Ski and Carbide Hardware Question

[Marathoner]

I did some searching on this but couldn't find an answer, or maybe the answer to my question is so obvious that I didn't figure it out, but here's my question situation: I'm running the factory skis (I believe) on my 2007 Phazer GT and am replacing the trashed wear bars with Stud Boy 6" carbides. The old wear bars have a stud welded to the bar with no shoulder on the stud where it attaches to the bar. The new Stud Boy carbides have what look like socket-head bolts welded to the carbide so there is a shoulder on the stud where it is welded to the bar. My skis have metal inserts in the plastic holes where the studs to mount the carbides go through the skis, so I'm wondering if I'm supposed to remove the metal inserts when using the shouldered studs that the Stud Boy carbides have? If I don't remove the inserts, won't the carbides be held away from the bottom of the ski? If I do remove them, does the plastic ski have enough strength to hold the carbide in place with the Stud Boy provided nuts, or do I need to put a larger diameter flat washer under the nut for more surface area to help the nut hold the carbide in place? Thanks in advance for helping an old sledder properly work with these new-fangled plastic skis!

 

[Marathoner]

Also, looking at online parts diagrams, it looks like the factory wear bars had a shoulder on them as well??? Is it just that the cheap wear bars that were in the machine when I bought it didn't have the shoulders when they should have? Hmmm...

 

[maim]

i always have run the inserts in the skis for the wear bars. the 09 mtx skis have them as well. i run studboy 6" shaper bars in pretty much every ski i own.

some have them and some do not. i have run both with out issues.

 

[Marathoner]

Thanks for the reply. I did call Stud Boy directly today and they were helpful too, however, I may have bigger issues. I'm actually missing some of the spacers and have some pretty significant wear on the plastic skis themselves. I think I may start from scratch and get some new skis and hardware at this point rather than trying to make garbage work. Now I have to start the search for a good price on some factory new or slightly used skis... Bummer!

 

[maim]

i ran the set from my 05 rx on another sled until the plastic between the carbide studs would flex when i pushed on it with all the spacers in it.

might be time for a set of curves on it. like how they are handling on the 09 rtx/x atm.

 

[blueironranger]

depending on how wore the keel is you could look into installing Bergstroms ski savers to restore your keel depth. The factory ski has a pretty short keel anyhow that pushes pretty bad.