Does anyone have a new Power Steering sled to report on at all?

[Jlawson]

I saw two sleds like yours on the trail here in Michigan. They were riding together. Had the second seat removed. Sharp looking sleds in person.

Might have been me on my ’22 S-TX. Did four UP trips this this year and never saw another, or an L-TX for that matter. Love the 146 and extra gas. Ride mostly without luggage or passenger seat. Love EPS! Can relax upper body more in turns.

 

[Derek Fosbury]

I'll try and pay attention this weekend while I'm riding.... if I can stop grinning from just being out on the snow for long enough to remember to do it

No slop that I could detect. I meant to actually take a video when I was just playing around with it, but forgot. We had all condtions this weekend (-9 Friday night with frozen hard pack, loose snow in +1, and powdery snow over bare ice) - I slowed down in all of them to check steering, and fully hooked up, i.e., turn the bars ever-so-slightly, skis turn the same.

So I don't think you should have any concerns.

 

[SideHogger]

I finally broke down this past fall and bought the BOP mechanical power steering and set it up just like Knapp has done with the stock tie rods in middle hole and I absolutely love it! I actually got tennis elbow from driving my sled without it last year and this year all is good! My son drove it through some really tight trails for first time this year and was impressed by how easy it was to turn and handle the big beast!

 

[SideHogger]

These guys are still winning using the older front end.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=359495659517517&id=100063712565025

This is blasphemous! A YELLOW CAT!?

 

[Upstater57]

All I've done to my 17 is reduce the front end spring preload along with the front arm preload in the rear suspension to allow the a-arms up front to sit flatter. I can rail corners like no tomorrow. I dont remember how much I reduced the pre-load, but it was substantial, four rounds as I recall. I also increased the rebound dampening on the ski shocks for less roll, 3-clicks if I remember correctly.

To think that adding height to the front spindle is going to make it corner better is backwards thinking. All the factory did was flatten the arms some for a different roll center, and add the spindle height to gain some ground clearance back on the new front end if thats what you want to call it. Its not some major chassis change. There is body roll and roll center, and there is rolling on and lifting the inside ski on the carbide at ground level, I don't think people may understand the difference here between the two. Lay the a-arms flatter on the short spindle, increase the rebound on the ski shocks, and you will end up with the same effect, plus have the benefit of lower center of gravity with the shorter spindle. It's pretty basic handling 101. A 17 can actually handle flatter with the proper setup in place, some had non adjustable shocks or didn't mess with it and achieve the proper setup, could very well find the newer spindles to corner flatter, but I have not found the long spindle to handle any flatter than a proper setup on a 17. That said, I've rode some 17-18 SE's that didn't corner or ride well, but I'm not messing with a clients setup either as its set for them. It would be like someone getting in your car and changing all the settings, I won't/don't do it. The 17 can easily be made to corner flatter than that of the stock crate setup the way they came, it can also be made worse. The reason you see the CC race sleds running the old spindle is it has a lower center of gravity and has that ability to corner flat and not lift the inside skis off the ground. A drawback is also less ground clearance and easer to bottom the driveshaft and bulkhead on the ground, so be careful with that ride height.

I sure would like to try a new EPS equipped sled though, haven't been on one personally. Was thinking I'd like to order a new one to try. My bud snowbiscut had ordered a new one, but its still not built or here yet, and our winter is over here anyway. Doesn't look like I'm going to get a chance to compare them.

I have done the same thing on my 2014 ZR9 with QS3's all the way around. One additional thing I did was add a bigger sway bar. Handles real flat. We will see how my new Tcat does with the EPS. It shipped from Arctic Cat on 3/04/22.

 

[biffdotorg]

Thanks for the reply. Our 16 vector xtx has some play in the power steering so that is why I asked.

EPS should not be introducing play into steering on a Deltabox sled. There are wear components in our sleds but EPS is not one of them. I am getting some play in mine as well, but with over 13,000 miles its from wear.

It was rock solid when I rolled it off the show room floor. And to this day, the amount of slop I have chould be fixable, but it's not enough to cause me to want to tear it down to do it.