2018 Mountain Cat Suspension Setup

skegpro · Dec 7, 2017

So the factory suggests:

85 Fronts
35 Center
165 Rear

I rode that one day and it was fawking brutal.

Read a whole thread on snowest and most guys are running.

50-65 Front
50-60 Center
125-150 Rear

What are you running?

Sled will climb a wall with factory settings. But you are basically riding in the front and rear shock, center isn't carrying any weight.

Very hard to roll on edge with the fronts at 85PSI.

Cat401 · Dec 7, 2017

Good info but the riders weight should be a factor in the settings, no?

What weight of rider are you basing this on?

Arctic 1000 · Dec 9, 2017

Id love to know what weight your basing that info on also, just picked up a new mountain cat and im around 225lbs what do you figure a guy should be running?

tmo1620 · Dec 10, 2017

skegpro said:
So the factory suggests:

85 Fronts
35 Center
165 Rear

I rode that one day and it was fawking brutal.

Read a whole thread on snowest and most guys are running.

50-65 Front
50-60 Center
125-150 Rear

What are you running?

Sled will climb a wall with factory settings. But you are basically riding in the front and rear shock, center isn't carrying any weight.

Very hard to roll on edge with the fronts at 85PSI.

You must also factor in what qs setting your on for all the shocks, running a 1,2 or 3? Also if your running 125-150 on the rear you must be a very light guy

skegpro · Dec 10, 2017

tmo1620 said:
You must also factor in what qs setting your on for all the shocks, running a 1,2 or 3? Also if your running 125-150 on the rear you must be a very light guy

Yeah I am, 170ish, probably 200lb with riding gear.

165 in the rear was way to stiff for me.
Couldn't notice a difference between QSL #1,2or L.
Gonna go down to 125lb and work my way back up as required.

The fronts are retarded stiff.
Was in qs1 the whole time didn't even try 2 or 3. When hitting a high speed bump the valving was fine but low speed stuff is just way too stiff. Hard to roll the sled up on edge in this ****ty snow.

But part of the hard roll up I am pretty sure is due to and ubber soft center shock.
Basically riding on the fronts and rear, no weight being carried by the center.
Center pressure is gonna up big time.

Gonna spend some time in the shop to set my front end sag to 1" and go from there.

skegpro · Dec 10, 2017

Arctic 1000 said:
Id love to know what weight your basing that info on also, just picked up a new mountain cat and im around 225lbs what do you figure a guy should be running?

I am 170ish but my buddy that is 240 still noticed the problem when he rode it.

Eldereldo · Dec 11, 2017

In case you are interested, I used some scales to check the weight distribution on my sled when it got it from my dealer.

they had it set with 95 front, 60 front skid, 150 rear skid.

full of fuel and oil, with 200 lbs for rider and gear.

Front left. 166lbs
Front right 162 lbs
Front skid 288 lbs
Rear skid 150 lbs

According to the Skinz videos this is almost perfect from front shocks to rear skid balance, but heavy on the rear middle shock vs rear shock. The front to rear balance change significantly between unloaded and loaded, not surprising as the balance point of the sled with no rider is directly under the farthest forward part of the running boards. So when you are standing back of that most of your weight ends up on the rear skid. With the above settings a significant part of the weight goes to the front skid shock.

weight distribution with minimal gas and oil, same shock settings was:

FL 126
FR 126
FS 130
RS 112

Wasn’t great snow, but riding it with these settings it was difficult to get on its side, trail riding was excellent, good tracking stayed level and turned well. Tried dropping settings to 65/50/120 but that was to much sag and it bottomed out to easily. Went back up to 65/60/150, better in the back, steering was way lighter and didn’t track as well on trail, but it did get over on its side better. Left it at that until I can get it on some good snow.

Andrew.renegade1000 · Dec 11, 2017

Not to get off topic, but my fox air pump reads 25psi not hooked up to the shock. Don’t think that’s normal, should I get a new one or is that fixable ?

tmo1620 · Dec 11, 2017

Eldereldo said:
In case you are interested, I used some scales to check the weight distribution on my sled when it got it from my dealer.

they had it set with 95 front, 60 front skid, 150 rear skid.

full of fuel and oil, with 200 lbs for rider and gear.

