Off Trail Mike
Gone Riding!
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 703
- Reaction score
- 39
- Points
- 838
- Location
- Bathurst, NB, Canada
- Country
- Canada
- Snowmobile
- MTX
Just came off a "borrowed" ride today on my buddy's stock 2013 Nytro MTX 153. Half trail, half off-trail kinda day. Was interesting. One rider was on a 141 viper, the other on an 09 XTX (144)... and me.
So, the MTX was a beast to steer initially off the trailer........relative to both Viper and XTX. Clearly a center shock issue. I ended up adding air and adding MORE air until I had added 100psi (yes 100) to the front shock. With the sled on it's side (for measuring purposes), I was @ 175psi up front. The rear was at about 75psi. I found that @ 175, the steering lightened up a bit and the sled started to transfer much better. Far easier to wheelie or simply "pop" when you hit the throttle and still had decent steering control on the trail. Sould have probably added 10psi more just to see how much steering you'd loose.
The other observation was the degree to which the stock mountain ski dug into the trail. It is clearly adding to the hard steering. I had about 45psi in the ski shocks, which is at the lower end of my range......I'll typically run anywhere from 40-60psi. I can't quite pin it down, but the ski had issues. It seems the deep keel is making a huge cut and because of it, takes a fair bit of body English to coax a steer.
The good news is the sled was vastly improved over the course of the day, and further fine adjustments would only have made it better.
OTM
So, the MTX was a beast to steer initially off the trailer........relative to both Viper and XTX. Clearly a center shock issue. I ended up adding air and adding MORE air until I had added 100psi (yes 100) to the front shock. With the sled on it's side (for measuring purposes), I was @ 175psi up front. The rear was at about 75psi. I found that @ 175, the steering lightened up a bit and the sled started to transfer much better. Far easier to wheelie or simply "pop" when you hit the throttle and still had decent steering control on the trail. Sould have probably added 10psi more just to see how much steering you'd loose.
The other observation was the degree to which the stock mountain ski dug into the trail. It is clearly adding to the hard steering. I had about 45psi in the ski shocks, which is at the lower end of my range......I'll typically run anywhere from 40-60psi. I can't quite pin it down, but the ski had issues. It seems the deep keel is making a huge cut and because of it, takes a fair bit of body English to coax a steer.
The good news is the sled was vastly improved over the course of the day, and further fine adjustments would only have made it better.
OTM
