You appear to be doing everything correctly with your snowmobile: coasting into the corner and braking appropriately, leaning into the turn to weight the inside ski, re-engaging the throttle at the right time on the corner’s exit. But still, your sled just doesn’t go through turns the way you want it to – you’re having trouble staying near to the insider berm. You’re experiencing push, or “understeer.”
If you want to “add more front end” to your snowmobile to make it handle better, you have three different places to turn: your sled’s skis and runners, the settings in the front suspension, and the settings in the rear suspension. Each can make a substantial difference in your sled’s cornering ability, but each can also have trade-offs if you go too far chasing a positive-feeling front end.
Of course, we realize that plenty of people end up on the other side of this spectrum: Their front end is too positive, and they experience heavy steering or “oversteer” in turns. We’ll cover that too.
All of the tips in this story assume that your snowmobile has proper ski and track alignment, and pertain to trail-focused sleds that have a working anti-sway bar. Mountain riders often want the opposite of trail riders: a very light and playful front end, with lots of side-to-side transfer to make their sled easy to pull over in powder. Their needs will be covered separately in a future story. Also, remember that conditions play a big part in snowmobile handling. If your sled normally handles well but is pushing in corners when riding in 5 inches of fresh snow, that’s normal. Don’t overcorrect and screw up your handling package for other riding conditions.
A final tip: Make only one change at a time and note the impact of each alteration. If you change your runners, front suspension settings, limiter strap position and rear spring preload all at once, you’ll never know what each adjustment did separately.
(Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the November 2022 issue of Snow Goer magazine.)
Start Up Front: Snowmobile Runners
Obviously, a snowmobile’s skis are a vital touchpoint to the surfaces on which we ride. If one or both skis are dangling in the air, there are other problems with your setup. But beyond that, the skis are a great place to start when trying to solve this problem.
The first thing to check is the status of your carbide-infused wearbars. It won’t exactly be breaking news for veteran sledheads, but runners are wear items, and if they are worn too far, they won’t do much good when cornering. If your runners are missing chunks of carbide or are worn down and pencil thin, replacing them is an easy and relatively inexpensive (usually less than $100) way to give you sled an immediate handling boost, particularly on hard or icy trails.
But wait, there’s more to this story that just replacing junk parts. Different options in runners can help a sled go around a corner in more control of the driver. The most obvious place to start is the amount of carbide inserted into the runner. Most replacement runners, for example, come with either 4, 6 or 8 inches of carbide. The higher the number, the more positive the front end will be on hard-pack trails.
Determining the right amount of carbide becomes particularly important if you’ve studded your snowmobile’s track. If a bunch of traction has been added to the rear end of a snowmobile, it affects the balance of that snowmobile’s traction package and you’ll likely need to use more aggressive runners up front to match. The same is true if a taller-lugged or more aggressive track is installed.
Conversely, running 8 inches of carbide on a snowmobile with an unstudded track will make the front end more positive, but it’ll steer heavily and will likely have you tugging around the rear end in icy turns. There are also many interesting new options, like the SnowTracker system. The key is balance, and any decent dealer (or a traction company website) should be able to help you match your front and rear setups.
One other note: We’ve become big fans of the taller runners with broader sides. Originally they entered the market via Stud Boy’s Shaper Bars, but now other brands make similar designs. All of this carbide runner talk is complicated by Ski-Doo’s relatively recent TS and TX skis with their blade-like runners and similar aftermarket system, but the principals are the same. And with the TS/TX system, a quick turn of the adjustment knob can allow a rider to add or subtract front end bite any time they want.
Snowmobile Ski Design
Some riders like to move beyond the runners and will replace the skis. There are many different shapes and sizes of aftermarket skis available, with many aimed at varying aspects of the snowmobile market – from mountain to crossover to trails to racing.
One primary area where they differ is in the shape, length and depth of the center keel. In the “modern” era, C&A Pro is often credited with bringing aggressive-keel skis to the snowmobile market, and some people swear by the deep and long keel designs of C&A and other brands. That said, such a keel definitely heavies up the steering. Since the original C&A ski, that brand and others have broadened their lineups to include a variety of ski designs, so no one brand owns the aggressive ski market.
The key is to consider the depth and length of the keel as well as the keel’s starting and ending point relative to the spindle/ski mount.
It’s also important to be introspective over the exact the sort of ride you want and then share that information when shopping for new skis. Knowing that ultimately they want you to be happy with their product, ski makers and the people who sell them have a vested interest in matching you with the right ski for your desired riding style.
Snowmobile Front Suspension Setup
Often the most consequential suspension setup changes you can make to improve your sled’s handling are actually in the rear suspension and are related to the weight transfer and front-to-back balance of the snowmobile. But since we just got done talking about the skis let’s stay at the front of the sled a bit longer.
The primary way the sled’s handling is affected by front suspension settings (assuming the front end is aligned properly) is through the spring preload and – if available – the compression settings in your front shocks.
Let’s start with the springs. The coiled springs that surround your front shocks (or the air pressure in the Fox FLOAT air chambers) are there primarily to carry the weight of the front of the snowmobile at a certain ride height, but their settings definitely affect handling as well.
