Need skis ASAP??

[Mooseman]

That's for the sway bar mount underneath. You can unbolt it and turn the mount and plastic bushing to make it stiffer or softer as per the diagram. Basically moves it forward or backward in the A-arm mounts. More forward makes it shorter and stiffer.

 

[back country]

well I tried out the ski skins on the fishing trip. Even though the top layer above the crust had crusted over and was holding the sleds I did get to find some deeper stuff and the floatation was fantastic!! BUT………..the ski skins were throwing up a MASSIVE amount of snow coming from the edge of the skin. So much that the footwell were completey packed with snow and the snow made my pants soaked to the inside. Not sure if this is an issue with all of them but if this is the case I don't know how they could even sell these. It was that bad, no way I could leave them on or you would be soaked every ride. Luckily we had our portables set up and could dry everything out waiting for the tip ups.

 

[Mooseman]

Interesting. I had a set of skins on mine when I first bought it. They could have been different than yours but they were from Yamaha for the wide VK skis. I don't remember them throwing up a lot of snow, just that they steered awful. They also didn't last more than one season trail riding and crossing roads and such.

 

[wacnstac]

Mooseman would you recommend the 6, 7, or 8 inch sly dogs? I don't see a mount option for a Venture Lite. I'm not an experienced rider, would like to reduce tippiness but still want cornering on groomed trails which I do ride quite frequently. I know everything is a compromise.

 

[Mooseman]

It all depends on what you want. If all you do is trail ride, then the 6" Trailhounds will suffice with the odd time you might go off trail. If you do more off trail, then go for the 7" Powderhounds. Heck, if I were to redo, I would have gone with the 7" even though I only go off trail the odd time. The 8" is way more expensive and may not be worth the extra expense unless you do a lot of deep powder riding.

For the mount kit , get one for the Phazer, which has a narrower spindle. Just cut down the spacers to fit.

Skis will not do much for tippyness or make it worse if they are aggressive. You can move the spacers so that the skis sit more outboard but that only helps a little. Tweaking the suspension will help a little too, like adjusting the stabilizer bar. Better ski shocks would help. I installed a set from a Phazer FX, which are adjustable, and I found those helped and made the sled more comfortable too. But the nature of this sled with its high center on gravity will always make it tippy.

 

[wacnstac]

Well you almost talked me out of buying new skis all together but something that I have had happen over and over with this sled is having one of the skis punch through the snow, then the suspension arm(s) catch the snow, and before I know it, the sled is on its side. I would hope a wider ski would prevent some of that and a wider stance couldn't hurt the tippiness of the sled either.

I'm guessing by "cutting spacers to fit", you mean that there are some plastic spaces that go over a through bolt that need to be cut off a bit with a hacksaw?

 

[Mooseman]

They're metal but yeah, just cut or grind them and you should be good to go or get the spindle bushing kit from UpBushman. It includes the spacers for the ski bolts. You would still need the mount kit from Slydog.

 

[DaveA]

well I tried out the ski skins on the fishing trip. Even though the top layer above the crust had crusted over and was holding the sleds I did get to find some deeper stuff and the floatation was fantastic!! BUT………..the ski skins were throwing up a MASSIVE amount of snow coming from the edge of the skin. So much that the footwell were completey packed with snow and the snow made my pants soaked to the inside. Not sure if this is an issue with all of them but if this is the case I don't know how they could even sell these. It was that bad, no way I could leave them on or you would be soaked every ride. Luckily we had our portables set up and could dry everything out waiting for the tip ups.

Interesting. I also found the Yamaha ski skins to be a great improvement in flotation over the stock skis and also found a huge amount of soft snow was kicked up by the rear outside lip of the left ski. The right didn't do that. A closer inspection for the reason showed the A-arms on the left side to be tweaked slightly rearward. I believe the machine has hit something hard on the outside of the left ski, hard enough to bend the front of that ski inwards and the whole suspension backwards. I haven't measured anything yet, but I think that ski is now toed in too much causing the rear to catch snow. Will adjust the toe-in this summer but won't be able to test until next winter to see for sure if that solves the snow scooping problem.

Because the right skin works well without hooking and throwing up snow is it possible your toe-in adjustment is off?

 

[back country]

That's a very good possibility!!

 

[VL Yamaha]

Well I sure hope that you do have a good relationship with your dealer because I just checked at Yamaha Genuine Parts, which is based in Ontario and they seem to just quote the full price as I got these prices:

Qty Part Number Description Price Total
2 8FK-23711-00-BK SKI 1 112.95 225.90
2 8HR-F3754-00-00 COLLAR 1 3.38 6.76
2 90105-10410-00 BOLT FLANGE 8.77 17.54
2* 90387-10036-00 COLLAR 11.29 22.58
2* 90387-16022-00 COLLAR 4.52 9.04
2* 90387-16023-00 COLLAR 4.74 9.48
2* 90201-16022-00 WASHER PLATE 1.53 6.12
2 95602-10200-00 NUTSELF LOCKING 2.70 5.40
SubTotal
302.82

Only thing I added were the washers. Or instead of these * collars and washers, you could order Up Bushman's spindle kit and get all these and the spindle bushing to save your spindles. They're made of stainless steel so they'll last.
Premium spindle kits
While you're at it, get his
Steering bushing kit

As for a US supplier, I have ordered from PartsPitStop in the past. Best prices I have found online and great service. There is also Port Yamaha if you want to support a TY advertiser but the prices are slightly higher. Don't forget to take into account the lower value of our dollar and shipping charges. I have found it's no longer worth the trouble to do the border shipping thing anymore.

I just ordered and recieved these parts, is there any instruction how to install this?

Thanks

 

[Mooseman]

I just ordered and recieved these parts, is there any instruction how to install this?

Thanks

Not really. They go pretty much the same way the originals did. Check an online parts fiche and it should give a exploded image of how they go.

 

[VL Yamaha]

Thank you!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wacnstac]

It all depends on what you want. If all you do is trail ride, then the 6" Trailhounds will suffice with the odd time you might go off trail. If you do more off trail, then go for the 7" Powderhounds. Heck, if I were to redo, I would have gone with the 7" even though I only go off trail the odd time. The 8" is way more expensive and may not be worth the extra expense unless you do a lot of deep powder riding.

For the mount kit , get one for the Phazer, which has a narrower spindle. Just cut down the spacers to fit.

Skis will not do much for tippyness or make it worse if they are aggressive. You can move the spacers so that the skis sit more outboard but that only helps a little. Tweaking the suspension will help a little too, like adjusting the stabilizer bar. Better ski shocks would help. I installed a set from a Phazer FX, which are adjustable, and I found those helped and made the sled more comfortable too. But the nature of this sled with its high center on gravity will always make it tippy.

So which way would you adjust the sway bar to mitigate tippyness? Seems like you'd want it as stiff as possible. On the other hand if the problem that causes the tip is one ski getting buried, you'd probably want to allow more sway. 6 of one, a half dozen of the other.

 

[Mooseman]

Would probably need to put it at the stiffest setting. You're trying to keep the sled as flat as possible so when the inside ski moves down, the bar will bring the outside ski down as well, which will help only until the high center of gravity overcomes the sled's desire to stay flat. So the bar just prevents the outside spring from pushing the sled up.

 

[BombaPolaYama]

Wacnstac,
Yes, wider skis would help a lot with your tippiness - I had the same issue on my VL before switching to 7" Powder Hounds.