2005 RX1 Mono Shock Suspension Durability Results

[nhrxrider]

NHRXRider - The reason they do this kind of thing is that it is standard practice in the snowmobile business. All 4 mfg's. do the same thing. Doo rings do not last 3,000 miles,Polaris has the Fusion and Cat has the Firecat. As long as all us consumers continue to allow them to stick it to us year after year, they will continue. If you could have a business where the consumer pays to be your R&D department you probably would. Then we even buy hats and jackets to let everyone know who we pay to R&D for.

Not to slam any one manufacturer, but I have to ask...why is it that a good sled costs $10,000+ these days, and I can still find a couple of economy cars in this price range? I know the cars are econoboxes, but look at what you get for your money. On my sled I get an engine hooked to a clutch pretty much like every sled made in the last 30 years. It hooks to a chaincase, again, like almost every sled in the past 30 years. That power runs to a rubber track which, for the most part, hasn't changed much in 30 years. In that econobox car, I get an engine, real transmission, heater, tons of electronics, fuel injection, radio, etc., etc., etc. In defence of the sled companies, they sell a whole lot less sleds compared to the econoboxes, so more of the selling price has to cover those costs, but still...it seems we get very little for our money. That econo-box will get me around 12 months of the year for 100,000+ miles. My $10,000 sled has gotten me a total of 5500 miles over 5 months of riding (distributed over 3 seasons) and is essentially worn out.

I guess we sledders are a rare breed who like to throw away our money. I guess things could be worse though. This year I'll be giving away almost the cost of my sled to Uncle Sam and I didn't even get anything to ride.

Jim

 

[SLEDSTART]

NHRXRider - The reason they do this kind of thing is that it is standard practice in the snowmobile business. All 4 mfg's. do the same thing. Doo rings do not last 3,000 miles,Polaris has the Fusion and Cat has the Firecat. As long as all us consumers continue to allow them to stick it to us year after year, they will continue. If you could have a business where the consumer pays to be your R&D department you probably would. Then we even buy hats and jackets to let everyone know who we pay to R&D for.

Not to slam any one manufacturer, but I have to ask...why is it that a good sled costs $10,000+ these days, and I can still find a couple of economy cars in this price range? I know the cars are econoboxes, but look at what you get for your money. On my sled I get an engine hooked to a clutch pretty much like every sled made in the last 30 years. It hooks to a chaincase, again, like almost every sled in the past 30 years. That power runs to a rubber track which, for the most part, hasn't changed much in 30 years. In that econobox car, I get an engine, real transmission, heater, tons of electronics, fuel injection, radio, etc., etc., etc. In defence of the sled companies, they sell a whole lot less sleds compared to the econoboxes, so more of the selling price has to cover those costs, but still...it seems we get very little for our money. That econo-box will get me around 12 months of the year for 100,000+ miles. My $10,000 sled has gotten me a total of 5500 miles over 5 months of riding (distributed over 3 seasons) and is essentially worn out.

I guess we sledders are a rare breed who like to throw away our money. I guess things could be worse though. This year I'll be giving away almost the cost of my sled to Uncle Sam and I didn't even get anything to ride.

Jim

Jim..not to defent the manufactures...but think about it. Take that econobox down what is compared to a moto cross course for 5000 miles and see how it holds up. Lets face it...these sleds get the crap beat out of them. 100,000 miles out of the car...of course. It's gliding down pavement and your not hammering the gas wide open every chance you get and hammering the brakes at every stop...all as your hitting massive mogals.
I would bet anything the RX motor would get MORE miles than that econobox motor if it was in a street bike and driven senseable.

 

[zoomzoom]

Steve,
It's good to inspect the whole sled, but I wouldn't worry too much about the arm. I think the people breaking them are abusing the machine, otherwise Yamaha would have reinforced them. If I wanted to break my sled, I could do it in 5 minutes. There is a limit to what any machine will take. Did you see that in that recent comtest to drive vehicles across the desert by computer had a Humvee broke an axle after a few miles?

I hate the fact that so many people continue to experience the same issues with these rear skids. It really makes me wonder if I making the right decision on my new Apex.

