Hey guys. New here from Long Island. Bought my 18' XMR 1000 2 months ago. Yup, I'm one of those guys who bought it because it looks cool. I read that it will ride like crap ahead of time. I didn't know it would be this bad though. In my opinion, the dealer set it up wrong to begin with. The preload adjusters on the shocks were cranked down so tight that the suspension wouldn't cycle at all going over bumps. I mean like zero movement. I don't care if it's a mud machine. The suspension should move when your riding it. I read that you should have something like 30% squat at ride height with a rider on it. I'm 235 lbs and it didn't move at all when I sat on it. I spent 2 hours messing around with the preload adjusters. I got the front dialed in to a barely acceptable level, but the rear is a major pain in the rear. Literally. In the end I loosened the rear adjusters until they were barely touching the tops of the springs at full droop. It still doesn't move enough when riding. Not only that, there's only about 2 inches of the shock shaft visible at ride height now. So now I'm basically bottoming out the shocks on hard hits. Even a mud machine needs a suspension that moves.
I read that the tires give it a lousy ride. I took off the Cryptoids and put on a set of 28" Mongrels that I had hanging around. They helped, but only a little. I dropped the air pressure down to 6 psi. This helped also but the suspension is still too stiff in my opinion. I had a friend that weighs about the same as me ride it around while I watched. Even with almost no preload on the springs the rear is just not moving enough when going over bumps. At this point I'm thinking it's less about the shocks and more about the springs. They're just too stiff. Rather than buy a set of elkas, which I'm willing to do if I have to, maybe playing around with the spring rates would help ?
I searched the site but came up with nothing. So my question is this. Has anyone messed around with different springs on these machines to soften the ride enough to let the suspension move as it should ? I'm thinking maybe XTP max springs on my factory Fox shocks would help ? I hear the XTP rides better. My buddies outlander with stock non fox shocks rides like a dream. I saw these works performance shocks with 3 different springs stacked on top of each other. Maybe something like that ? Please don't beat me to death with the "you bought a mud machine, what did you expect" argument. The trailing arms should still move through their full range of motion. Anyway, I would appreciate some guidance here. I'm not ready to scrap these shocks yet. Thanks.
I read that the tires give it a lousy ride. I took off the Cryptoids and put on a set of 28" Mongrels that I had hanging around. They helped, but only a little. I dropped the air pressure down to 6 psi. This helped also but the suspension is still too stiff in my opinion. I had a friend that weighs about the same as me ride it around while I watched. Even with almost no preload on the springs the rear is just not moving enough when going over bumps. At this point I'm thinking it's less about the shocks and more about the springs. They're just too stiff. Rather than buy a set of elkas, which I'm willing to do if I have to, maybe playing around with the spring rates would help ?
I searched the site but came up with nothing. So my question is this. Has anyone messed around with different springs on these machines to soften the ride enough to let the suspension move as it should ? I'm thinking maybe XTP max springs on my factory Fox shocks would help ? I hear the XTP rides better. My buddies outlander with stock non fox shocks rides like a dream. I saw these works performance shocks with 3 different springs stacked on top of each other. Maybe something like that ? Please don't beat me to death with the "you bought a mud machine, what did you expect" argument. The trailing arms should still move through their full range of motion. Anyway, I would appreciate some guidance here. I'm not ready to scrap these shocks yet. Thanks.
