Need some advice?

[curious george]

Iam new to the 4 stroke scene here, just bought a new 2007 Apex RTX yesterday, now all the snow is gone. It was a deal way too good to pass up. Anyhow I have a couple questions
1) did yamaha beef up their tunnels on the 07 RTX as many of you's are complaining of them bending in 06. I was going to put on the bracket but the dealer assured me it wasn't neccessary as that was address in the 07's. Is this true or not?
2) this 13 mm sway bar that everyone seems to be putting on what is the purpose of the upgrade

 

[Swiss Sledder]

A thicker swaybar helps to keep the skis on the ground so you get flatter cornerinig ability. Stock sled comes with a 11mm swaybar and you will get inside ski lift in the corners if you make no other adjustments.

Some guys went with 12mm and others went to 13mm, which I believe is the thickest bar available. The 13mm swaybar does offer the flattest cornering, but some guys say that it is too stiff because it created a harsh ride. Others absolutely love it because it re-created the feel of their SRX type cornering ability on a 4-stroke sled.

The FAQ section has a installation guide complete with pictures. click here for the link

 

[curious george]

Thanks Swish Sleddder the pic's are great and look to bewhat;s needed for amatures(like me) to do the job. That answered my question on the sway bar, do you know anything about the tunnel reinforcement that is su[ppose to be do on the 07's
Thanks again

 

[nate007]

I think most of us here have come to the conclusion that the tunnel issue mostly comes from backing over the snowflap with studs. I have personally only seen one that was bent, and I ride mine as hard as I can with no bends, or signs of future problems.
As far as the sway bar, the only way I would say to add the sway bar is after you have ridden it alot. I would strongly recommend lowering the front of the sled with your air pressure until the a-arms are just above level, and shorten the limiter strap one hole. I think you will be happy enough with that to get started. I would add the sway bar, but do that stuff in stages so you can get a better feel for how each modification will perform for you. I have only added Dooley carbides to mine which works fine, but lowering the front end absolutely made it rail!!! I don't have problems bottoming, either.
Nate

 

[dburu2]

the tunnels got an 06 & 07 update. they are the brackets on the insde of the tunnel at the rear of sled . haven't heard of any issues but don't try to test them by backing over the flap in deep snow.

 

[POB88]

I think most of us here have come to the conclusion that the tunnel issue mostly comes from backing over the snowflap with studs. I have personally only seen one that was bent, and I ride mine as hard as I can with no bends, or signs of future problems.
As far as the sway bar, the only way I would say to add the sway bar is after you have ridden it alot. I would strongly recommend lowering the front of the sled with your air pressure until the a-arms are just above level, and shorten the limiter strap one hole. I think you will be happy enough with that to get started. I would add the sway bar, but do that stuff in stages so you can get a better feel for how each modification will perform for you. I have only added Dooley carbides to mine which works fine, but lowering the front end absolutely made it rail!!! I don't have problems bottoming, either.
Nate

Nate,
What did you do to lower the front end on a GT?

 

[ReX]

Iam new to the 4 stroke scene here, just bought a new 2007 Apex RTX yesterday, now all the snow is gone. It was a deal way too good to pass up. Anyhow I have a couple questions
1) did yamaha beef up their tunnels on the 07 RTX as many of you's are complaining of them bending in 06. I was going to put on the bracket but the dealer assured me it wasn't neccessary as that was address in the 07's. Is this true or not?
2) this 13 mm sway bar that everyone seems to be putting on what is the purpose of the upgrade

1) The 07 RTX's tunnel is the same as the 06 Apex. The only Apex that got extra tunnel reinforcements was the 07 Apex GT. Note that in 06, all of the Apex's got some tunnel reinfocements compared to the 05 RX-1 and Vector line. If you want to add the 07 GT reinforcements to the 07 RTX you need to trim them down a fair bit because the RTX uses a different pair of rear suspension brackets that are in a different location.

I did add the 07 GT reinforcements to my 07 RTX, but I don't believe it is really necessary. My thinking was I wanted the absolutely most durable sled and this season also sometimes ride with my 9 year old daughter on the back (I also plan to add a "seat jack" passenger seat sometime in the future). I'll probably ride 2-up with my wife at times when I have the extra seat also.

2) As already mentioned the sway bar helps to reduce body roll and makes the sled corner flatter - just like a stiffer sway bar does in a car. All sleds with Fox Float shocks are much more prone to body roll due to their very soft effective spring rate (when the shocks aren't compressed much). I would recommend the 13mm bar if you enjoy cornering at high speeds. If you're more of a ditch banger who likes to jump the sled I'd recommend you leave it stock as the stiffer bar makes both launches and landings more prone to rolling (with the stiffer bar if one ski hits a bump the sled is affected much more).

Lowering the front end by running less pressure in the skis does help to keep the sled flatter, but I found it was too much of a compromise for bump handling for my riding style. For me I found a good compromise with both excellent handling and extreme bump handling with the 13mm bar, the shocks running 65-70 psi in them, the limiter strap tightened 1-2 holes and the rear torsion springs cranked up on high (actually the rear torsion springs were still a little too low for me). I ran the rear shock between all the way firm and 2 clicks out (out of something like 21 clicks) depending on how hard I wanted to push the sled. I plan to revalve the shocks for next season to provide more high speed damping (I like my sleds to have a firm ride and not bottom out when ridden aggressively).

I also installed the Yamaha accessory anti-bottomers in the softest position to further control bottoming out and installed the extra pair of idler wheels, Skidoo anti-ratchet drivers and bent the snowflap downwards to reduce hyfax wear (hyfax wear is now exceptionally good, even in exceptionally bad snow conditions).

Its a great sled (even in stock form) I'm sure you'll really enjoy it.

 

[snowbeast]

Most of the tunnells were bad on the gts with bad ohlens shocks blowing,and the rider not noticing it soon enough,and damaging them,they had inside brackets you could rivet into the rear of the tunnel for extra support,but if you got your shock revalved for your riding style. Most of us installed the 13mm bar on sleds with fox floats,as the floats suck up studder bumps and trail junk better than the sogi coil spring shocks,but they are unable to stop the body roll as well as the coil shocks,if we tried to take all the body roll out without the 13mm bar,we would be running our air shocks on 120lbs of air and the plush ride would go to crap,so add the 13mm and take alot of air pressure out,and now both your ride and handling are very good.