XTX 141 for crossover use

[Jon Boron]

General comments: I've ridden about 500 miles this year in Maine North Woods backcountry. The '16 XTX has proven reliable so far except for one -24F morning that required heat from a duramax exhaust to get it going ( same with an Apex XTX). Its fun in the powder and but the falling rate suspension is no good for bumpy lakes or moguled-up backcountry twitch trails. Makes me want to sel km it after a few miles....Have tried just the Hygear chamber on the rear Float 3 as well as a QS3 from a newer 141 with small improvements. Have come to the conclusion that Hygear did; falling rate rear is no good for a crossover sled, keep it in the powder off trail. Going to try the Hygear linkage with my Float 3 and reservoir next, if it works I'll prob go with a coil over w/ linkage. Oh, and if you want carry fuel on the back, buy the 2015 STX steel tow bumper or watch the rear suspension mounts try to push their way out of the tunnel. The Arctic Cat Pro Mtn bumper braces bent like pretzels.
One thing is for sure, it does look nice on the snow at least.

 

[PeeWee86]

I looked through all of the emojis but could not find a face palm. I am absolutely convinced that you do not need the Hygear linkage to have a good riding 141 suspension. I am a strongly advocating that you DO need a high-quality adjustable coilover rear shock. Too many people buy the linkage and then they have no budget left over for a really good shock. Buy the shock first. I spent about $625 on a high quality custom valved shock with adjustable compression and rebound. The difference was not subtle.

You said you tried a QS3. Was this another air shock or was it a coil over? (Fox makes both)

Are you sure you have got the most out of your current set up? I don’t have any experience with the HyGear extra chamber but assuming it works like the eVOL you would probably need a larger spread in pressures between the two chambers to compensate for the falling rate design. What are you running for pressures? Do you have a couple of inches of sag when you sit down on the sled? I would guess your extra volume chamber should be running close to two times the pressure of the main chamber. You want a steeper spring rate curve. Of course if you have Compression and rebound issues that can’t be easily adjusted with your shock.

In its day the Fast M-10 was one of the best riding suspensions available. It is a falling rate design. When set up properly a falling rate suspension can work well.

 

[Jon Boron]

The qs3 shock was a coil over from an '18 cat high country, better but still not great. Lots of experimenting with different pressure in the Evol-type Hygear chamber, still would get some hard bottoming and rough ride, not as good as the coil over.

Suspension rider sag was set around 30% of travel.

Notice that no one uses M10 anymore, was good for its day but has been surpassed.

The 141 is a shortened mountain skid, not a crossover skid. We'll see what the linkage does for what I need the sled to do, a decent suspension shouldn't need a an expensive shock to ride good, it should make a good suspension really good. That just doesn't seem to be the case with the XTX.

Thanks for the advice though.

 

[blueironranger]

I don't find mine horrible on the bumpy stuff, I'm running a 160# spring in the center which allowed me to drop the rear to 110psi to maintain a 30% droop, it will actually bottom out on a big bump occasionally now without nearly the rebound (buck) it had running 125psi.

 

[74Nitro]

General comments: I've ridden about 500 miles this year in Maine North Woods backcountry. The '16 XTX has proven reliable so far except for one -24F morning that required heat from a duramax exhaust to get it going ( same with an Apex XTX). Its fun in the powder and but the falling rate suspension is no good for bumpy lakes or moguled-up backcountry twitch trails. Makes me want to sel km it after a few miles....Have tried just the Hygear chamber on the rear Float 3 as well as a QS3 from a newer 141 with small improvements. Have come to the conclusion that Hygear did; falling rate rear is no good for a crossover sled, keep it in the powder off trail. Going to try the Hygear linkage with my Float 3 and reservoir next, if it works I'll prob go with a coil over w/ linkage. Oh, and if you want carry fuel on the back, buy the 2015 STX steel tow bumper or watch the rear suspension mounts try to push their way out of the tunnel. The Arctic Cat Pro Mtn bumper braces bent like pretzels.
One thing is for sure, it does look nice on the snow at least.

View attachment 153314

I owned an 18 141 Winder and I fully agree with your summary of this suspension. It was fun, but it simply bottomed too easily sending a not-so-nice feeling up my back. I considered some of the upgrades, but decided to trade to the 137 instead.

 

[canoehead]

I did the Hygear linkage and HP reservoir on my 141 rear and let me tell you it's night and day. Although I got it new from a guy who wrecked his sled on the first ride with it and I got a seriously good deal. The other option which I heard is the best is the coil over shock upgrade as mentioned by Pee WEE 86.

 

[Wannaviper]

I have a 2016 XTX and I replaced the rear and center shocks with QS3R's soon after I bought it. I added Hygear reservoirs to the front Float 3's, and the sled performs really well as a trail sled. I bought a new LTX Sidewinder last year that has become my primary trail sled, and certainly the XTX does not compare in ride quality on the trail, but, it is still a very comfortable and capable trail sled. My grandson's XTX with stock shocks got banged up when he went "ditch-banging" and he rode my XTX for 500 miles last week, and could not believe the difference in the ride on the trail. In his words, it was an "awesome trail sled."

The only issue he had with it on the trail was that it started steering hard (after he spent a day in the powder). I took off the front boots to get a look at the lower steering and found that the whole area was full of ice, cubes and blocks! After I dug and melted most of the ice out, it went back to steering fine!