Interesting notes on 6.9 Pilot Skis

[KnappAttack]

I'm just back from 110 mile ride, which would have been more had I been able to keep my buds out of the bars, but here is what I have noticed. The snow conditions here at home are fair at best, so I used the 4 inch carbides in and out on 6.9 mountain pilots with stock ski-doo rubber bumpers. The day started great and skis did not dart too bad at all, they were working great! Steered much more aggressive than stock skis w/6" or 8" doolys. I could get inside ski lift, which meant I was going much faster in the corners. The guys said I was traveling far too fast for them to keep up at this pace. The interesting part is my mileage got better with these pilot skis and they went through the snow easier, it just slid easier than the dooly's on stock skis. On the return trip I was noticing a greatly increased tendency to dart and hunt the existing ruts. However, I was thinking to myself that I was going to go back to the stock skis and dooly's if this is how it was going to behave. Upon inspection when I got home, I noticed the skis did not have the front of the ski pointed up anymore. It had lost it's heel pressure on the back of the ski due to the ice and snow jammed under the front spindle and rubber stopper on the front of the ski. There was about a 1/4 inch of ice jammed in behind and on top of the FRONT the rubber bumper! The skis were setting level! No doubt, this was the reason for the darting. They absolutely need to point up at all times and need the heel pressure to get rid of the darting. All in all, I like the Pilot's as long as there is heel pressure on the ski. Now we will have too figure a way to keep the snow and ice from building up under the front of the rubber bumpers to keep them pointed up with heel pressure all the time.

 

[justinator]

noticed the same damn thing, go somewhere and handling was great..........on the way back felt a little more twitchy. I had played off trail a bunch so there was packed and frozen snow by the stopper. Glad you like them besides that. Did you try em out offtrail at all...........they float 300 times better than the stockers

 

[ReX]

How deep is the keel on the 6.9s?

I've been running the C&A Outlaws on and off the past 2 seasons and they have something like a 1.5"-2" keel (its massive).

What I like about the Outlaws is I can steer up and out of ditches due to the massive keel. Also handling is very aggressive no matter how much or how loose the snow is. On hard packed they simply ride on the bottom of the keel and the rest of the ski is in the air.

The only thing I don't like about them is that the wear bar catches on things like rail road crossings. Worse than this, the ski wears rapidly right in front of the carbide making the carbide catch even worse. For this reason alone I'm at least considering different skis - and the Pilot 6.9s sound interesting.

I had a look at the Pilot 5.7s and thought the keel was far to small for me, but I haven't been able to find any 6.9s to look at (unless I order some in).

The other thing I'm considering is making up some custom carbides that bend and go up into the Outlaw ski at the front. This might be the ideal setup, both protecting the ski and riding up and over objects like rail road crossings.

 

[KnappAttack]

ReX, the 6.9 is identical to the 5.7 only wider. Same keel too.


justinator, yes these 6.9 do float very nice in the powder. I like them very much other than the darting after riding in the cold for a while. Now that the sled has thawed out in the heated garage, the skis point up again. I wonder if the rubber is less resilient after a period of time when ridding and puts less pressure on the heel or if it is the ice buildup in the front of the rubber snubber. I'm going to add a 1/4" of rubber belting to the back of the stock ski-doo bumper and see if it helps with this issue. Were headed to the UP Tuesday and the machine will be sitting outside every night so it will be a good test. I'll be taking my stock skis with a new set of 8" dooly's, just in case I can't get rid of the darting on the pilots. I'll take push over darting any day when riding 250-300 miles per day. Hopefully, the added heel pressure will cure the pilots darting. It may take a different rubber bumper to cure it, time will tell.

 

[trailmarker]

i have the 5.7 pilots... man do they push, its almost like they slide around the corner, they do not carve. it is a little unnerving. i almost have to be on the power in the corner to set the ski hard enough to get the outside carbide to catch and grab and then i go through the corner. to bad you don't live closer reX i would trade you skies for a weekend. my opnion is they are not a great powder(ungroomed ) trail ski, or a hard packed ski, they are the best in a chopped up, loose wet trail where both carbides can sink in to the trail and turn...they also dart a fair bit... mine could be up for sale very soon

 

[KnappAttack]

Interesting, mine sure don't push! They carve like mad. What machine do you have them on trailmaker? Mine bite too good and want to tip the machine over in a corner. I am not yet happy with the way they dart either compared to the stock ski with doolys. We'll see how they do with added heel pressure. Just need to keep the heel pressure on to keep them from darting.

 

[justinator]

Mine dont push either. we got 4-5 inches of snow today so the trails are pretty loose. I was railing those corners. Much more confident in my abilities now that I got my suspension setup and better skis.

 

[The Tweaker]

Knapp Attack,

There is a post about Pilots in the ski section that talks about a different rubber spacer for those ski's that someone said helped them out nicely. Might want to check it out, could be your answer...

 

[welterracer]

Ive got over 3000 miles on my pilot 5.7s,, i havent had a complaint yet..

The thing i like the most is you can over stear with them in corners and the will bit and go..

they are not the best off trail ski, they dont have a very deep kneel..

No matter what they are better than the stockers by a long ways..

 

[KnappAttack]

Tweaker, I have the Ski-Doo rubber installed and it works good right out of the garage, but as they get cold and loose their resiliency and pack up with snow and ice in the front of the rubber bumper they loose the pressure on the heel of the ski and begin to dart. I just added a 1/4" rubber shim in the bottom rear of the bumper today to increase the pressure even more. I have a hunch though that its going to do the same thing again in the cold. I installed a set of 7.5 inch shaper bars into the center keel today and they sit higher which tends too increase the darting effects. I don't know what some of you guys did to fit the shaper bar in the grove of the pilots, but I had to grind down the sides of the top portion to get it to seat into the factory grove. The grove is set up for a 3/8" wide square bar in the ski, and the shaper bar was 1/2" wide. Won't know how it will work till I get to the UP Tuesday. I'm bringing my stock skis with brand new 8" doolys just in case I can't keep pilots from darting. I'll take some push any day over the darting! I'd really like to get the pilots working all the time as I really like them. Just need to figure out the heel pressure consistency thing.

 

[snowbiscuit]

Mike: Just got back from Tower with 5.7 pilots and these are a great all-around trail ski. Little darting and great cornering with very little push and ice ripper is very quiet and smooth compared to son-in who has same sled, 06 RTX, also with 5.7 pilots. He has studded Ripsaw and out of the hole I can jump him 2 sleds every time and continue to gain. Neither had any problem with ice build-up on Doo bumpers.

 

[trailmarker]

yesterday i changed the carbides on my 5.7 to 8' woodys exective in the middle and 6' shaper on the outside, that made a world of difference, very little darting and just a small bit of push, will have to keep them and do more testing. 9" shaper in the middle would do it.

 

[maddmaxx]

Mounting 6.9 Pilots

I ordered a set of 6.9 Pilots for my Attak and tonight when looking at Ski-doo Summit pictures I noticed there looked to be a spacer taking up some slack for the mounting of the pilots due to the increased width. In reading other forums I thought all you needed to get was the ski stopper and you could use the Yamaha bolt etc. Now I need to know if I need a longer bolt and what can I use for spacers? If i have to order them from Ski doo I will not be able to use my Pilots this weekend. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[KnappAttack]

The ski-doo bumper with the Yamaha bolt is fine. No spacers. Some say you have to turn one of the spacers around. I just put mine on the way they came from ski-doo. Does not need anything special other than the ski-doo bumper.