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 WHAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT HERE ?

Maybe this TOPIC is something that you never even thought of ?
But, you have heard of the old saying,


"What goes up must come down"?
 

OK to put that into perspective, your snowmobile suspension is going to control the snowmobile & rider mass that is going thru these motions.
 If the sport is new to you, maybe it wouldn't even have entered your mind. The truth is with out a reference point,
 Yours truly  could take you riding all day, on a great smooth riding trail and snowmobile, and you may think WOW that was REALLY SOMETHING !!
But the route I took you on may be one of many...different possibilities!

PERSPECTIVE...EXPERIENCE...a VARIETY OF CONDITIONS...


 It is not all about numbers but what the manufacturers do with the interacting suspension components in conjunction with analyzing the numbers. Countless data in brochures, magazines and on the internet promote one model snowmobile over another for all kinds of reasons.

This what I have observed experienced and can share with you.
(At this point reliability and ergonomics of rider comfort and warmth are just taken for granted.)

I can tell you that a smooth riding snowmobile definitely goes a long way to getting me excited about riding. Our experience has simply been that when you least expect it the trail could get rough or a blow thru is hiding on a cloudy day in an open meadow. This is where "The rubber meets the road!" so to speak.
 

 

MANUFACTURES "Motorhead"  JARGON
Long travel suspension...Rears suspension (skid frame)
...Variable rate coils......Coupled rear suspension...Rear suspension "front arm"...Rear suspension "Rear arm & scissor"

-The "Rear Suspension" is the mechanical apparatus: Front suspension arm, and the rear suspension arm and scissor, the hard ware mounted in the track guides under the seat.
-We can explain some of the manufactures jargon, for instance if your rear suspension is said to be "coupled" then this describes a reasonably adjustable mechanism, that combines the front suspension arm, shock and spring in direct conjunction with the rear suspension arm and accompanying shock and spring assembly. 
-This is important because as described this means that under severe duress IE: A big hit on a trail or rock solid wind blown bank hidden in a field the whole rear suspension works in unison to prevent the rider from the full impact.
-The alternative to a coupled rear suspension is... you guessed it an "uncoupled" rear skid frame....one bad hit riding cross country will be absorbed by the front arm, but when the obstruction passes under the full length of your skid, the worst thing could happen. With out any warning the resulting "hit" to the rear arm and scissor impact nails the rider in the butt, and straight over the hood you would go. At this point you will be lucky if your own machine doesn't actually run right over you.

(
I HAVE WITNESSED THIS EXACT EVENT. SLED INVOLVED: Pre 2002 un-coupled MXZ, we had only been riding about 10 minutes together when this occurred. 
We met up with MR MXZ about an hour after this morning picture was taken. 00-01
)
 
When riding cross country in Saskatchewan it is sure a good idea to make sure it has a coupled rear skid frame. Some models didn't even start to couple their rear skids until 2001 or 2002, be aware.

Now when you read that your snowmobile is equipped with a super long travel type of suspension (  XTC,   XT  and  SXR  PROACTION models) consisting of travel numbers well over the lower slung minimum travel models (SX PROACTION models) it's not that a minimum  travel model can't give you a good ride, it components just do not have the extra mechanical motion required to give you a smooth ride when the going occasionally gets tough. Shorter travel models are used in the early generation of lower slung snow cross racer packages. As the years progressed a lot more "ride in" or "rider aboard chassis settle in" became the norm that allows for a full range of motion combined with the dual rate springs. So the sleds are a little more low slung or are said to have more rider sag in.

"Snow Cross" Racing Events.
If you are an actual racer you want the shocks valved unbelievably stiff to accommodate springs that are also pretty stiff. I have not snowcross, or cross country raced but can understand the need for a snowmobile suspension set-up stiff to accommodate the "Super Man" leaps thru the air over countless jumps in snowcross and embankments or supervised roadways ditches in the cross-country racing events. On a regular basis the manufacturers have released and sold "race sled replicas" to the general public.
On a regular basis there has been a large number of these same people buying these "race sled replicas" who in turn then complain to the dealers and write to their favorite magazines asking how they can soften the ride, because it apparently is unbearable! It is one thing to look like the Snow Cross racer but another to really ride like one for any length of time!

Anyone can read this in most of the major publications for themselves. So it can be said that most people would not be excited about trail riding a sled set up with "race shocks and springs". It should be noted that the emphasis when it comes to snowmobiles is usually on the shocks and the rate of their "upward" and "downward" rate of dampening (both on compression and on rebounding) than it is the springs.
On properly set up snowmobiles the springs are set for the right amount of "Sag" or "Ride height" that correlates with the weight of the rider.
That being said you can be rest assured our sleds do not ride like race Snow-Cross model.

