Mechanical Power Steering on Apex from Barn of Parts

[Mills]

anyone try the mechanical power steering kit from Barn of Parts on their Apex? if so, what are your impressions? I just bought my first Apex and would like to either try this kit or convert my '06 to EPS if possible. Is the EPS backward compatible?

 

[twyztid]

You have to change a LOT of things to put EPS in a pre-EPS Apex. You are better off selling your 06 and buying an 11+ if you really need EPS.

 

[Mills]

Just bought the '06 so not going to sell for an '11+. Guess I will go the Barn of Parts mechanical power steering route.

 

[steiner]

While ordering MPS from Travis get a set of Snowtrackers from him. These carbides lighten the steering (while in motion) as well.

 

[RobX-1]

I actually won a MPS kit for the Delta box chassis at the TY Give Away ride and just got it installed on my 08 Apex. Am just fortunate that Travis donated so much to the Give Away that others focused on the Sidewinder and Viper stuff he offers and left this for my taking as I think there was only 1 delta box kit.

Will be leaving tomorrow evening to head up to Bemidji, MN to ride with my son for the weekend; he goes to Bemidji State University. Then on Monday, I will leave and drive thru the western U.P. to meet up with my riding buddies to finish out the week and weekend in Curtis. Am really anxious to try the MPS kit out as Rockmeister has the kit installed on his Arctic Cat and has nothing but good things to say about it. Won't be back from the snowmobile trip until 2/23 but will post my findings. I'm not expecting the MPS kit to reduce steering effort like the E.P.S. on my 18 but from what I have read and heard, it will be very close; especially with having three different settings (holes) to adjust steering effort. Considering the cost and the amount of labor to swap EPS to a non-EPS, I believe the MPS will be the next best logical option. I believe MrSled installed EPS on a non-EPS sled and created a post about it where it did seem labor intensive.

One thing I can comment on is the installation and it was very easy to do once you have access to the jam nuts on the inner ends of the tie rod. Probably spent more time adjusting toe in/out after installing the MPS kit than installing the kit. Only problem I had was not reading the manual (instructions) as I had the nut and bolt upside down and the end of the bolt was catching the top spindle bolt. Once Travis pointed out what I had done wrong, everything was all good and am all set for my snowmobile trip.

 

[RobX-1]

Well, finally found time to report back my findings and in the nut shell, Travis' MPS kit simply works. The nice thing with his MPS kit is that they come with three different holes/settings to reduce steering effort. Logically, I set them on the 3rd hole as I thought having the max was the best. As Travis mentions on his website, the trade off in reduced steering effort is the turning radius will not be as tight. I noticed this especially in the tight/twistie corners that you had to turn the handle bars more to make the turn. For me, I prefer a tighter radius so the next day I changed to the 2nd hole. Keep in mind that when I had it set on the 3rd hole, I set my toe in/out to spec. What I noticed when moving up from the 3rd to the 2nd hole was that I did not notice any difference in regards to the toe in/out and skis looked as they did before.

Steering effort was still reduced compared to stock and the tighter turning radius was improved but still not quite where I would like it so the next day I moved up the 1st hole. I will say that by having the toe in/out adjusted when using the 3rd hole, moving up to the 1st hole did require a slight toe in/out adjustment. I'm sure Travis will recommend checking/setting toe in/out when adjusting the MPS kit. Heck, there's a youtube video of a USI rep recommending setting toe in/out when simply replacing wear bars. One possibility I haven't tried would be to set the toe in/out when the MPS is on the 2nd hole where maybe moving up or down one hole will not affect toe in/out like it did when moving up two settings.

Once I was happy with the decreased steering effort while also maintaining the turning radius I was accustomed to, I wanted to see how well the MPS kit worked with skis that require more steering effort. I currently have USI X2 Triple Threat skis on my 08 Apex but actually prefer the Curve XS skis which I do have on my 18 Apex. The reason being is that the 18 has EPS so the additional steering effort by the Curves is negated by the EPS. Well, now that Travis's MPS kit has reduced the steering effort in my 08, I decided to swap skis and run the Curves on my 08 along with the MPS. All I will say is that I will be ordering a set of Curve skis from Travis to put on my 08 before the season ends. When I switched from the USI to the Curves, I did not notice any additional steering effort and actually liked how the Curves helped with the darting that I would get with the USI skis. I also like this kit so much that I am considering adding it to my RX-1 once its back together. The RX-1 is my backup's backup sled and is also what my buddies that don't own a sled ride when it does snow back home. This is where I believe Travis's MPS kit will shine in that I would have the luxury to adjust the steering effort based on the rider and their riding level/experience. As I have done with other vendors like Rock and his hand warmers and HIDs who make a product that works so well, it's very hard to justify NOT putting them on your snowmobiles other than your primary ride and Travis's MPS kit will be no different.