shimming Simmons Skis

[SNERT HEAD]

I Have a set of Simmons gen 1 skis on my 07 Attak and I still have some handling issues. I have tried the limiter strap and front shock spring pressure and also weight transfer. All changes have made it better or worse but not tolerable. When on a hard packed road or hard packed trail the sled wants to throw its weight from ski to ski needless to say this is wearing me out. Any suggestions?

 

[YAM182]

Ski alignment and shim the skis a little.

 

[SNERT HEAD]

Thanks Yam182 I've had my alignment @ 0 to 1/4" out I think I will try 1/8" shim under back. I may need more as the sled is riding right on the very front of the wear rods. Also I think it will help to change my suspension so that my a arms are more level with the ground and bring limiter strap up to match. I've seen others talk about this here so I might do a search to find out what is recommended. Once again thanks for your input

 

[Indy]

Thanks Yam182 I've had my alignment @ 0 to 1/4" out I think I will try 1/8" shim under back. I may need more as the sled is riding right on the very front of the wear rods. Also I think it will help to change my suspension so that my a arms are more level with the ground and bring limiter strap up to match. I've seen others talk about this here so I might do a search to find out what is recommended. Once again thanks for your input

1/4" shim to start. Yes on the a arms, just raise the sled in the air and back off the lock nuts on the springs until they are loose enough to turn by hand firmly but not so loose they rattle, and of course match the thread count on each side. Simmons are great on hardpacked trails and the the floatation is incredible, but in fluff or slush, they will KILL you. They will push straight thru turns, with no deep keel to grab ahold of a trail base, they will float right on top, taking away all control. I learned this the hard way.

 

[dfroster]

snert head,

I had the exact same problem with the simmons gen 1 on icy roads and hard trails with my old rx warrior. They were installed with straight alignment and zero toe as per instructions. The wear bars came from simmons. They have a strange design. The bar and carbide is tapered shallow to deep from the front to back. Seems like the design puts more pressure on the front of the ski. I added 1/4 inch shims too. I don't know if the carbide design is contributing to the side to side "pulling" issue or not so I'm going to try 2 unscientific things for shites and giggles: 1. I'm going to remove both bars from each ski to see what happens. 2. I'm going to remove the inner or outer bar from each ski and see what happens. I will report my results.
Maybe changing the tapered bars to "normal" bars with equall thickness from front to back is an answer.

 

[kinger]

Looking forward to those results dfroster!

I have mine set at 1/8" toe out and I shimmed with bergstroms shims I beleive they are 1/4. eliminated darting about 98% of the time the only time I get it now is on hard packed ROADS, not trails, even lakes give me alittle bit and its nothing like stock where it will actually turn the sled just a little pull side to side that is totally controllable and usually on roads I'm not going fast anyway. On the trails no issues.

Indy thanks for the warning, I will be careful when the snow conditions get like that!

FYI I had C&A razors on my viper and they never darted with the bergstrom setup and cornered amazing but never floated like the simmons. Its a toss up which ones I like more.

 

[Indy]

I didn't like the razors or the Pro's. they both seemed sloppy and noisy. My fav by far is the slydogs with bergstrom 3x8's. I would still have them if I didn't bend one ski in half in a culvert. I have since removed half of my studs, and thinking of pulling out half again. The guys I've seen gen 1 simmons that worked really well were studless. Now that my sled is all torn apart waiting for a new chaincase, it would be a good time to remove them. I have a 136 predrilled ripsaw, way to much push with the m10, so I am thinking 25% of the holes might just be the ticket for the rest of this season, next season all new suspension in the rear with a matching front suspension.

 

[yamadog1]

skies

had the same problem, talked to val at simmons, he sent me a different
set of skies, he moved the saddle forward seems to work a lot better,
his design puts most of the weight on front part of ski, i used stud boy
shapers they seemed to work well also 1/4 shim it steers a bit harder
but very little darting on hard pack

 

[wayno]

Just shimmed my Simmons skies today, used 1/4" shim, have them set as close as possible to 0 toe, and bolts in front hole. Wow, what a difference, still get a little hunt on frozen hard packed trails, but much better on the lake.

 

[kinger]

Yeah I can't complain too much only on hard packed snow on the edge of a road or something will I get a little even then its controllable. ZERO darting on a trail. I am running Bergstrom tripple points 8" on the inside and simmons 4" on the outside.

 

[yamadog1]

ski

i thought i had a handle on this but on hard pack they are scary, i have set
of 5.7 pilots i'm going to finish year with them. i thought the new mounts would work but no help between 20-35 mine goes crazy.