2 regrets about buying snowtrackers

[thor452]

I wonder if rocker dan put them on backwards cause I have never found this to be true and have converted 4 buddies one an a new viper to thease carbides and none have reported anything like what you say. in fact most have beter fuel milage and higher top speed due to less resistance. most duals will cause what you say due to the more metal on the snow.

 

[snowbeast]

In response to mnmsnowbeast. My reference will be my own 06 Vector with aggressive snowtrackers. The 2014 Apex XTX was stock as far as I know. Power was fantastic, instant acceleration, really smooth and no hint of any hesitation. The rear suspension for me was surprisingly more plush than I expected. My buddy was finding it a bit stiff. He's about 160 lbs, and I push 250 lbs geared up. Considering this is a 144" skid, I may have felt a little extra push in the corners, but not much. The EPS thru me off a little I must admit. I kept thinking that I would have to muscle thru the tight corners as I need to do with my sled, but realized that there was no need. You could literally steer this sled with 2 fingers. I don't understand "steiner"'s comments on not noticing the EPS until putting it on the trailer, unless only going in a straight line at hyperspeed. The difference is night and day, like regular Yamaha skis and skis with SnowTrackers with regards to darting. Anyhow, cornered as flat as my Vector, which was good considering the higher riding position. A very comfy and thickly padded seat. Very quick compared to my Vector, with the long track very little track spin and instant hook-up. He did have it studded with 3 picks per row, just remembered that as remembered commenting to him on the number of studs. Snow conditions that day were a very grippy hard pack. Was very impressed with the sled, could have ridden it all day ( I ride my own sled all day as it is) and didn't really want to get off of it and ride my sled, but didn't want to wreck his brand new sled. I think this would be a great sled for those who want the best of both worlds, off trail play and groomed trail riding. If riding strictly groomed trails, I would go with the 136" length, just because I couldn't believe the 144" track did so well on the trail. If pushed really hard I can't say, because that's not the way I ride. My buddy seems really impressed and is coming off an 06 Apex. Switching with my sled brought back memories of his old Polaris 600 triple XLT-12 for him, was an excellent day all around.

hey thanks for the report,its even better when it is not someone who owns the sled,as some times we are biased because we chose to buy and ride it even though sometimes our decisions are tainted and we hate to admit we got the wrong sled. I did not have much seat time on the demo I rode,and to be honest with you at the time all I wanted was the apex se,but after riding it,i was not impressed,and the apex xtx at the time did nothing for me either,i wish I could demo one for a day,that would shine a lot more light on it.

 

[thrasher]

ROCKERDAN wrote:
the big problem we found with snowtrackers was a fairly big DROP in fuel economy
the problem with the trackers is they make the sled plow thru SOFT snow

I will agree with you that SnowTrackers are pretty much useless in deep soft snow, and may not make that much of an improvement with the pilot skis. However, with the old style Yamaha ski, SnowTrackers are without a doubt the best handling improvement that you can make to your sled. As far as mileage goes, I have over 10,000 kms with Snow|Trackers, and average 20 mpg with them ( I regularly calculate my fuel economy), the same mpg without them. For the pre Yamaha Tuner skis, they are an absolute must, or at least some other anti-darting carbides.

 

[Cummins6.7pwr]

I found that my mpg improved with snowtrackers. I ran 8" doolies before and my mpg improved about 3-4 mpg with the trackers over the doolies. I am sure resistence plays a part in it, but I found that you can roll through the corners easier, faster and and with confidence. That probably increased my fuel consumption more than anything. Just my $.02

 

[maim]

In response to mnmsnowbeast. My reference will be my own 06 Vector with aggressive snowtrackers. The 2014 Apex XTX was stock as far as I know. Power was fantastic, instant acceleration, really smooth and no hint of any hesitation. The rear suspension for me was surprisingly more plush than I expected. My buddy was finding it a bit stiff. He's about 160 lbs, and I push 250 lbs geared up. Considering this is a 144" skid, I may have felt a little extra push in the corners, but not much. The EPS thru me off a little I must admit. I kept thinking that I would have to muscle thru the tight corners as I need to do with my sled, but realized that there was no need. You could literally steer this sled with 2 fingers. I don't understand "steiner"'s comments on not noticing the EPS until putting it on the trailer, unless only going in a straight line at hyperspeed. The difference is night and day, like regular Yamaha skis and skis with SnowTrackers with regards to darting. Anyhow, cornered as flat as my Vector, which was good considering the higher riding position. A very comfy and thickly padded seat. Very quick compared to my Vector, with the long track very little track spin and instant hook-up. He did have it studded with 3 picks per row, just remembered that as remembered commenting to him on the number of studs. Snow conditions that day were a very grippy hard pack. Was very impressed with the sled, could have ridden it all day ( I ride my own sled all day as it is) and didn't really want to get off of it and ride my sled, but didn't want to wreck his brand new sled. I think this would be a great sled for those who want the best of both worlds, off trail play and groomed trail riding. If riding strictly groomed trails, I would go with the 136" length, just because I couldn't believe the 144" track did so well on the trail. If pushed really hard I can't say, because that's not the way I ride. My buddy seems really impressed and is coming off an 06 Apex. Switching with my sled brought back memories of his old Polaris 600 triple XLT-12 for him, was an excellent day all around.