 In Snowmobile land our sport could  be broken down domestically into a couple main suspension transitions. The front suspensions were pretty standard

(1) "leaf0Springs"  first on a buggy now on snowmobiles!

(2) "Leaf Springs with Shocks"  then a revolutionary idea, and what a difference to your suspension and ride when some dampening is applied to the spring rebound.

(3) "Variable rate Springs  (Parabolic curve)  with Shocks" "variable rate mono leaf" by Yamaha on the new SS 440. These springs, a phenomena created by the steel masters in Japan (sword makers?) -only used to my knowledge on the SS 440 model, 1980 to 1985.

(4 "Coilover Swing Arm" "Rarely seen drag link coil over". I had at least 3 Super Brute Alouette snowmobiles going at one time and the coil over swing arm front suspension rode really nice. Non of these machines that I owned attained a life time of big miles so their potential was not realized.

(5)  "A Arm" or "Wish-bone  "Independent suspension" that was first used in 1973 on a few racers has over time, about 30 years later  been adopted by all the current manufacturers.

(6 "Trailing Arm"  Independent front suspensions" arrived on the scene after a wave of starts and stops in the racing arena. Once Snow Cross racing started to take off in the 90's, these suspension models quickly expanded to long travel versions. The key thing here that a lot of people maybe don't realize is that these suspensions are fairly light weight, and more importantly all the forces "from the hit" are transmitted VIA triangulation into the center of the chassis. This makes our fleet of Yamahas light and tough of nails. Characteristics in the Saskatchewan back country that completely over rule some form high centering late model snowmobile that may or may not have a slight "Formula One" advantage on a groomed trail.

(7) "Strut"  another option for consumers. Some of the earliest snowmobiles had kinda a sliding piece of pipe inside a coil spring, maybe it was a valve spring off a steam engine parked out back.... who knows, you certainly couldn't credit it as a strut suspension. Strut suspensions were more sophisticated than that when they were introduced in about 1981. When suspensions went long travel, the strut just did not perform, the side loads on the moving components would bind when at full extension during cornering loads during cornering. Jets and air planes that have struts have the strut angled towards the direction of travel to minimize this. Cornering speeds are not a factor.

  Alouette

Arctic Cat

Polaris

Ski-Doo

Yamaha

(1)


"leaf0Springs"

1967

Panther
1967

1962

1961

 SL 350
1968

(2)


"Leaf Springs with Shocks"

 

EXT
1971

Colt SS
340

1973

T'NT
Blizzard

1971

 SR 433
1971

(3)


"Variable rate Springs
 (Parabolic curve)  with Shocks"

       

SS 440
1980

(4)


"Coilover Swing Arm"

 Villain 650
1972

       

(5)


"A Arm"
or
"Wish-bone"

Alouette Twin track 1973

El Tigre
1985

Fusion
2005

 Safari
PRS
1988

RX 1
2003

(6)


"Trailing Arm"

 

SNO PRO
1978

SNO PRO
1977

T'NT
Blizzard
1978

SSR 440
1978

(7)


"Strut"

     

Stratos 1988

SR 5
1981

(8)

         

 

SNOWMOBILING IS FUN BECAUSE YOU CAN RIDE AT SPEED "WITH IN REASON" WITH OUT THE WORRY OF GETTING A SPEEDING TICKET IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE!

ACCELERATE SAFELY, STOP SAFELY, and REMAIN CONTROLLABLE IN ROUGH OR WINDBLOWN DRIFTED IN OPEN FIELDS
The sled not only has to be Reliable,
User
Friendly, and Inspiring.
If you find it
INSPIRING
you will try it again and again, there is no sport like it, try it on an OFF-DAY or try it with a sled that truly is a
P.O.S. you will leave the Snowmobile environment with no Inspiration what so ever.
Really what is the basics?

  • What kind of riding do you do?
  • Chassis design...what hold you up and keeps you going?
  • Do the numbers add up?
  • Does history repeat it's self?
  • How do our sleds weight in?
  • For the application, and diversified environment we ride in, really who is the fairest of them all?

Chassis design...What do I know...well I know that the chassis has to be TOUGH... when things go bump in the night something is always bent or twisted on some brands...trailing arm, trailing arm mount, tunnel, the whole front snout!, the list goes on...for some!
 

Does handling just come naturally or do some machines excel simply because they are engineered to work properly and have a range of adjustments that really work. Good steering and Handling Skis,  track and other suspension all play a part.

 

Remember the heavier you weight in, the harder the suspension has to work. How do our sleds
 weight  in?
 

 

Do the numbers add up?

Does history repeat itself?

For the application, really who is the fairest of them all?

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