I’m looking for more off trail float than the tuner ski offers. What would be a better choice the curve skis or a c&a xcs. I ride 60% trail so good trail handling as well as off trail is important. Also what carbide with your preferred setups
I have to say I could ride hard and more confident yesterday..a quick 171 miles lower tug hill with the usual stuff..people in your lane, icy corners, some washout holes, some excellent trails, some nasty bumps, and the sled felt confident for the first time afer all my adjusments, so the conclusion is....the curves with the standard single skags are by far the most predictable. Took the no darting slim Jims off, which work but still give that uh oh moment too often. But, the side to side motion, while not bad, is back with the single skag. Slowing down, or off the gas. But at speed, and under power, they made the sled fun for the first time. I'm trading some darting for much more positive steering. And curves are very good in deeper snow.I chose the curves. They seem to work in all types of snow conditions and allow for good floatation. They just work, but then again I have never tried other brands mentioned, on this style sled.
My old Tuners are on my buddies Apex LTX. Very surprised because they work nice on that chassis, except for floatation.
I tried 6.9's. They do some things well but just don't give me the confidence of a single skag curve xs. The hard steering from a curve is at slow speeds only, and unless forced like with traffic, a non issue. I didn't buy a 200 hp sled to poke around with...Lol! Curves just feel better the faster you go. Same trial and error on my apex, which had curves for years. Since the ski actually turns when I want, it's very easy to apply gas and finish the job with some oversteer. Once in a great while, on fresh groomed trails, I felt a little push. Maybe the ski contour didn't get into the snow enough to fill the channels and do its job. Very rare though.I'm running the XCS, only 471 miles 99% well groomed cold trail, -12 to 4 degrees f. I'm happy with them, the sled goes where I point them. I rode that first weekend with all stock susp setup, my compression set on 2. I'm making some subtle tweaks now for a little less ski pressure to see if I can lighten the steering and keep most of the grip. I'm 250 lbs. Curves would've been my other choice but seemed a bit more spendy and at the time, unavailable. I'm running 7.5 shaper bars on mine.
I think the pilots are a good ski too, if you want to save some coin in trade for the finessing/tweaking to make them work, go for it. To me it was a wash and I preferred bolt on and go.