First ride on skinz 42"

[Dooer700]

Put about 80 miles on it today with the new front end.. It is like a whole different sled! It corners predictable, flat, with zero push. It's nice to finally know what the sled is going to do before coming into the turn instead of waiting to find out lol. I rode it 7300 miles before upgrading and now I wonder how I did. Anyone who is on the fence about it I say pull the trigger you won't be sorry!

 

[stubb111]

the more you ride with it the more you will like it.....I put one on this season and have 1500kms on it so far. also Ulmer make oilite bushings for it when the plastic one wear out, I installed them when I put mine in.

 

[Dooer700]

I was very impressed by the short ride I did have with it Sunday.. I noticed the difference right away, after carving thru some corners and the sled holding its line..the reservations of spending 1200$ went out the window. Money well spent lol. Yes I plan to do the bushings this fall, was going to do them before the front end went on but never ordered them.

 

[MNBlizzard]

I was very impressed by the short ride I did have with it Sunday.. I noticed the difference right away, after carving thru some corners and the sled holding its line..the reservations of spending 1200$ went out the window. Money well spent lol. Yes I plan to do the bushings this fall, was going to do them before the front end went on but never ordered them.

Just wondering where you bought your kit and what you went with for shocks. I have been very interested but afraid to pull the trigger, especially now that MountainTech is developing a trail arm too. Have you had a chance to use it offtrail at all? I want something that sidehills and handles the trail.

 

[Dooer700]

I got the kit from Rick at OFT. Im running stock floats with spherical bearing retrofitted. I did do some playing off trail in the powder and I can say its much improved in that area as well. I noticed when I tipped it up on its side how much less effort it took! It really does make it feel like a whole diffrent sled. I think if it came that way from the factory there wouldve have been alot more space on this forum for topics other than set up tips lol.
I say go for it! you won't be disappointed.

 

[stubb111]

I am running a set of fox float x evols on mine, they make the front end even better. not much for powder here this year but, found some on trip this week and seems to work better there also.

I bought mine used on classifieds here

 

[BADSLED]

What are you guys finding works well for toe out settings and ski selection? Most aftermarket skis seem to aggressive for my liking with skinz front end.

 

[Turtle]

I've been running the tuner skis with my skinz 42" front end. I also have the sway bar in the front most position. That has helped a lot with inside ski lift. I'm also running 85psi in my Floats which has made it handle very well. But note - I'm running the Fox Float X shocks. You can run a higher pressure in these vs the regular Floats due to the better shock valving and the negative return spring. These can be made to run very soft, or hard as a brick. They are very versatile.

Regarding the toe. I'm running about 5/8" of toe out to keep the darting down. I did a little experiment with my skinz. After taking the shocks out, I dropped the front end to full suspension droop. When fully bottomed out, you can see the skis have a ton of toe-in. This tells me that the skinz doesn't eliminate bump-steer at all. Most of the darting I experienced was when I would come off the throttle. Well, when getting off the throttle, weight transfers to the front, compresses the suspension and my toe-out would become toe-in and thus the darting. I've compensated by increasing the toe-out at static ride height and it has helped a lot.

One other note .... if you adjust your ride height for any reason (spring tension or air pressure), you should go back and check your toe. Adjusting my float pressure from 60psi to 85psi results in almost 1/2" of toe change due to the change in ride height.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dooer700]

What are you guys finding works well for toe out settings and ski selection? Most aftermarket skis seem to aggressive for my liking with skinz front end.

Im running my slydog trail skis with 6" shaper bars. Toe is set at 1/4 toe out. I may bring it out to 1/2" but the skis tracked extremely well. I think you are correct that alot of the skis will be too agressive with the front end, I bought the slydogs for no other reason other than I thought they looked cool lol.

 

[stubb111]

I run stock Yamaha skis (not the tuners) both regular and mountain skis and both are setup with snowtrackers (semi-aggressive) with 0 toe out.

note.....ride groomed trail 95% time

 

[BADSLED]

I run stock Yamaha skis (not the tuners) both regular and mountain skis and both are setup with snowtrackers (semi-aggressive) with 0 toe out.

note.....ride groomed trail 95% time

Is 0 toe out at fully unloaded sled?

 

[stubb111]

It's set at 0 toe out sitting on the ground I running stock length fox float x evol (2009 xtx) front shocks not the 17.5" ones suggested and run a lot of front shock sag accordingly