NYTRO steering knuckle concerns beware

[kjpull]

fixed

 

[herndonp]

Good info. Glad your OK.

Pete

 

[Kirkdking]

I had this happen to me last year as well but mine broke down where the bolt goes threw the ski...

Cost me 1500 bucks.. Handle bars, steering gate, head light, head light steady, steering post.....

I don't like them spindles but a new set on and it was showing stress cracks as well so had enough went and baught zbros.....

It's not nice flipping over ur hood and seeing the machine flipping fords ya as your sliding on ur back across the trail.....

 

[Cherry08]

This happened to me two years ago on a sled I bought from him and like you I was doing about 70-80 mph on the groomed trail thankfully not in the trees and had the same result .... It was a write off ....

 

[Dr. FeeLGooD]

Wanted to try some aftermarket spindles to see if it would improve handling. Good reason to find a budget for it.

 

[Beenba]

Kinda confused from your pictures. Did it break down where the ski bolt goes through, or where the lower ball joint attaches to the spindle?

Definitely going to check mine out. Glad your ok, sounds like quite the ride.

Also, it looks like you have had your spindles powdercoated....I wonder if that has something to do with it. Would be interesting to see of those that broke, how many were powdercoated.

 

[ViperTurboPete]

My thoughts exactly on the powdercoat. I was told not to powdercoat spindles because of the baking process may weaken them.

 

[kjpull]

Glad to see you are OK Cherry08 and Kirkdking it was quite the ride that I don't want to try again
Yes they were powder coated
Yes it broke where the ball joint is located not the ski bolt
Yes I would also like to know if the others were powder coated. Two guys I talked to theirs were not powder coated

 

[777]

Thanks for posting.

 

[beiter01]

I powder coated my spindles during the summer. My first ride this year was just shy of 300mi and my spindles were folded like a banana Saturday afternoon. Scary! The new used set I purchased last week got the spray can treatment. I know people get them powder coated all the time but the place I used is a large industrial shop and the oven temps were quite high.

Lesson learned. Make sure your vendor is familiar with the metal being coated.

 

[Kirkdking]

Mine weren't powder coated..

The zbros ones I got on now r powdered coated though.....

 

[MOUNTY]

throu

Kirkdking, do yourself a favor and keep an eye on those knuckle nuts on your ZBROZ! my left hand side came off twice. They were locktite every time. I finally just drilled holes through the bolts and put cotter pins! I posted pics a couple years ago.

 

[Kirkdking]

Re: throu

Kirkdking, do yourself a favor and keep an eye on those knuckle nuts on your ZBROZ! my left hand side came off twice. They were locktite every time. I finally just drilled holes through the bolts and put cotter pins! I posted pics a couple years ago.

Thanks.... I had the upper ball joint nut back off last week on me guess the Teflon isn't like it use to be....

 

[Cherry08]

Mine were also powder coated .... Funny Thing it handled better with the tow strap holding it together to limp it onto the trailer lol

 

[nate007]

My thoughts exactly on the powdercoat. I was told not to powdercoat spindles because of the baking process may weaken them.

Depending on the brand/type of powder your coater uses, most cure at roughly 350-375 for a period of only 15-20 minutes, which is far less than the temp needed to weaken something like a spindle. I've powdercoated many Nytro spindles with no issues, so I wouldn't be concerned about that.
I actually had a Nytro spindle break on a brand new sled I bought a few years ago, just after unloading it off of the trailer. I tried to use the tiny bit of snow along the curb to help me ride it over the curb into the grass, but I hit it at too much of an angle, it caught and rolled the sled over on top of me, breaking the spindle at the lower ball joint with only 1 mile on it. It didn't break the bolt, and the bottom half of the spindle stayed together, but I still had a few scratches, a buised knee, and a broken spindle.

After that I was much more cautious and vigilant about checking my sled before I ride.
I'm glad there weren't any bad injuries from the wreck in this thread, but I'm thinking it could have developed a minor crack along the way before that happened? It could have been from anything like trail debris, bumping a curb sideways like I did, hitting a rock etc while turned, or whatever. May not have manifested itself until the worst time possible, but I'd be hard pressed to think that it was fine and then just broke while at high speed in one direction.
I have seen some that have had plates welded to the outside of them, especially on the Iron Dog and snowcross sleds, but other than that, not too many.