Steering effort

[BA]

Hello Gents,
I have an 05 RS Venture with the deep keel saddled skis. When at rest, the skis are impossible to turn unless I'm sitting on icy concrete.
My buddies REV with the precision skis (no center keel, dual carbides) can be turned easily in any snow condition before the sled begins to move.

I do a lot of one up riding off trail - when going slow, downhill and twisty I can really feel the skiis loading up... I know the sled is heavy.

Is everyone's RS sleds like this????????

I've been tearing my hair out, trying to decide on the yammie mtn skiis, but I understand they also have a large keel. Or the standard keel 8DM-23711-00BK...

I have the middle skid spring set at full hard and the front end springs set at full soft.

On firm smooth trails, it steers like a dream. Any suggestions?

 

[Tabor Rider 973]

BA . I've been told that dually runners will make steering much easier.My 05 Venture can be tough to turn in some conditions also.I will be putting some on soon. I imagine they steer easier because the width of the runner keeps the keel from sinking so deep. Some agressive riders have mentioned that they may push some in the corners.

 

[twomorestrokes]

Dual runners should indeed help with the steering effort, but may push in corners. Conventional carbides bite better in corners. Hard to compare with Precision skis though, as I've read those don't corner worth a hoot?

 

[BA]

Thanks for the responses.

I'm narrowing in on what I like and don't like about the handling and how it changes significantly based on conditions.

Once I checked and corrected the 3/4" toe in that the sled came with, it made a vast improvement.

Now I just notice that the steering effort is huge at rest and when going slow off trail.

At 619 lbs dry, I don't think will ever be any shortage of ski pressure, track pressure, etc... Plenty to go around, even before you put gas and one (or two) riders on it. Just have to figure out how to manage it.

The dually runner would be a cheap solution...

I got the skinny on quite a few skis from yamaha today (most are on pg 28 of the accessories catalog):
Name............PN .....................Ski width (mm) x keel Depth (mm)
Standard 8EX-23711................................... 132x21
Medium 8ES-23711.......................................132x26
Deep (05 RS Venture) 8EN-23711................132x31

Mountain saddleless 8FK-23711 ..................182x31
Mountain saddled 8FN-23711 ......................180x27

So the saddleless mountains have just as deep of a keel...
Wish there was a 21mm keel or less mountain ski from yamaha.

I also want to lower the front as much as possible to place a little more load on my center spring which is set at full hard - do the duallies raise the front end?

 

[zigyqhouse1270]

would tightening your limiter strap do anything for that problem

 

[twomorestrokes]

Tightening the straps would increase the steering effort required.

 

[TurboVector]

My Vector Mtn. has extremely heavy steering effort. I know replacing the stock skis with Simmons would fix the problem but I like the floatation of the stock skis. I'm going to try the Doolys with more toe out to try and fix this sleds horrible trail manners.

 

[sledheadgeorge]

TO LOWER THE FRONT OF THE SLED WITH THAT SKID, REMOVE SPRING PRESURE ON FRONT SHOCK OF REAR SKID. tHIS WILL REDUCE TRANSFER, BUT YOU CAN ADJUST AT THE REAR OF THE SKID (TRANSFER RODS) IF YOU WANT MORE TRANSFER.
THEN REMOVE ALL YOUR SPRING PREASURE ON THE FRONT SHOCKS. TRY IT. IF YOU NEED MORE SKI PREASURE, TIGHTEN UP THE SPRINGS ON THE FRONT SHOCKS TILL YOU GET THE DESIRED CORNERING. YOU SHOULD ONLY HAVE TO MOVE FRONT SPRINGS 1/4 TO 1/2 TURN AFTER TO ADJUST FOR SNOW CONDITIONS.
IF YOU FIND THAT YOU HAVE TOO MUCH DARTING AFTER, TRY THE DUALLYS, OR SHIM YOUR SKIS.
DO ONE CHANGE AT A TIME AND THEN TRY IT.