Fox Float 3 evol RC2

[TD Max]

FYI here is a nice writeup on the Float 3 RC2 by Monster Performance:

These are the FOX FLOAT 3 RC2 piggybacks all taken apart. I figured I would disassemble some new shocks to show you the innards. The float 3 rc2 for atv's and sleds are pretty complex inside. They share the same IFP design with several ounces of oil in it as a standard coil-over BUT the air sleeves take the place of a "normal" spring.
The large gold sleeve is the main chamber. this is adjustable by the user for ride height of the machine. the smaller black cylinder, the EVOl one (extra volume) controls bottoming resistance and is also adjustable by the user. the 2 gold caps are the user adjustable air chambers. the "high pressure nitrogen" port is for me to play with, not you!
You also have 2 compression dampener clickers on the top piggyback as well as rebound control.
many customers complain of the balance or baseline of the evol rc2, where do i start? FOX's suggestions for air pressures are OK to start with for some riders. 150 psi in the evol and 50 in the main is where I suggest to start on most sleds, on the firm side. 25 to 35 in the main for off trail sleds needing more chassis roll. then, tune clickers as needed.
The standard non-piggyback floats offer just ride height control and the evol-r offer ride height, bottoming resistance and rebound adjust. I will have pic's of them apart as I find time.
The later float 2 shocks use float 3 seals. FOX in the last year or 2 has put a lot into r&d. 4 years ago I had some new RC2 fronts, felt nice but no consistency, couldn’t stand them!. FOX has changed a lot of those issues BUT still the end user must understand they are buying a tunable shock and want to use those features. otherwise they are pointless to buy.
Some say they are for the Ricky Racer, I think that’s way off base. they are intended for certain riders and certain people really.
The Float 3 is the latest generation of the prior 2 series of the last several years with the black-white float 2's changing their design a couple times too! The KASHIMA gold coating and super slick seals have greatly improved past years issues of air leaks and air pressure fluctuation.

Thank you
Ian - Monster Performance


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[Yamadog]

Well I agree there is tenability way over the stnd floats but it is NOT user friendly. As the trails change over the course of a day or weekend you cannot just walk to the front and make changes. You have to shut down. break out your tool kit for a screw driver wrench and the pump. You have to unscrew 4 valve caps which involves chipping ice from around the air valve. then screw the hose on which is partially blocked by the upright and upper A arms on all 4. Then when the air is changed use the screw driver on upper and lower screws and then the wrench on the nut adjuster. with a coil over piggy back most of this can be adjusted with a turn of the knob. When I bought them - just like everything else in the Yamaha catalog the picture showed the shocks with red aluminum knows on the bound and rebound adjusters. When I got mine there were no knobs. I was told after 4 weeks of calls to Yamaha and the dealer that the picture was a stock Fox ad photo and was really shocks for a 4 wheeler depicted.

I rode all last season with them and would be happy for a while then would get the crap beat out of me on rough trails take 20 mins to adjust and ride then the next day have to change them back. I think they are good but not $1500.00 worth compared to the stock set. for the same money I now have the full race version of Axis coil overs sitting in the shop ready to go on the sled.

 

[Turtle]

^^^ This is exactly why I went with the SE version. Regardless of how much better the LE model may be regarding shock package, I grew tired of adjusting things on my FX Nytro RTX - which had a ton of adjustments. I couldn't even fathom have more adjustment than that and was confident that I would end up up-side-down on my settings anyway. With all that adjustability, it's easy to get your brain so mixed up, you don't know what adjustment to make next. I went with the SE model and just plan to ride the dang thing and be happy

I fully plan on getting flamed for my opinion .... lol

 

[Studroes144]

I'm with u on that. ^^after have a full riding season on my ltx se and knowing what other sleds feel like. By other sleds I'm talking skidoo's new xrs with the r-motion and Polaris' pro r switchback. Both are equipped with way more shock adjustment that 90% of riders will use or more importantly yet, even be able to understand. If I were to buy a brand new 2015 it'd be an ltx dx, first and foremost reason being they're going to be much more trail friendly, read the reviews on the last 3 years of procross sleds, they all complain they're just too plain stiff. 2nd reason being the simplicity aspect of it. We've had floats on many previous yamaha sleds and they've never had such a poor effect on a chassis as what I felt last year with the viper, that's why I opted to ditch the floats and go with standard coil overs since I had a buddy's standard ltx to compare to a lot last year and plain and simple, the coil overs are much more plush and much more consistent.

 

[stingray719]

^^^ This is exactly why I went with the SE version. Regardless of how much better the LE model may be regarding shock package, I grew tired of adjusting things on my FX Nytro RTX - which had a ton of adjustments. I couldn't even fathom have more adjustment than that and was confident that I would end up up-side-down on my settings anyway. With all that adjustability, it's easy to get your brain so mixed up, you don't know what adjustment to make next. I went with the SE model and just plan to ride the dang thing and be happy

I fully plan on getting flamed for my opinion .... lol

Me too, if I am 2mph slower and do not have to fiddle with crap all day then I am happy. Memories of constant adjustments to the old Supercharged Yamaha comes to mind.

