Heavy steering

[Carla 123]

16 viper ltx,ditched the tuners last year and put cat skis with dual 6 inch carbides.steering at low speeds is a real chore so I jacked front spring up a bit but now the sled darts pretty good.i lowered the spring and haven't tried it yet.how low can I lower the spring?I'm down to about an inch of threads showing.is this the nature of the beast because of so much carbide,heavy steering ,and heavy front end.

 

[ishpeming fan]

The least amount of pre load on front skid shock spring equals more weight on skis. This makes it harder to steer and darts more. Increase pre load (tighten spring) will reduce ski weight and will decrease steering effort and darting. Its A fine line to get good corner bite with easy steering effort. make small changes at A time until you get it right for your needs.

 

[Carla 123]

It never darted until I tightened the preload.steering was a bit easier .going back to original setting and probably go to a single 6 inch runner.

 

[Kkurz]

It's possible that your ski alignment is out. I know my Nytro was very sensitive to preload changes. It's hard to tune the stock center spring. Do you have the Stingray spring? Definitely dont give up on the Cat skis, they're the bomb. You could try leaving a little extra preload on the center shock and reducing preload on the ski shocks.

 

[Carla 123]

It's possible that your ski alignment is out. I know my Nytro was very sensitive to preload changes. It's hard to tune the stock center spring. Do you have the Stingray spring? Definitely dont give up on the Cat skis, they're the bomb. You could try leaving a little extra preload on the center shock and reducing preload on the ski shocks.

Yup quite possible ski alignment is out,problem is can't do ski alignment cause I can't align the track,gave up on that long ago,running 75 psi in front shocks,might drop that down a bit ,thanks for the reply

 

[DTJ]

If your alignment is ok, you might want to consider snowtrackers. Every time I ride a sled without snowtrackers I can't believe the difference they make for eliminating darting. I run them on my 14 viper with cat skis and 13 apex and love them.

 

[cannondale27]

Conditions are most likely why you had darting now and not before. Heavy wet snow makes deep tracks from skis.

 

[Wannaviper]

If your alignment is ok, you might want to consider snowtrackers. Every time I ride a sled without snowtrackers I can't believe the difference they make for eliminating darting. I run them on my 14 viper with cat skis and 13 apex and love them.

I "second" the Snowtrackers for your Cat skis; they reduce steering effort and eliminate almost all darting. Once you do it, you will never go back to anything else.

 

[TD Max]

I don't have Snow trackers on the Viper but I put them on the Doo and they work awesome. I have Curve skis and woodys slim jim doolys on the viper which works quite well. Would definitely consider Trackers though when the doolys wear out. Trackers carbide is always sharp and I cannot believe how well they turn on bare pavement

 

[SudburyApex]

It never darted until I tightened the preload. steering was a bit easier

That seems odd that you get more darting when you add preload to your front skid shock. That is supposed to reduce ski pressure...
A guy i ride with has a 6" doolies on his 2017 cat 7000. I tried it out and it darts pretty bad as well, but holy smokes you can rip through the twisty trails (essentially no push). If I try to keep up on my viper with semi aggressive trackers im 100% in the rhubarb. Sure my steering is super light and no darting, but it comes with a trade off, I push in high speed tight turns.

Does yours push in the corners?

 

[Wannaviper]

That seems odd that you get more darting when you add preload to your front skid shock. That is supposed to reduce ski pressure...
A guy i ride with has a 6" doolies on his 2017 cat 7000. I tried it out and it darts pretty bad as well, but holy smokes you can rip through the twisty trails (essentially no push). If I try to keep up on my viper with semi aggressive trackers im 100% in the rhubarb. Sure my steering is super light and no darting, but it comes with a trade off, I push in high speed tight turns.

Does yours push in the corners?

You might want to tweak your suspension if you are pushing in the corners with Snow Trackers. When they are set up right, they still provide very light steering, but have minimal if any push in the corners. Even slight changes in the preload on your shocks could make a big difference.

I know it may be apples and oranges, but I have a Sidewinder set up with Snow Trackers on the Tuner skis, and with current snow conditions the trails have a very hard (mostly ice) base with loose granular snow on top that doesn't adhere to the base. When a few sleds have run the trails, the snow gets piled up in the corners. I found that I was pushing when I hit those loose piles of snow. I have the QS3 shocks, and I just adjusted them to the firm setting, both front and rear, and the push was almost totally eliminated. Steering effort was increased slightly, but it was well worth the additional bite in the corners.

 

[twyztid]

I run Cat skis on my Viper with 8" Woody's round bar carbides & Woody's Navigator plates. I also have the Stingray center shock spring but have it at minimal preload and have the limiter straps sucked up one notch. For the most part, the steering is easy and it doesn't dart unless the trail conditions are such that anything will dart.