Unreal Expectations Of the Mono Shock

[Tork]

Wheel bearings failing and falling off the skid is not abuse it is an accident waiting to happen. Yamaha had better hope no one gets seriously hurt with only small number of miles on as they could pay through the nose.

When they went to those plastic wheels with the narrow molded in bearing that was not so good.
Still, I got the impression that they will fix the 05 mono. Just right now the timing is bad, everything is going into building the 06 sleds :?

 

[Sled Dog]

Then we get to wait for parts on 06's. LOL

 

[snowbelt]

As a recent brand switcher, I gotta admit, I'm a little nervous to hear about quite a few skid problems. I'm even more nervous to hear people say they have to wait for weeks to get the backordered parts so they can ride. Is this common for Yamaha not to have parts available?

 

[Tork]

As a recent brand switcher, I gotta admit, I'm a little nervous to hear about quite a few skid problems. I'm even more nervous to hear people say they have to wait for weeks to get the backordered parts so they can ride. Is this common for Yamaha not to have parts available?

Well Yamaha puts a dozen or 2 of parts in the warehouse, so a run on things can create a back order.
But in this case, quite a bit of re-engineering is going into the 06 sleds and the fixes for the 05 sleds will come from that. This season is over for most riders and that is a factor too.
The mono the way I understand it is a tricky bit of engineering. I think they got it done late in the cycle for the 05 sleds and rushed it through.
Honestly I would not worry about the 06 sleds.

 

[ReX]

As a recent brand switcher, I gotta admit, I'm a little nervous to hear about quite a few skid problems. I'm even more nervous to hear people say they have to wait for weeks to get the backordered parts so they can ride. Is this common for Yamaha not to have parts available?

I've got to say after 28 years of fairly high mileage sledding and never breaking any structural suspension parts (only needing idler wheels & bearings plus shock rebuilds/replacements, and one broken torsion spring at about 14,000 kms on one sled), this 05 RX-1 definitely has the least durable skid I've ever owned.

In only 10,300 kms it's gone through 3 pivot arms (3rd one is just starting to crack), 1 set of slide rails, 4 sets of idler wheels (bad bearings - bearings can't be replaced either; each wheel assy retails for $68 at my dealer), one pair of hyfax (after the bolt that holds one on bizarrely broke off at 10,100 kms - hyfax still had life left too), and two sets of bushings (first set very early in life - no grease).

Don't get me wrong, I really like my 05 RX-1. I consider it my favorite sled yet. It does everything very well (no 2-stroke stink, no smoke, no oil to add, fantastic fuel economy, great power, very good handling, very smooth engine, excellent ride, etc.) and I consider these suspension problems much easier to fix than engines, etc.

In fact I enjoyed riding it so much that even with it broken down and waiting for back ordered parts so often (about 6 weeks out of our season), I still did almost double my average seasonal miles.

It is very annoying though to have my first brand new snowmobile - a very expensive (at least to me) Yamaha that I expected to be reliable be broken down and unrideable more often than my older high mileage Polaris or Skidoo sleds (I used to go through engines, clutches, chains - now I have fatigue failures in the suspension).

I genuinely hope that Yamaha greatly improves the durability of these suspensions next year for you guys (I'll admit I'm also hoping to buy an 07 and want these suspensions durable before I do).

As far as me abusing my sled: Personally I don’t consider my riding abusive. I ride aggressively, but not hard enough to break my Poo or Doo suspensions in as many miles. My buddies riding their Cats, Poos, and Doos with me this season on the same trails at the same speeds didn’t have any suspension problems either.

It wouldn't take much effort or cost much for Yamaha to fix these problems on the 06's so I don't see why they wouldn't. Hopefully they do and also look after us 05 owners.

 

[Yamahnator]

I don't have any problems on my mono skid. I ride tug hill as well.

Still glad to hear that they are beefing em up for 06.

 

[RX1-er-2005]

jtssrx: When you have 1000 sled and 600 of them have the same problem, How would you call that? Im sure I would not call that abuse. And buy the way what sled are you ridding? I always own Cats and never had any broke supension.

 

[SledFreak]

jtssrx: When you have 1000 sled and 600 of them have the same problem, How would you call that? Im sure I would not call that abuse. And buy the way what sled are you ridding? I always own Cats and never had any broke supension.

