141 Float Skid Thread

[devilnabludress]

Have mine 95% ready for the first snow flake!!

 

[Nytro1995]

Have mine 95% ready for the first snow flake!!
View attachment 149407 View attachment 149408 View attachment 149410 View attachment 149411

glad someone posted pictures I'm literally working on mine as we speak just starting to drill out the rivets so I can move the brackets. What did you do with the other two brackets that are behind the original mounting bracket

 

[devilnabludress]

At the moment they are not being used because that is where the skid mount now is located. That plate was just being used to support the split previously.

 

[Snowman871]

Any updates, tips & tricks, or additional pictures from those that have done this swap? I got my OEM XTX skid pulled out over Christmas break, all the rivets drilled out for the rear mounting brackets and then came down with an awful sickness for about 6 days...

Here's my notes so far:

Front

- I pulled a caliper dimension off the ID of the front arm bushing on the float skid and it seems to line up well with the shoulder of a 5/8" bolt.
- I bought some standard Grade 8 5/8" bolts today with enough shoulder to make it most of the way through the front arm so that the bushings ride on a smooth surface - need to confirm fit is good or if I need to buy actual shoulder bolts.
- It looks like the front tunnel support plate will need to be drilled out for these larger bolts, OEM are smaller in diameter
- I also bought some 5/8" washers to make up for the gap inside the tunnel - the OEM skid is slightly wider than the float skid up front

Rear

- I pulled some reference dimensions and it looked like the rear arm of the Cat skid was wider than the OEM skid, but when I temp'd in the rear brackets to pull a dimension the "width" appeared to be spot on with the Cat skid
- On my XTX there is a rivet hole ~2" back from the original rear bracket that I have roughed in as placement since it lines up with the original brackets
- I plan to get the front arm bolted in place to see how things line up with the brackets there in terms of ride height before I rivet everything in place
- It looks like some of the outer rail or the rear skid mount plates will need to be modified slightly but it appears to be pretty straight forward and that they can be reused

 

[Snowman871]

Little update:

- So I did some investigation on an XF parts fiche and found out that my skid was missing the aluminum bushings for the front skid arms. I'm glad I didn't drill out my tunnel supports for the gigantic 5/8" fasteners like I thought had to! These bushings neck things down to a 10 mm bolt, same as the stock skid.

- I ordered the bushings and the bolts online only to find that the bolts were just a bit too short (think this was noted earlier...) with the extra tunnel width. I ended up with 4 washers (Probably 1/16" thick each) per side between the skid and tunnel to tighten things up. To account for this I picked up some 10mm x 1.25 thread x 80mm length bolts from the local hardware store.

- I had to modify the rear mounting brackets slightly to get them to sit decent against the running boards, so I added a couple rivets for good measure.

I'm happy to report my rear suspension is now "sag free" and I'm hoping that I get some time to test/tune things this weekend after some snow today! I've been working in the shop every night after my kids went to bed on this as well as a whole pile of yearly maintenance and misc. upgrades.

- Added a BCA tunnel bag using my Linq bracket setup
- Swapped out my 20th top gear for a 19th tooth (once again the driveshaft bolt inside the chain case was sheared... luckily I bought spares!)
- Added a RAM mount and Hondo Garage perfect squeeze phone mount
- Added Rock's smart power supply (also bought his heated case)

I'll try to get some pictures loaded up at some point...

 

[4strokes]

Little update:

- So I did some investigation on an XF parts fiche and found out that my skid was missing the aluminum bushings for the front skid arms. I'm glad I didn't drill out my tunnel supports for the gigantic 5/8" fasteners like I thought had to! These bushings neck things down to a 10 mm bolt, same as the stock skid.

- I ordered the bushings and the bolts online only to find that the bolts were just a bit too short (think this was noted earlier...) with the extra tunnel width. I ended up with 4 washers (Probably 1/16" thick each) per side between the skid and tunnel to tighten things up. To account for this I picked up some 10mm x 1.25 thread x 80mm length bolts from the local hardware store.

- I had to modify the rear mounting brackets slightly to get them to sit decent against the running boards, so I added a couple rivets for good measure.

I'm happy to report my rear suspension is now "sag free" and I'm hoping that I get some time to test/tune things this weekend after some snow today! I've been working in the shop every night after my kids went to bed on this as well as a whole pile of yearly maintenance and misc. upgrades.

- Added a BCA tunnel bag using my Linq bracket setup
- Swapped out my 20th top gear for a 19th tooth (once again the driveshaft bolt inside the chain case was sheared... luckily I bought spares!)
- Added a RAM mount and Hondo Garage perfect squeeze phone mount
- Added Rock's smart power supply (also bought his heated case)

I'll try to get some pictures loaded up at some point...

I would definetly use the spacer mod on that drive shaft bolt. It will break again otherwise

 

[Snowman871]

I would definetly use the spacer mod on that drive shaft bolt. It will break again otherwise

Thanks for the feedback! I did a little searching and it seems pretty straightforward.

I'll probably let it roll for my upcoming trip and then pull things back apart afterwords to update.

 

[4strokes]

Thanks for the feedback! I did a little searching and it seems pretty straightforward.

I'll probably let it roll for my upcoming trip and then pull things back apart afterwords to update.

mine came through the cover at like 3000. did spacer mod and now have 25000mi. headed out the door now to try and break it

 

[Snowman871]

mine came through the cover at like 3000. did spacer mod and now have 25000mi. headed out the door now to try and break it

Did you machine a specific size spacer or did you use a stack of washers?

 

[Tod]

What is this spacer mod

 

[Snowman871]

Well, I got the first few miles on the new skid today! I was just out in a 40 acre field doing a quick shake down test so it was a bit hard to tell too much for tuning purposes but it seemed to ride fine for a starting point.

That said, I couldn't believe how much less snow this skid held compared to the stock nytro xtx skid!

Uploading a bunch of pics of the skid and other recent mods.

 

[4strokes]

Did you machine a specific size spacer or did you use a stack of washers?

I cut a spacer, needs to tighten the hub and the spacer the same time, making it solid

 

[1nc 2000]

You may want to put up a heat shield between that exhaust turn out and that bag otherwise the bag will burn.

 

[Snowman871]

You may want to put up a heat shield between that exhaust turn out and that bag otherwise the bag will burn.

I ran it for ~5 minutes on the stand to check things out and it seemed ok. I get it's going to get hotter than that under load but it should also have some air movement. I run a Linq tank that sits pretty similar and haven't had any issues.

I plan to take it for a little pre-ride run tomorrow to be safe though!

 

[Snowman871]

Happy to report the BCA bag and new suspension setup did great up in Munising this weekend! It was almost 50 degrees warmer this year, but even with the setup snow it was a great time!