hey thanks for the report,its even better when it is not someone who owns the sled,as some times we are biased because we chose to buy and ride it even though sometimes our decisions are tainted and we hate to admit we got the wrong sled. I did not have much seat time on the demo I rode,and to be honest with you at the time all I wanted was the apex se,but after riding it,i was not impressed,and the apex xtx at the time did nothing for me either,i wish I could demo one for a day,that would shine a lot more light on it.

just remember that some of the Canadian apex xtx's came with the 150nm springs. I know mine did. I have the nitro xtx springs on it now and it rides much better.


sorry for the hijack sasquatch.

 

[snowbeast]

In response to mnmsnowbeast. My reference will be my own 06 Vector with aggressive snowtrackers. The 2014 Apex XTX was stock as far as I know. Power was fantastic, instant acceleration, really smooth and no hint of any hesitation. The rear suspension for me was surprisingly more plush than I expected. My buddy was finding it a bit stiff. He's about 160 lbs, and I push 250 lbs geared up. Considering this is a 144" skid, I may have felt a little extra push in the corners, but not much. The EPS thru me off a little I must admit. I kept thinking that I would have to muscle thru the tight corners as I need to do with my sled, but realized that there was no need. You could literally steer this sled with 2 fingers. I don't understand "steiner"'s comments on not noticing the EPS until putting it on the trailer, unless only going in a straight line at hyperspeed. The difference is night and day, like regular Yamaha skis and skis with SnowTrackers with regards to darting. Anyhow, cornered as flat as my Vector, which was good considering the higher riding position. A very comfy and thickly padded seat. Very quick compared to my Vector, with the long track very little track spin and instant hook-up. He did have it studded with 3 picks per row, just remembered that as remembered commenting to him on the number of studs. Snow conditions that day were a very grippy hard pack. Was very impressed with the sled, could have ridden it all day ( I ride my own sled all day as it is) and didn't really want to get off of it and ride my sled, but didn't want to wreck his brand new sled. I think this would be a great sled for those who want the best of both worlds, off trail play and groomed trail riding. If riding strictly groomed trails, I would go with the 136" length, just because I couldn't believe the 144" track did so well on the trail. If pushed really hard I can't say, because that's not the way I ride. My buddy seems really impressed and is coming off an 06 Apex. Switching with my sled brought back memories of his old Polaris 600 triple XLT-12 for him, was an excellent day all around.

hey thanks for the report,its even better when it is not someone who owns the sled,as some times we are biased because we chose to buy and ride it even though sometimes our decisions are tainted and we hate to admit we got the wrong sled. I did not have much seat time on the demo I rode,and to be honest with you at the time all I wanted was the apex se,but after riding it,i was not impressed,and the apex xtx at the time did nothing for me either,i wish I could demo one for a day,that would shine a lot more light on it.

just remember that some of the Canadian apex xtx's came with the 150nm springs. I know mine did. I have the nitro xtx springs on it now and it rides much better.


sorry for the hijack sasquatch.

I dont know if that is a heavier torsion spring than comes standard or not,on my 07 rtx i never fooled with its springs,but generally i need my stock springs maxed out for my 250lbs it would be nice to set up a sled with them set in the min or mid and not have to start in the max.

 

[whitedust1]

I have ridden both Bergstrom Triple points & Agressive snowtrackers both on 2012 Apex XTXs. The snowtrackers basically using out of box suspension set up no transfer turned out just set up shocks at standard meduim, 0 tow & handled well. I went with 8" triple points, pulled up limiter 1 notch, transfer on line 2,middle settings on front shocks,rear cam block hard & rear clciker all the way hard with center shock on hard side & my XTX has razor sharp handling with ice ripper track. IMO if you don't want to fine tune your sled go with snowtrackers will work well.BUT if you want to fine tune sled handling Bergstrom triplepoints are better choice. While snowtrackers are good I did feel a bit of oversteer that disturbed me but still a good out of box product.

 

[maim]

I am in the 250 lb department myself and my stock springs where way too heavy. On full soft I could not move the rear suspension enough to be close to spec.

 

[Sasquatch]

So even with EPS the stock setup would still leave you with sore shoulders? OMG! I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on a 2014 Vector LTX and are expecting my arthritic shoulders to be a lot better off with the EPS!

