Who is running or has gone back to Tuner ski?

[Fast]

when my sled was new, I put on 500 miles or so on 4-5 different rides with varying snow conditions.
They were dangerous period. With a couple inches of new snow on the groomed trail they just would not turn, talk about push, had to almost come to a stop on a long sweeping curve. On hard pack groomed trail they brought darting to a different level, best described from some on this site as nervous or jittery. I spent quite a bit of time with ski and suspension set ups, trying to improve my handling crises! Mine may have been the worse handling sled I have ever owned. I deemed it dangerous!!!
Was told by dealer that the sno trackers were the way to go, but when I went to purchase them they were not made for the tuner III. I called sno tracker to find out why, and was told that they have an updated set for that ski and they were on backorder for 2 weeks. So I did start the installation and found that the drill pattern needed to be changed.
So I did get to take areal good look at those, that is a lot of hanging metal to catch on anything, bridges, trailers, etc.
I did not want to wait, I had to do something before I ended up in the trees on the junk tuners, so I bought a set of Curves and installed a set of Slim Jim duallys as prescribed by Mr Sled. This set up is the real deal, good in all conditions and allows for 1 or even no hands driving while I shake the wrist thing away (sucks getting old), and no darting at all.
May have to replace my SJ’s next season, thinking of trying single runners for easier steering and even less push in corners but have a feeling those SJ’s are what take all darting away, much like has been done with woodys doolys on most of my past sleds since our new 02 Viper.

But glad to hear that some combos with those tunerIII have been found.This info may help other new owners!!!!

The winder should come with a better ski. Their (Yamaha) initial set up on these monsters are very poor and dangerous.

Thats weird these skis feel like your on rails very predictable absolute no darting only push in the loose 6-8" of snow on the trail

 

[Fast]

The reason I started this post is I too am guilty of not trying the tuners right off the bat on my machine. I have plenty of Doo skis and carbides laying around I have been using. Right now I went from my 6.9's which were good in certain conditions, I presently have Deuce bars on those in the middle and stock bars on the outside edge, and when new they were just decent, but I find them pushing badly, darting and unstable feeling now, basically I don't like the 6.9 as they always seem to push being wider, they are just on there for our bad trail conditions and the deuce bars and navigators were just there to protect the ski in less than good conditions, until the navigators both broke off one day and went by the wayside. What a waste that was, spindly little stud just broke right off of them.

So I went to my 5.7 single keel Doo Race ski with Aggressive Snowtrackers on them as I know they are so much better, when trail is setup they work fantastic, but with all the snow we gotten lately, they too like to push in the corners as well on the Winder, although they work good on the Winder I don't think they work as well as they did on my Doos, I find my buds with their stock Tuners going thru the corners with less push, or so it seems. They all really seem to like the Tuners as delivered from the factory, one pal has gone to a square bar on just the inside after trying them in all four positions and finding the steering too hard just decided to run the square bar on the just the inside position.

I'm not going out to by Curves, Cat skis or Mohawks or nothing else. We all know a ski and carbide setup is a compromise some place or another. I'm just curious on the Tuner setup people are running and carbide setup on them. By rights ant twin, dual or triple carbide is going to push in the loose stuff, every one will to some extant, but it seems you need at least two carbides to help with darting min. Shimming only helps minimally and makes them harder to steer which I have no desire for.

My tuner 3's are set up from factory on a srx no shimming and i have to say im glad i left them on they are amazing 80% of the time when runming a single keel aggressive carbide it was too much in the good conditions and good in the loose stuff which is more like good 20% of the time im curious how there going go work with the square bars

 

[fourload]

Rode with a new LTX DX Winder today in our group. Only 120 miles on his sled and untouched except studs. He came to me and asked if my sled was pushing badly in the corners. I said no and pointed at my pilots. He tried my sled and couldn’t believe the difference. I told him most skis will push in real fluffy conditions but hey shouldn’t be pushing bad in the conditions we had yesterday. His sled was terrible like mine was before he 5.7s .He wanted to know if better carbides would help and I said maybe a little but I would go with a different ski. The tuners can be a money pit!

 

[journeyman]

It looks like I am going to put on a set of Mohawks. A member contacted me after reading these posts and had a set for sale and I am going to buy them. I’ll be selling my Curves soon.

 

[Sevey]

Has anyone tried USI skis on this chassis. Ran with a guy a week ago with a ski doo. Had a USI trail version, big time rocker on the ski similar to a Pilot. He swears by them and judging by how he rides it got me thinking. He could ride and crushed everyone in the group with a 600.

