Didn't know quite where to go with my settings. I had some advice from Sledheadd, but he's 80lbs heavier than I and his ski shocks are triple rate (mine are dual).
I left ALL spring preloads EXACTLY as they came. No adjustments made to them.
I set ALL FOUR of my reservoirs at 5 clicks for black (high speed compression), 10 for red (low speed compression) and 20 for bottom red (rebound).
For the first 3 miles we had spring road conditions, some chatter, some bomb holes and then a good amount with some VERY windblown sidehill roads. Tough going through that stuff.
The red was too soft. The downhill ski wanted to dive. Clicked it up by 5. Helped a lot. Didn't want to dive downhill hardly at all, but still very easy to roll sled up on edge.
After the first section, we left the road and ran the ridges for a couple miles. SLOW booning around the tree wells. Slow enough that my sled was overheating.
Still VERY deep snow, but the paths between tree wells was getting skinny. LOL
There was still considerable sidehilling on the firm spring snow. The slow speed compression (RED dial) seemed to be really close to dialed.
Was able to carve and move around as needed in tight trees and wide wells.
I REALLY like being able to hop off, turn the dial a couple clicks and see an instant result in handling.
A few clicks either way on the red dial results in a noticeable change in handling at slow speeds.
After we got over the gas drop hill we got into the REALLY cupped out rain-channeled snow. Those rain channels were running 4-8" deep and even up to a foot deep in the low spots between gullys.
Running crossways across those rain channels was FUN for testing.
We found a meadow area top a ridge and did some testing there. I'd go across slow speed (10-20mph) and fast speed (30-50mph) a few times. The faster I went, the less I felt coming through the handle-bars into my hands.
A couple clicks up and down, testing each time, took NO TIME AT ALL to dial in the best ride through that REALLY rough chatter.
The rear skid is holding about 1" of sag. I have always had mine set up a bit firm in the past, but it was quite PLUSH on this ride and yet it never bottomed out. It felt really good.
I hopped onto a 2014 M8000 with Float 3s. It's set up for a 240lb guy.
We traded back and forth a couple times during this meadow testing. Noticeable difference between, although not comparing apples to apples here.
When we got the Elka shocks set up for me and my weight on that cupped and channeled out snow, BOTH OF US liked my ride better by far.
Like I said, when he rode my set-up for me, he liked my set up for me, even though he's a 100 pounds heavier than I am.
Climbing through old rough melted out slide debris was fun and VERY smooth. I didn't have to adjust my front skis, but I did firm up the track shocks a couple clicks.