Maybe I need to rethink this all as I don't want to put Snowtrackers on.

No the stock setup was great, as buttery soft as anyone would like. The darting was bad with the stock ski's but I pulled them and went to the Curves I already had. I liked them on my RX and the darting was way less then the stockers (keeping in mind that I never tried to make the stockers work) it was the 8 inch shaper bars on the Curve ski's that were hard steering. Way better then on the RX which had no power steering.

You can go to dualies or tripple points or any other thing you think will fix the darting on the stock ski's. The power steering works fine. I chose the snowtrackers because I wanted the bite in the corners like my Curves with 8 inch shapers on them or my Simmons with 6 and 4's but without the hard steering that comes with it. The Snowtrackers bite in the corners but steer with ease and solve the tracking/darting issues. Best of both worlds I think.

I guess I need to be more clear, power steering works (on all ski's/carbides), stock ski's dart (with stock carbides), Stock ski's are awesome with snowtrackers. You can choose your poison (Carbide) I chose mine!

 

[Sasquatch]

Sasquatch, now that you are running snowtrackers what ski are you running? OEM single keel on the Warrior and tuner on the XTX?

I am running the stock single keel Yamaha Ski that came with my 11 XTX. My warrior has Simmons ski's on it right now.

 

[Sasquatch]

I have a 2011 apex se with tuners the EPS makes a huge difference you will notice a big change compared to a yamaha sled without EPS. Most other riders in my group are getting pretty beat by the 3rd day and I used to feel that way not anymore just want to keep riding! I don't think you need to have snowtrackers but I'm going to have to try them so many people rave about them!

Why don't you want to run snowtrackers 4SLuvr11?

Nobody that I've ridden with has them, they are expensive and I can't afford to try them just on somebody's recommendation. Ski's fall into the same category. I have had such good luck with Woody's Doolies over the years that I'll sacrifice some corner push for ZERO darting ever. I HATE darting!

Hmmm you sound like me. I was sceptical as well! I hate darting as well but I also hate push. The Simmons where great but pushed bad in fresh snow. No biggy just slow down. Thing is even with 8 inches of fresh snow the semi aggresive snowtrackers pushed way less then the Simmons. Now everyone else in the group was pushing with a mildred of different carbides in the group. The guy with the aggresive snowtrackers said he had only a little push before the trackers would bite.

You like your doolies, then stay with them. You'll love power steering however, I know I do.

 

[Sasquatch]

the big problem we found with snowtrackers was a fairly big DROP in fuel economy.....

But you can achieve light steering simply by using lesser carbide too, and they will push about same as a snowtracker, they do push and the softer it gets the worse the STs push.

Dan

I like my snowtrackers because they don't push except in deep fresh snow. I fact coming back on the same trail at the end of the day the push was almost gone because the trail was setting up. On a day where there was about 3 to 4 inches of fresh snow I had excellent bite with no push!

So in 6 days of riding I had a push going on the day everyone else without snowtrackers had a push as well. Fuel wise I don't see a difference that I notice!

 

[Sasquatch]

I have ridden both Bergstrom Triple points & Agressive snowtrackers both on 2012 Apex XTXs. The snowtrackers basically using out of box suspension set up no transfer turned out just set up shocks at standard meduim, 0 tow & handled well. I went with 8" triple points, pulled up limiter 1 notch, transfer on line 2,middle settings on front shocks,rear cam block hard & rear clciker all the way hard with center shock on hard side & my XTX has razor sharp handling with ice ripper track. IMO if you don't want to fine tune your sled go with snowtrackers will work well.BUT if you want to fine tune sled handling Bergstrom triplepoints are better choice. While snowtrackers are good I did feel a bit of oversteer that disturbed me but still a good out of box product.

Hmmm I wonder what would happen if you fine tuned the setup for Snowtrackers? Just asking!

 

[Sasquatch]

Maybe one day Snowtracker will set kviper and I (and maybe Sasquatch with such a nice write up them) up with some free swag for all the bragging we do for them.

Hey sweet! I sat on the fence for a long time and played mr. sceptical. Now I love em! Better then anything else I have tried when it comes to fixing darting and push. While at the same time keeping steering positive and light. My old arms love them!

My Warrior will be wearing Snowtrackers next year. My Apex will have aggresives. They work as adverstised!

 

[steiner]

Hey sweet! I sat on the fence for a long time and played mr. sceptical. Now I love em! Better then anything else I have tried when it comes to fixing darting and push. While at the same time keeping steering positive and light. My old arms love them!

My Warrior will be wearing Snowtrackers next year. My Apex will have aggresives. They work as adverstised!

Be careful of swapping the Snowtrackers from sled to sled. I believe the '11 ski design is different than the Warrior.