Frontend Diving in Powder

[Blue 4's Rule]

Walden, Southern Renegade just put a set of Yammi mountain skis on his Nytro & said he was going on a good ride this weekend & would get back to me on how they perfomed! I'll be in touch!

 

[Southern Renegade]

Walden, Southern Renegade just put a set of Yammi mountain skis on his Nytro & said he was going on a good ride this weekend & would get back to me on how they perfomed! I'll be in touch!

I am leaving this morning and will get back with you guys monday. hopefully a good ride with all this snow we got

 

[Goddo]

Alright guys, I have some information for you that might be helpful. As many of you know, I'm one of the people who converted from stock skis to Skidoo Pilot 5.7s last year. The difference was night and day. The pilots made the sled handle much better with no darting or twitchiness. This has been a big powder year for us here in Western Newfoundland, and with much of my riding done off trail, I had noticed that the front end of my Nytro wasn't keeping up with the 1.5 Intense track I had. I would often find myself trenching, diving under the powder etc.

This week I decided to bolt on a set of 6.9s (with the outside runner). Yesterday I got to give them a test both on trail and off. The trails had been recently groomed and set up nicely. My first impression was that the larger keel found on the 6.9 made the steering on the trails much more aggressive and brought back some of that twitchy feel. I don't know if I had to, but I felt the need to lean hard when cornering as it seemed like the outside ski was digging hard. After 20 miles of trail riding (and really starting to get used to the skis) we ventured off-trail to some of the lower hills. In the powder, the 6.9's were excellent. The front end never dived and the larger keel really helped the handling in the powder. The width of the ski combined with the added flexibility made for less aggressive counter steering which took some getting used to. Bringing the sled around on a power turn seemed to be more difficult as the larger ski didn't seem to rutter as well although it floated sensationally.

If you have a 1.5 inch track or larger, and do a lot of off-trail riding, the 6.9 might be a good choice. If you ride a mix of both trails and off-trail, you might want to consider a slightly smaller ski. I think something in the 6.25 range would be ideal even with the stock track.

One thing you should all be aware of. More aggressive skis mean steering effort is increased. My shoulders are extremely sore today, more so than any other day I have ever ridden.

Another negative thing I don't like about the wide skis is their flexibility. When you hit a bump or hill the ski flexes until you reach the spindle(moving forward). It makes the bumps seem more abrupt. The stiffer skis pop the front end up as soon as they find something, but with the wider ones, it takes some getting used to the flex.

One things for sure, if you are a sit down, point and shoot rider, aggressive skis are not for you. With an aggressive keel comes the added responsibility of always being on your game.

 

[Blue 4's Rule]

Good review Goddo! Should be very helpful to those looking in that direction!

 

[journeyman]

I'm not running a Nytro but I just put on some SLP Powder Pros on my Viper. These things work well for almost all conditions.......powder and trails. The cool thing is there are two mounting holes on the plate. Jack the front end up a little and two nuts per ski and you can adjust to the other hole if you have darting issues.

 

[Southern Renegade]

Walden, Southern Renegade just put a set of Yammi mountain skis on his Nytro & said he was going on a good ride this weekend & would get back to me on how they perfomed! I'll be in touch!

Alright it took me two trys in order to get all the parts I needed from the dealer. I guess they are not used to people trying to build a better crossover machine. I put the Yamaha Mountain skis on. first all I installed Dooly 6 inch Runners on my orginal skis then changed them over to the mountain skis. I tested the skis on trails consisting of ice #1 (under 4 inches snow), #2 freshly groomed trails (we were the first ones on after the groomer passed) and groomed trails but it had loose snow from previous sleds #3. I also got a chance to ditch bang over 15-20 miles of ditch with 1ft to over 3-4 ft of snow #4.
On the trail I with the deeper keel helped if I had looser snow conditions (#3) but on #1 or #2 conditions it sucked but I was also suffering from having a little too much carbide on a freshly groomed trail that was getting sticky (warming up 20 degrees). on #1 with ice everything sucks to a point. I am not running studs so getting the rear end around was not an issue.
Now for the really good stuff, in the ditch with deep snow. I tried it in a couple different ways. I ran it in deep snow then busted cornice to see the difference. What I got was nose dive in deep snow disappeared when I let off the throttle or hit a cornice with the front end. I got a lot more lift and the sled would stay on top of the snow. it was great to stay even and driver input was minimized to say the least. This worked diving off a cornice back into the ditch. The sled would not lawn dart into the snow then come out nearly as much. I know out West this would be different but I am building my sled for 90% Midwest riding with one trip out West. I attached a picture to show you guys what it looks like in the snow. mulitple layers providing lift or traction depending upon the trail or ditch conditions. I hope it helps