Let me use this forum as a way to communicate my concerns with Yamaha.

To Yamaha - I hope you're listening!

I'm snow checking a Yamaha and do sincerely hope that the rear skid does not fail due to the well known Pivot arm (W-Arm) issue. I'm not spending this much money on a sled to have it break down the first season. If I do experience these issues like so many others have, I will not hesitate to pursue this matter legally. Nothing angers me more than a big company throwing a product out there that is dangerous and negligent to their consumer. If I have to spend some money on the legal end then so be it!

Yoopper's argument doesn't have a leg to stand on because the very nature of this sport is one that impresses a lot of stress on any part of the machine. Bottom line is that when you're cruising down the trail, you shouldn't have to avoid a bump for fear that your rear skid is going to break. I've been snowmobiling for a long time and I've never done that with any of my past sleds and I sure as hell don't intend to do that with my new Yamaha. I love this sport too much to change my style of riding because a company fails to address an engineering flaw on an item that has been failing for apparently many years. Do I know that parts fail once in a while? Sure I do. But... if you have the same part fail multiple times for doing the job that it was intended to do then you have a real problem on the engineering side.

Please get it right Yamaha! Nothing will make your new customers happier than knowing they made the right choice when they bought from your company.

I posted this in another thread but I want to restate in this thread in the hope that Yamaha realizes how important this issue is!

 

[Sled Dog]

If the issue is not addressed not only for the 06's but for the 05 mono as well then maybe a group lawsuit would be in order. We could all pool our money together and hire a law firm to take Yamaha to court. They had better hope no one in the mean time gets seriously hurt or worse because of the quality of their parts. A group lawsuit would work very well for all of us in keeping our legal costs down and in letting Yamaha know we mean business.

 

[zoomzoom]

I for one just hope that this talk is all for nothing and that Yamaha has resolved these known problems. Let's face it, if they committed themselves to resolving these know issues, they could have the fixes in tooling within two weeks of the resource commitment.

 

[cobalt650]

In the past, when Yamaha comes out with "updates," such as potentialy putting zerks on, do they notify you directly or do you find out if and only if something goes wrong?

 

[Sled Dog]

Re: 05 RX-1 1200 miles

I just finished putting my sleds to sleep for the summer. They will be stored in an enclosed trailer outside so I clean every nut and bolt, drain fuel(float bowels), fog, and I removed the skid and discovered dried and worn bushings in the front and dry, but only slightly dry in the rear of the skid. I can't understand why they didn't put zerks on this skid. According to the dealer the bushings and collars ($60.00) are part of normal annual maintenance........pain in the #*$&@!!!


Sodes

Bushings and collars for annual maintenance since when. This is a genuine style Yamaha warranty cop out. They use as free R&D and dont really care about the customer. It is going to take a lawsuit nothing else will get their attention.

 

[snowbeast]

Hi reX do you think i should opt for the next upgrade spring for my attak,now to let you know just what i am doing,we ordered it stock,and are having all the stock shocks from the apex gt installed on my attak,but i weigh 240-250 dry and ride ready about 260+ and i drive very very agressive,but when i had my 03 rx1 shorty i dident notice much damage to either front torque arm or the rear,and other than slider wear and front add on idler wear wheels breaking off bolts thats about it,and i had 164 1.175 woodys studs on the stock button track,but i only kept the stock skid in for 2,000 miles or so,than in went the zr skid??

 

[Sled Dog]

In the past, when Yamaha comes out with "updates," such as potentialy putting zerks on, do they notify you directly or do you find out if and only if something goes wrong?

If they are saying bushings and collars are annual maintenance then they are not going to be putting zerks on anyones sled. These customer service and warranty guys get paid by the amount of money they save Yamaha. By copping out and covering their a$$es finding a way out of it in other words. Then leave the bills to you the Yamaha customer. My last sled was Yamaha and I am already wishing I went doo or poo at least they are manufactured in Canada and the USA my dollar stays here. Lawsuit will do all snowmobilers a favor as it will get all their attention and the snow mags as well especially if it is a big one involving lots of people. Before it went to court we would all have new fixed skids.

 

[BillyBoy]

After reading this post, my brother and I pulled our the mono suspensions and checked them out.