The guys on here who switched to Pilots have all raved about it. Would this chassis like a 'rocker' design or not.

Currently running C&A's with a Slim Jim 6" bar and am pretty happy. Have tried C&A's with a 6" shaper and you better have some thick shoulders to do that all day. The slim jim's really break up the steering pressure I find.
MS

 

[thor452]

I ran the tuners with snowtrackers the first season I found them impossible. they were either way to hard to turn or they were twitchy as all get out. last year we had poor snow conditions too very little base and no fresh snow may have contributed to my deep hatred of the tuner skis even with snow trackers (which I love). I had Travis set me up with cat skis and aggressive snow trackers and I am now happy. If anyone is interested in tuners with snowtrackers let me know they are just collecting dust by me.

 

[fatchance]

I ran the tuners with snowtrackers the first season I found them impossible. they were either way to hard to turn or they were twitchy as all get out. last year we had poor snow conditions too very little base and no fresh snow may have contributed to my deep hatred of the tuner skis even with snow trackers (which I love). I had Travis set me up with cat skis and aggressive snow trackers and I am now happy. If anyone is interested in tuners with snowtrackers let me know they are just collecting dust by me.

This was my concern with the tuners and trackers. I would like to here from somebody that has ridden the 6.9 pilots with 8"shapers and tuners set up properly back to back in similar conditions before i entertain the thought of giving them a try.

 

[Avenged7x]

I've got 5500 miles on the Tuner 3s with stock carbides. With the center spring at the factory location, 99% of the time they bite and turn very well and flat in hardpacked conditions, although with fairly significant steering effort. However as others have said, every once in awhile in softer conditions they do seem to pack with snow and have a brief period of a second or two where they unpredictably push badly.

I've recently cranked up the center spring 2/3s of the way up in a bid to get more transfer and easier steering. The transfer improved some and the steering effort is much easier. However I'm going to dial it back some as it pushes in corners now and also has some inside ski lift.

I'm going to try Snowtrackers next season, was very happy with them on the 1200 Doos, other than losing top end in very soft conditions. The local Yamaha dealer installs them on almost all the Winders they sell.

 

[KnappAttack]

Well tried the Tuners today. OH man where to start?

Only put on 120 miles but feels like I put on 320 miles! SOB do they steer hard! We had firm conditions and although they go where pointed, they are twitchy and darty, get stuck in ruts, and steer like a SOB! My elbows and shoulders are killing me and I have the BOP power steering arms on too!

I knew right the away the first five miles I had made a mistake going away from my 5.7 Pilot single keel Race skis with snow trackers!

First let me explain why I wanted to try something different and went away from them in the first place. I've been twitching and kinda of unsteady handling for a while, and it dawned on me that its been like this since I've gone to the BOP power steering arms. While the arms do make the Winder steer easier, it also introduces what I'd call a large amount of bump steer.

When I check the toe out with the sled in the air, I get zero toe out or perfectly parallel, when I set it on the ground only I get 3/4" toe out! Compress the suspension further and it toes out even further, so it gets twitchy as the suspension moves, which is easy to see why it would when you see the steering arms not running on the same plane as the a-arms anymore because of the arms.

I think I'm going to need to go away from the easy steer arms as I can't stand the bump steer being this bad. It makes the machine twitchy and unpredictable in steering with the amount of bump steer like that. I didn't have the bump steer without the BOP arms and factory steering geometry. Then I'm going back to the easy steering 5.7R's with Snowtrackers.

 

[fourload]

Well tried the Tuners today. OH man where to start?

Only put on 120 miles but feels like I put on 320 miles! SOB do they steer hard! We had firm conditions and although they go where pointed, they are twitchy and darty, get stuck in ruts, and steer like a SOB! My elbows and shoulders are killing me and I have the BOP power steering arms on too!

I knew right the away the first five miles I had made a mistake going away from my 5.7 Pilot single keel Race skis with snow trackers!

First let me explain why I wanted to try something different and went away from them in the first place. I've been twitching and kinda of unsteady handling for a while, and it dawned on me that its been like this since I've gone to the BOP power steering arms. While the arms do make the Winder steer easier, it also introduces what I'd call a large amount of bump steer.