 

[putz21]

Well I agree there is tenability way over the stnd floats but it is NOT user friendly. As the trails change over the course of a day or weekend you cannot just walk to the front and make changes. You have to shut down. break out your tool kit for a screw driver wrench and the pump. You have to unscrew 4 valve caps which involves chipping ice from around the air valve. then screw the hose on which is partially blocked by the upright and upper A arms on all 4. Then when the air is changed use the screw driver on upper and lower screws and then the wrench on the nut adjuster. with a coil over piggy back most of this can be adjusted with a turn of the knob. When I bought them - just like everything else in the Yamaha catalog the picture showed the shocks with red aluminum knows on the bound and rebound adjusters. When I got mine there were no knobs. I was told after 4 weeks of calls to Yamaha and the dealer that the picture was a stock Fox ad photo and was really shocks for a 4 wheeler depicted.

I rode all last season with them and would be happy for a while then would get the crap beat out of me on rough trails take 20 mins to adjust and ride then the next day have to change them back. I think they are good but not $1500.00 worth compared to the stock set. for the same money I now have the full race version of Axis coil overs sitting in the shop ready to go on the sled.

X2. Exactly why I took off my Fox Evol 3 RC2's and put new Elka Stage 5's all around. Got to be a pain to get out the pump and tools to make adjustments, especially with the really cold winter we experienced last season. Making adjustments with my fingers will be so much faster. Really looking for a much plusher ride with them since they are built for my weight and riding style.

 

[TD Max]

Hey I'm not trying to sell anyone on these things, I just thought it was an interesting although elementary read.

 

[Turtle]

Hey I'm not trying to sell anyone on these things, I just thought it was an interesting although elementary read.

I agree there .... It was a good read.


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[MrSled]

Link removed... read site rules. If you want to post info from a forum I would suggest cut and past the info. I am not going to drive free traffic to dootalk.

 

[weasel33]

Shocks are something that could make or break a sled, wether they are to soft or the shocks are too stiff you still have to know what to do to make the sled right. Sometimes simpler is better but .... sometimes it's not. Some people spend all of their time to make their sled faster with the motor but the easiest way to make a sled faster is to set the suspension and shocks right. At least that's my opinion. Even with the adjustability of the le I'm still getting my shocks revalved for my weight and my riding style.

 

[cannondale27]

Weasel I don't believe you will need to do that. My front Evols are right off the cat xc race sled. I am not a xc racer and not anywhere near there speeds. With just the clickers I was easily able to tune them in. Watch those videos I posted in the facts sticky and then find some nasty 3ft moguls run through them over and over again. Helps to have a patient buddy watch what your suspension is doing. Initial tune does take some time but once you get it right the only adjuster you will want to adjust is low speed compression. Takes 10 seconds to go from plush trail chatter back to those 3ft plus moguls.

 

[TD Max]

I don't have Floats (yet) but this is the only place that I have seen complaints of trailside air adjustments. Most treat the air psi as a coarse adjustment and then tune the clickers as Cannondale explained. Carrying a small screwdriver is not that big a deal for me.

I may end up with Float RC2's, Zero pro RC2's, or Elka RC2's. Common denominator is RC2.

In talking to Fett bros Dale ran the Float RC2's on his I500 sled. He said without a doubt that what Cat provided was far too stiff for his cross country race sled so he immediately revalves them softer.

 

[weasel33]

From all the shock guys I talk to they all say to find the air pressure that fits you best and basically keep it there and fine tune with the screw adjustments. Yes I do believe that it's going to take longer to find exactly what I want but the end result is going to be better than most other setups. And I'm lucky enough to be friends with and a riding partner to a really good shock guy. He helped with the r- motion from skidoo and he also helped Kirk Hibbert and Tucker with the pro cross chassis, they were gonna team up with Penske but at the last second the deal fell through. He has a 14 xtx viper se and I have never felt a smoother sled ride and with a few pumps the thing turns into a sweet mogal masher. I bought the le upon his recommendation and and him teaching me how to properly set the sled up. Once it's set up I know this shock package is gonna be the best in the business. Like I said earlier, a bad shock setup will make a great sled miserable to ride. My 08 nytro was the worst sled in the beginning but with info I got on this site and from talking to others that thing turned into an awesome sled that had light steering and very little push( I like a certain amount of push in the corners). Also on the nytro I had higear do all four shock with hi-lo on all four shocks, turned out to be the best sled I have ever owned and the only sled I put over ten thousand miles on in four years of riding.

 

[Yamadog]

I tried at least 20 diff combinations in the main and resevior tubes and never found a balance that was comfy on flat fast smooth trails vs heavily rutted that would just allow for a quick adjustment of the clicker settings. True they are valved very stiff and would find myself dropping main tube pressure to 20 to 25 lbs on rough trails to save my wrists, but it dropped the nose height and made the sled unpredictable on high speed trails with tight turns. Inside ski lift returned like it was an RX-1 and at 50lbs if I caught a frozen drift at 90 the feed back through the bars would almost knock the fillings out of my teeth.

To make it worse once I would have the front usable ther rear skid shock at 110 would bottom out skid badly and at 125 on a random bump try to launch me over the handle bars. Part of this is due to it being an XTX with the uncoupled skid. When I would adjust the front skid shock spring to loose to gain more ski pressure the rear shock was doing all the work and the steering became so heavy that a John Deere in a swamp steered easier. When I add 4 turns on the spanner on the front shock it would push through any turn I went into hot.

 

[weasel33]

Yamadog, I wish you live around here because even though you have the same sled as my friend it doesn't seem like the same. He has all four stock shocks but with his own revalve. If you want I can give you his number and the name of his company so you can try his settings. One other thing, he unhooked his sway bar to make the sled be able to lean into the corners. Chuck