W arms were cracked and so were the rails at the ideler wheels. We called the dealer and he said wait until fall. He also said the ideler wheels and bushings were normal maintainance items and not under warranty.

My brother found that the spring on the mono shock had wore a hole almost thru the shock.

 

[az99]

Tfin - How can you sit at your computer and say 95 % are dealer issues? My sliders were wore paper thin in 300 miles and again to 1/16 " thick in another 180. Is that to early to change ? If you don't have track howl you should be da-n glad. How can you say that is a dealer problem ? Mine has been to 3 dealers. Did you see how tight the tracks were on the guys with worn sliders ?

The problems ARE Yamaha related and by them not owning up and fixing them makes it even worse.

Take off your blue sunglasses pal, your getting a distorted narrow view.

 

[ReX]

Hi reX do you think i should opt for the next upgrade spring for my attak,now to let you know just what i am doing,we ordered it stock,and are having all the stock shocks from the apex gt installed on my attak,but i weigh 240-250 dry and ride ready about 260+ and i drive very very agressive,but when i had my 03 rx1 shorty i dident notice much damage to either front torque arm or the rear,and other than slider wear and front add on idler wear wheels breaking off bolts thats about it,and i had 164 1.175 woodys studs on the stock button track,but i only kept the stock skid in for 2,000 miles or so,than in went the zr skid??

Here's what I would do:
- Examine the front pivot arm. If it's the same as the 05 mono, pull the skid, remove the arm and have it reinforced. It's not worth the downtime and frustration to have it fail during the season - even if it is covered under warranty (this will void your warranty on the arm). Sometime during the summer I'll probably do an FEA analysis to figure out some reasonable reinforcements. I will likely publish the results here.
- Pull the front a-arms (front suspension) out and grease the inner and outer bushings.
- Unbolt the clamshell steering shaft bushings and grease them (every high mileage 05 I know of has suffered from these seizing up if they weren't greased by the owner/dealer). My sled became very dangerous (could hardly steer) when it happened to mine.
- As far as the spring; the 06's will likely have new springs (at least some models will get variable rate springs to resist bottoming too). I would ride the sled with the stock spring and then make a decision. With 260 lbs on the seat you likely will need a stiffer spring though.
- For the idlers; if they aren't updated, I'd ride the sled until they need changing the first time and insist a set of accessory rubber wheels (they are colored) with replaceable bearings are installed instead.

Likely you will find the rest of the suspension (and sled) is very durable (if you grease it regularly) and it should ride very well. For 06 the slide rails have been reinforced and grease fittings have been added.

 

[ReX]

After reading this post, my brother and I pulled our the mono suspensions and checked them out.

W arms were cracked and so were the rails at the ideler wheels. We called the dealer and he said wait until fall. He also said the ideler wheels and bushings were normal maintainance items and not under warranty.

My brother found that the spring on the mono shock had wore a hole almost thru the shock.

How many miles are on your sleds?

Please post some pictures.

 

[ReX]

Tfin - How can you sit at your computer and say 95 % are dealer issues? My sliders were wore paper thin in 300 miles and again to 1/16 " thick in another 180. Is that to early to change ? If you don't have track howl you should be da-n glad. How can you say that is a dealer problem ? Mine has been to 3 dealers. Did you see how tight the tracks were on the guys with worn sliders ?

The problems ARE Yamaha related and by them not owning up and fixing them makes it even worse.

Take off your blue sunglasses pal, your getting a distorted narrow view.

If you're riding a Vector, there is an update for an extra set of idler wheels that you can get through Yamaha. I don't know what it costs or if it could be covered under warranty. It apparently does a good job of solving the problem.

On my 05 RX-1, although the sliders wore very quickly at first, I managed to get 10,000 kms (6000 miles) out of the first set before a bolt failed in fatigue that held one slider on and destroyed the slider.

I would agree the problems we are disussing in this thread are fundamentally design issues that need addressing by Yamaha. The dealer is stuck in the middle and it's often just as frustrating for them too.

 

[BillyBoy]

REX: Our sleds have near 5000 miles on them. We both rebushed and had fittings put in them at 3000 miles.