When I check the toe out with the sled in the air, I get zero toe out or perfectly parallel, when I set it on the ground only I get 3/4" toe out! Compress the suspension further and it toes out even further, so it gets twitchy as the suspension moves, which is easy to see why it would when you see the steering arms not running on the same plane as the a-arms anymore because of the arms.

I think I'm going to need to go away from the easy steer arms as I can't stand the bump steer being this bad. It makes the machine twitchy and unpredictable in steering with the amount of bump steer like that. I didn't have the bump steer without the BOP arms and factory steering geometry. Then I'm going back to the easy steering 5.7R's with Snowtrackers.

Too bad you couldn’t try them in looser conditions. They push so bad they are dangerous. They are the worst of both worlds. They push badly in loose and dart badly in hard conditions!

 

[staggs65]

Thats weird these skis feel like your on rails very predictable absolute no darting only push in the loose 6-8" of snow on the trail

That wasn't my experience with them. They pushed dangerously with any amount of loose snow on the trails for me, which is about 90% of the time for me.

 

[Motorhead]

Tuner III’s work remarkably well on an Apex LTX as is. Not so well on the sled that they come on, so to Yamaha, “C’mon man”.

 

[Fast]

Well tried the Tuners today. OH man where to start?

Only put on 120 miles but feels like I put on 320 miles! SOB do they steer hard! We had firm conditions and although they go where pointed, they are twitchy and darty, get stuck in ruts, and steer like a SOB! My elbows and shoulders are killing me and I have the BOP power steering arms on too!

I knew right the away the first five miles I had made a mistake going away from my 5.7 Pilot single keel Race skis with snow trackers!

First let me explain why I wanted to try something different and went away from them in the first place. I've been twitching and kinda of unsteady handling for a while, and it dawned on me that its been like this since I've gone to the BOP power steering arms. While the arms do make the Winder steer easier, it also introduces what I'd call a large amount of bump steer.

When I check the toe out with the sled in the air, I get zero toe out or perfectly parallel, when I set it on the ground only I get 3/4" toe out! Compress the suspension further and it toes out even further, so it gets twitchy as the suspension moves, which is easy to see why it would when you see the steering arms not running on the same plane as the a-arms anymore because of the arms.

I think I'm going to need to go away from the easy steer arms as I can't stand the bump steer being this bad. It makes the machine twitchy and unpredictable in steering with the amount of bump steer like that. I didn't have the bump steer without the BOP arms and factory steering geometry. Then I'm going back to the easy steering 5.7R's with Snowtrackers.

I let the wife drive my srx with the stock tuner 3's on it and she said the steering effort was minimal absolutely no darting and easy to drive it was hard packed conditions thats coming off an apex with slp's

 

[hognit09]

Well tried the Tuners today. OH man where to start?

Only put on 120 miles but feels like I put on 320 miles! SOB do they steer hard! We had firm conditions and although they go where pointed, they are twitchy and darty, get stuck in ruts, and steer like a SOB! My elbows and shoulders are killing me and I have the BOP power steering arms on too!

I knew right the away the first five miles I had made a mistake going away from my 5.7 Pilot single keel Race skis with snow trackers!

First let me explain why I wanted to try something different and went away from them in the first place. I've been twitching and kinda of unsteady handling for a while, and it dawned on me that its been like this since I've gone to the BOP power steering arms. While the arms do make the Winder steer easier, it also introduces what I'd call a large amount of bump steer.

When I check the toe out with the sled in the air, I get zero toe out or perfectly parallel, when I set it on the ground only I get 3/4" toe out! Compress the suspension further and it toes out even further, so it gets twitchy as the suspension moves, which is easy to see why it would when you see the steering arms not running on the same plane as the a-arms anymore because of the arms.

I think I'm going to need to go away from the easy steer arms as I can't stand the bump steer being this bad. It makes the machine twitchy and unpredictable in steering with the amount of bump steer like that. I didn't have the bump steer without the BOP arms and factory steering geometry. Then I'm going back to the easy steering 5.7R's with Snowtrackers.

Selling the BOP power steering ? Thinking about buying some for wifes sled

 

[4strokes]

Too bad you couldn’t try them in looser conditions. They push so bad they are dangerous. They are the worst of both worlds. They push badly in loose and dart badly in hard conditions!

I agree. 2 of us tried them on 3 machines. dangerous to say the least. I find it hard to believe scag differences would help them. the only tiring thing for me was getting off and throwing the rear end over to make the turn without going in the woods. and I also agree about the bump steer with the steering mod. I dont believe the factory ratio is far off from where it needs to be