 

[Walden]

Sweet report Southern Renegade!! Thanks for taking the time to give us the feedback. It sounds like the skis solved the diving problem and are probably a better fit for the sled. I know you said you didn't see too much difference on conditions 1 and 2, but were they any worse or just the same. If I could get the same trail performance and improved powder performance I'd be set. My riding sounds the same as yours. 90% midwest and once or twice to the real stuff....

 

[Southern Renegade]

Sweet report Southern Renegade!! Thanks for taking the time to give us the feedback. It sounds like the skis solved the diving problem and are probably a better fit for the sled. I know you said you didn't see too much difference on conditions 1 and 2, but were they any worse or just the same. If I could get the same trail performance and improved powder performance I'd be set. My riding sounds the same as yours. 90% midwest and once or twice to the real stuff....

conditions where the same. I am running a lot of carbide so I didnt see any issues or major differences. At first I thought I was getting to much push in the corners till I realized the trail I was on was pretty slick underneath. I will be in the UP this weekend so I will see lots of trail riding. In the powder they were a huge difference, I wish I had them a month ago

 

[nick15344]

Thanks Southern Renegade for the report. It sounds like these skis are just what I'm looking for. Was it to much work to get the mountain skis to fit on the XTX.

 

[skidooboy]

direct bolt in for the xtx. use your stock ski spindle rubbers, carbides, loops and loop hardware.

all you have to buy is the mtx ski bottoms (2), and spindle bolts(2), spindle sleeves(2) and spacers (4). ski

 

[poleclimber]

Yea its very easy to do. I put the spacers on the outside to make it a little wider. Its only a little but every little bit helps

 

[Southern Renegade]

I mounted the skis in the middle but I agree with moving one spacer wider in order to get a wider footprint. I just like keeping the weight over the keel

 

[skidooboy]

one thing the nytro owners need to realize is that the skis can help with floatation but, with the arrow pointed nose on the nytro, unlike any other sled on the snow. the sled wont float, the nose will act like a knife and cut through the snow and let the skis handle all the floatation.

this is a big drawback on this chassis. all other sleds, current and non current from all mfg's have more of a wide body front body work, to help keep the snow under the sled and flaoting.

i know guys will say buy the float plate. them things are so ugly to me, and hold more snow and add even more weight to the front and with ice and snow loading, you are trading one problem for a larger one.

just one quirk about the sled we have to live with. ski

 

[Blue 4's Rule]

Well, this is a very interesting review Southern Renegade! Good work and thx for testing. If my trail performance can stay relatively the same then I'm probably gonna do it. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time now! With all of the other skis out there having such mixed reviews from so many different this just makes sense. You're getting good deep snow performance and decent trail performance for a fraction of the cost of a set of aftermarket skis. Not taking anything away from aftermarket ski manufacturers as they do make good products. Does anyone know if a Ski-doo pilot ski loop will mount on the Yammi keel? Want the blue keel from Yammi but would like a white loop on them and Yammi doesn't make a white one.

 

[Southern Renegade]

in an earlier search I did, they mentioned the yammi loop is wider so you have to file it down on the sides to fit a ski doo ski. I think the opposite would be the white ski doo loop will be slightly narrower. I can see the issue being if you try to over tighten the bolts and draw in the plastic supports molded in the ski???