Front left. 166lbs
Front right 162 lbs
Front skid 288 lbs
Rear skid 150 lbs

According to the Skinz videos this is almost perfect from front shocks to rear skid balance, but heavy on the rear middle shock vs rear shock. The front to rear balance change significantly between unloaded and loaded, not surprising as the balance point of the sled with no rider is directly under the farthest forward part of the running boards. So when you are standing back of that most of your weight ends up on the rear skid. With the above settings a significant part of the weight goes to the front skid shock.

weight distribution with minimal gas and oil, same shock settings was:

FL 126
FR 126
FS 130
RS 112

Wasn’t great snow, but riding it with these settings it was difficult to get on its side, trail riding was excellent, good tracking stayed level and turned well. Tried dropping settings to 65/50/120 but that was to much sag and it bottomed out to easily. Went back up to 65/60/150, better in the back, steering was way lighter and didn’t track as well on trail, but it did get over on its side better. Left it at that until I can get it on some good snow.

What qs setting you running

Eldereldo · Dec 11, 2017

Was running 1 all around for first bit on the trail. Changed to 2 all round after lowering the pressures to see if would help with bottoming out, didn’t really but left it there for the rest of the day. It does make it stiffer on bumps on the trai.

tmo1620 · Dec 11, 2017

Thanks for the info, still havent got to ride mine yet so looking for a starting point, ran evols a bunch but these shocks are a bit different, I think Ill try 70's on the front, 55 middle and 145 rear, all on qs 2 and go from there, Im about 185lbs without gear, lost over 20lbs since last year so I have that variable to deal with as well lol

Eldereldo said:
Was running 1 all around for first bit on the trail. Changed to 2 all round after lowering the pressures to see if would help with bottoming out, didn’t really but left it there for the rest of the day. It does make it stiffer on bumps on the trai.

SledderX · Dec 13, 2017

Front Shocks 75 PSI Setting 2 for rough trail/jumping. Setting 1 boondocking/tree riding/general alpine riding.

Skid Front Shock 50 PSI Setting 2 Always

Skid Rear Shock 165 PSI Setting 2 for rough trail/jumping. Lockout whenever possible in alpine for any and all climbing weather/visibility/conditions permitting.

The lockout feature is very impressive utilize it whenever possible. Did lots of pulls this weekend comparing the #2 setting and lockout feature it really works well.

This is where I am at with 12 hours of ride time. Looking forward to doing more testing in different conditions.

190 lbs without gear

Jooohan87 · Dec 19, 2017

Anyone find any epic setup pressaure, and qs setting? :d
Still trying to find the most good/fun setup
Around 200 lbs with gear

tmo1620 · Dec 19, 2017

Last week i ran 70 psi in the fronts on qs 2, and 65 and 150 psi in the rears on qs2, seemed to work good, im about 2-210 with gear

Eldereldo · Jan 21, 2018

Bump to the top. Any more observations? I am still trying to lock down something that works when riding, but doesn’t knock my teeth out when dealing with the whoops on the trail. Last ride was at 75 front, 55 front skid, 165 rear skid, didn’t do anything well, rode like a bucking bronc on whoops and was hard to get on its side when sidehilling. Changing QS settings didn’t make much difference except to make the bucking a bit better. I don’t think I can go lower than 150 in the rear and not bottom out on big whoops, so going to use that as the baseline and work with the other shocks to get the sled balance right.

skegpro · Jan 21, 2018

Eldereldo said:
Bump to the top. Any more observations? I am still trying to lock down something that works when riding, but doesn’t knock my teeth out when dealing with the whoops on the trail. Last ride was at 75 front, 55 front skid, 165 rear skid, didn’t do anything well, rode like a bucking bronc on whoops and was hard to get on its side when sidehilling. Changing QS settings didn’t make much difference except to make the bucking a bit better. I don’t think I can go lower than 150 in the rear and not bottom out on big whoops, so going to use that as the baseline and work with the other shocks to get the sled balance right.

Front 50 ish psi
Center 60 psi
Rear 150 psi

Clicker 1or2 depending how tough it is.
Clicker 1 and lock on the rear in deep.

Keep meaning to talk to Nextech to see if they have any better valving codes for these shocks.

skegpro · Jan 21, 2018

Anyone notice the track tension is a little tight from the factory/dealer on these sleds?

skegpro · Jan 21, 2018

Check your limiter strap bolts are not eating your track..........

tmo1620 · Jan 21, 2018

Running 65 psi in fronts on click 2, 65 psi front skid click 2 and 145 click 2 skid rear, when it gets steep using lockout, no issues what so ever handles great

tmo1620 · Jan 21, 2018

skegpro said:
Anyone notice the track tension is a little tight from the factory/dealer on these sleds?

Mine was a little tight as well but better to be a tad tight from new then to loose, track stretches out after the first few hundred miles and needs to be tightened anyway, mine definitely wasnt over tight as to damage things

2018 Mountain Cat Suspension Setup

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