Then you are the first, because Almost everycat that I have ever seen, have always broke the rear skid in some place or even break suspension bolts. They are junk....

 

[BlueByYou2000]

jtssrx: When you have 1000 sled and 600 of them have the same problem, How would you call that? Im sure I would not call that abuse. And buy the way what sled are you ridding? I always own Cats and never had any broke supension.

My Cat skid in my RX-1 greneded on me this past year. It broke so hard it left me stranded. Its the first time ive ever been stranded on a Yamaha and it wasnt even a Yamaha part. Not sure Monoshock failures are leaving guys stranded?...BBY

 

[jtssrx]

RX1-er-2005: Go back and reread my post. As a I stated premature failers need to be addressed. Yamaha had no business shipping this skid without zerts the first year. From what i've read I'll be greasing my skid after every trip.

I've owned 6 Yamaha's now in the last 10 years and I've never had a skid failure that was the fualt of Yamaha. One year I ran some Bender hole shot rods and I didn't lock tight them back into the rails and I lost a bolt. That was my fault.

If you beat your sled through big mogals be preparied for things to break. like I said even snow cross sleds break stuff.


One thing i think hurt the Mono shock was it did work so well. Guys were used to the proaction skids. They got this mono and found it worked so well they kept pushing it harder and harder.

 

[ReX]

jtssrx,

There isn't much point in arguing about it, but reading through these forums it's pretty clear that Yamaha has made suspensions for years that are subject to far more fatigue failures than they should be. IMO, if even 1% of the consumers are breaking their suspensions then the design should be strengthened.

Perhaps sleds should be designed to be able to pound through big mogals. Yamaha is clearly advertizing their 06 sleds as being capable of this. Sledding has always been considered an off-road activity afterall.

Rotax,

If you find Cat skids weak you'll probably find the 05 Yamaha mono-shock extremely weak. One of my buddies has a 1998 ZR500 and he always rode it much, much harder than I have ever ridden a sled. So far after about 14,000 kms he's never had a suspension problem (other than bearings, shock rebuilds, etc.). He's the only one riding Cat through and it is lower power. The rest are on Poo and Doo and one Vector this year. No problems with any of their suspensions - just my 05 RX-1 (actually the Vector had lots of idler wheels go too).

 

[MR.HAPPY]

If I had to pick a skid that I had to use for the rest of my days it would the 05 mono!!!!!!!!!!
I'm 280LBS & didn't have the heavy spring all year & did bottom out a few times, sometimes hard in the big stuff, & didn't have any damage in 2100 miles!
Thats all the proof I need for myself!!!!!!!!
Can not wait for my 06 mono "ATTAK"

BR

 

[RX-1 Liter]

Wheel bearings failing and falling off the skid is not abuse it is an accident waiting to happen. Yamaha had better hope no one gets seriously hurt with only small number of miles on as they could pay through the nose.

The bearings Yam uses in the wheels are pretty much standard throughout the industry. So if they fail it was just a bad bearing. I know of several people who have had wheel bearings fail and they rode all colors.

 

[Tork]

Wheel bearings failing and falling off the skid is not abuse it is an accident waiting to happen. Yamaha had better hope no one gets seriously hurt with only small number of miles on as they could pay through the nose.

The bearings Yam uses in the wheels are pretty much standard throughout the industry. So if they fail it was just a bad bearing. I know of several people who have had wheel bearings fail and they rode all colors.

Exactly, the trend with all the manufacturers is smaller, narrower bearings on most sleds. None of them make their own bearings.

This is probable done to save weight and molding them in the wheel like so many are today saves manufacturing costs.

Not to say that the old phone dial aluminum wheels with the bigger bearings held in with snap rings didnt go bad too, because they did also, just not as quick

 

[Sled Dog]

Wheel bearings failing and falling off the skid is not abuse it is an accident waiting to happen. Yamaha had better hope no one gets seriously hurt with only small number of miles on as they could pay through the nose.

The bearings Yam uses in the wheels are pretty much standard throughout the industry. So if they fail it was just a bad bearing. I know of several people who have had wheel bearings fail and they rode all colors.

Well I paid premium dollars for my Yamaha compared to other companies. I expect premium quality and reliability not finding out I could have got the same sled for less money.