If you decrease the spring reload by turning the springs counter clockwise, you’ll effectively be lowering your front ride height, weighting the skis more and creating a more positive front end. Conversely, to correct over steer you can try increasing the preload on those coiled springs to make the front end stand a bit taller.
Also, a stiffer front-end setting will limit chassis roll, making the front feel more rigid with less left-and-right transfer. Overdoing it can result in more bite from the outside ski, which can cause inside ski lift. The key is to find the right balance of front-end stiffness, where you allow for just the right amount of chassis roll for premium handling without lifting the inside ski. Shock settings can also play a part. If you have adjustable shocks, try stiffening your compression settings on smooth/hard trails to see if that improves handling. However, such a change may make the sled less forgiving in stutter bumps.
Just to complicate things further, the front springs (or air pressure on FLOATs) need to be able to work with the shocks in bump compliance as well. The best advice: Start with spring pre-load/air pressure to set your ride height and prevent hard bottoming, then move to the clickers (if equipped) for fine tune adjustments to dial-in your ride.
Snowmobile Rear Suspension Setup
For years, many experts have asked snowmobilers to think of their sled’s rear suspension as a teetertotter when it comes to carrying weight and getting traction, with the skid frame’s front arm as the fulcrum. If you want the playful feeling of a light front end and maybe even ski-lifting fun plus maximum rear grip, you’ll want maximum rear weight transfer. Conversely, if you want planted skis, you’ll likely want the suspension arms to couple sooner or the settings to be stiffer at the rear arm.
That sounds simple enough, but unlike with a teetertotter, the fulcrum/front arm of a snowmobile suspension is also very active, and its settings also affect handling.
Let’s start with the coupling. If your snowmobile has coupling blocks that affect when the front and rear arms start working together in the rear suspension, this is a good first adjustment in the skid frame.
On the Ski-Doo rMotion setup, for example, rotating both coupling blocks (found toward the rear of the rails on each side) to an earlier coupling moment will reduce the amount of transfer to the rear of the track, which can improve handling. Conversely, allowing more movement before the arms are coupled will unweight the skis during acceleration.
Next, let’s talk springs. Sticking with the rear half of the suspension, increasing the rear spring preload – often done by rotating the two, multi-position blocks that press against the end of the torsion spring – will make it squat less and thus carry more weight on the skis. Decrease the spring preload by going to a lower setting with those blocks will make the rear end squat more and unweight the skis. This impacts weight transfer and static ride height but also has a big impact on bump compliance and ride height. Finding that balance through trial-and-error is key.
Similar to the front end of the snowmobile, if you have “clicker” shocks with external adjustments, they can be used to fine-tune the snowmobile’s setup and thus influence handling. The shock, of course, works with the spring so between the two of them you can dial-in your ride. The spring adjustments are usually big swings while the shock adjustments are for fine-tuning.
Slow down the compression of the rear shock by going to a stiffer clicker setting (turning the knob clockwise) for more of a front-end feel; soften up the compression of that shock to lighten the front end. If you have 20-plus position clicker shocks, don’t expect to feel a big difference with one or two clicks – start by moving in increments of four or five positions and then fine-tune from there.
Moving to the front arm of that rear suspension, you have three points of adjustment, which can create plenty of confusion. Let’s start with its shock. Most sleds don’t have external adjustment on the front arm shock, but if your’s does, increasing its compression rate will lighten the skis while decreasing it will add more front end.
The more common adjustment is the coiled spring that surrounds the shock. Similar to the aforementioned shock, a decrease in the amount of preload will shift more weight/pressure to the skis, while an increase in preload will lessen steering effort. Again, finding the balance of weight transfer, handling and bump compliance will take a few tries.
This leads us to the limiter strap on the front arm of the rear suspension. Many veteran snowmobilers previously made regular changes to their limiter strap position depending on their wants/needs/desires and changing riding conditions.
On modern trail-focused suspensions, limiter strap adjustments are more rare but can still be effective. Shortening the limiter strap pulls down the front torque arm and weights the front end more. Lengthening the limiter strap makes your sled into more of a wheelie monster while unweighting the skis.
Trial And Retrial
Dialing in the handling of a sled can take some time. We wish we could give you a simple answer for all snowmobiles that if “X” is happening, do “Y,” but variance of suspension designs makes that impossible. There are many factors/adjustments available but don’t get discouraged. Keep trying.
Also, remember that a softer trail vs. a hard/frozen trail can cause variations in ski bite and weight transfer due to traction for the skis and track. Try to find your best “centerline” adjustment where the sled handles its best in all conditions.
Our overall advice: Start by checking the condition of your runners. Step two is altering the rear suspension settings related to weight transfer and the rear arm spring and shocks positions. It may seem counter-intuitive, but unless you’re trying to fix body roll oftentimes switching front suspension settings is the third place to turn when trying to fix a front-end handling issue.
Editor’s Note: Every Snow Goer issue includes in-depth sled reports and comparisons, aftermarket gear and accessories reviews, riding destination articles, do-it-yourself repair information, snowmobile technology and more. Subscribe to Snow Goer now to receive print and/or digital issues.
