" from 42 to 38 will require spacers to be installed at a minimum, and your shocks will be a little long still, but probably still work. Get ahold of a shop like Gas Shock Repair, The Racin Station, or Carver Performance that is familiar with the mods needed to confirm. My original comment I was thinking your year HCR had a 40" front end so a simple spacer would work to run the 38", but after I looked it up the spec sheets say they are 42" stance.
 

mtbraun

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If this is the kit you are looking at you'll still need to source some lower a-arms and tie rods: http://www.bd-xtreme.com/index.php?id_product=26&controller=product&search_query=a-arm&results=93
FYI the spindles they use with that kit are considered by some to be a little on the weak side. I had that setup on my sled for a couple years and bent one and broke another. I've got it on the shelf with good spindles I would sell you cheap. Generally with the Cats you can narrow the stance by 2", have the spacers installed in the shocks, and everything will be correct geometry wise. Some like Suzzy-Q narrow the stance by 2", leave the shocks alone, and it works good for them. Sometimes this requires washers under the tie rod end to keep the rod from hitting the lower a-arm on full shock extension. So narrowing your stance 4" from 42 to 38 will require spacers to be installed at a minimum, and your shocks will be a little long still, but probably still work. Get ahold of a shop like Gas Shock Repair, The Racin Station, or Carver Performance that is familiar with the mods needed to confirm. My original comment I was thinking your year HCR had a 40" front end so a simple spacer would work to run the 38", but after I looked it up the spec sheets say they are 42" stance.
That's the kit I was looking at. I was confused since it didn't list a lower a-arm included, so to me that's not much use to me if it's not complete. Shoot me an IM on what you want for that setup, assuming its upper/lower/spindles and tie rods. I'll follow up with Carver, they rebuilt my track shocks and are in my back yard.

And thanks for confirming, I was pretty sure the stance was 42" on my HCR, and would like to take it to 38".
 

bgraff1

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with it being a HCR the narrowest you can go and reuse your stock shocks is 40". if your going to go 38" you may as well go the whole way to 36" as you need new shocks anyway. buy the cat 36" kit, new upper/lower a arms, tie rods and find a set of take off 36" stance shocks
 

mtbraun

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Thanks everyone. do you know if the 2016+ narrowing option to 36" requires the backer plate like the BDX? Or is it pretty much bolt on?
 

bgraff1

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Thanks everyone. do you know if the 2016+ narrowing option to 36" requires the backer plate like the BDX? Or is it pretty much bolt on?
100% bolt on. need upper/lower a arms, spindles and tie rods. depending on your year you may need new upper a arm hardware/bushings/mounts as they changed to smaller bolts. cant remember what year they changed though, 2015 maybe?
 

boondocker97

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2014 was the first year of the smaller mounting hardware so he's good there. The 36" Kits from Cat are the most economical way to do it aside from finding used parts, but they are discontinued so can only hope to find one a dealer has on a shelf somewhere.
 

mtbraun

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2014 was the first year of the smaller mounting hardware so he's good there. The 36" Kits from Cat are the most economical way to do it aside from finding used parts, but they are discontinued so can only hope to find one a dealer has on a shelf somewhere.

Looks like part number 7639-161?
 

boondocker97

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That would be the one if you were looking for black arms and black spindles. They had different part numbers for different color combinations.
 
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