Doo suspension swap

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RaWarrior

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As I've quickly found out, the mono-shock is not much of a ditch banger. The front suspension on my Warrior is perfectly fine, never bottomed that, but the rear just plain sucks. If it's not a groomed trail, it's next to worthless. Between that and the low stock handlebars, banging through rough trails is hard both on me and the machine. I'm afraid I'm going to break this mono-shock the way I ride, which isn't even that bad.

I've looked into doing a rear skid swap-out, and I do like the suspensions off ski-doo sleds, and apparently swapping these into an RX isn't a big deal.

I can get a rebuilt SC-3 rear skid for $100. The only thing it's missing is shocks, and it has new rails. Was the SC-3 a 121" or a 136", or was it available in both? The track is practically new and I wouldn't want anything smaller on this big heavy machine.

How easy is the swap? Is it baisically a drop-in with the adapter parts, or is there drilling/fabricating required to make it fit?
 
I'm with you on the need for a conversion, and believe the SC-3 is a good skid. The conversion is not that tough. There are no "kits" that I'm aware of. You will be using different mounting holes, and you'll need to reinforce the tunnel at those points - thus the need for a little "creativity". Have done a few Polaris conversions, but never a Doo, so I can't help with specifics.
 
There are posting on this forkum for doing the swap. Just have to search for them. The sc-3 came in both 121 and 136, the 136 came out the renegade sleds and used a 16 wide track i believe (I know the summit 144s were 16 wide track) but it no different skid wise (you can use a 15" track on it as a 16 will prob. not fit in the rx tunnel) I have looked into this swap and it is very doable. but like ahicks says more people tend to do the polaris swap. dont know why as they both seem to take the same amount of work.
 
You know I have thought more and more about making a kit for this conversion. My buddy works in a machine fab shop and he made all of the parts for mine. The swap has been in for 2 seasons and so far the only issue was one bolt on the bottom of the rear skid front shock loosened up and fell out and the other one broke being the only one left. 30 minutes outside in the parking lot of a snowmobile place and I was back on the trail. I did have both of my shocks rebuilt and revalved for my weight and the extra weight of the sled by A-Z shocks in benton Maine. The swap is really easy I actually had a guy that did it before me right down the road let me check his sled out take pics and even let me try his sled. I have ridden mine very hard I ride very aggresive take jumps try and float along the tops of bumps I am 265 pounds with no gear so the skid and sled have handled it very good. I can take some pics this weekend and send them to you but I think eventually I will make at least some templates and maybe even see if my buddy wants to make some of the parts again and sell a kit pretty reasonable. You should see some of the stuff he has made us I have a front lift kit for a Polaris 4 wheeler he made me that allows you to adjust it with a spanner wrench for how stiff you want it (Polaris is preset not adjustable front) the thing looks like it was made by Polaris looks awsome he says there to expensive to make though and sell I love chcking out the cool stuff he makes airplane parts jet parts all kinds of cool stuff I suppose I only think its cool cause I dont do it every day LOL
 
Again, not familiar with Doo specifics, but the conversions I've done have never required anything more than a piece of metal or aluminum plate mounted to reinforce the areas of the new holes - and then only if the new holes were too far off to use the original reinforcements. This latest one I did on an Apex (Pro X conversion) was the simplest I've done to date, used the original front holes over again.

My point is, I'm not real sure what a kit might consist of. Other than maybe some plates, predrilled to use some original holes over again?

Coming up with the correct mounting dimensions is the hardest part of any conversion - that's where you want to try and find sombody that's already been there/done that, has it all worked out for you. It's possible to work them out yourself, but a solid understanding of that suspension you're working with would almost be a requirement.

The popularity of the Polaris conversions may be due to a website owned by a buddy - Jbshocks.com
He has listed the donor sled dimensions for most of the popular Polaris skids (the starting point for installing them in something else). I haven't seen anything like that for the Doo skids - but maybe there is one, I just haven't seen it?

In any case, this kind of thing works extremely well. Many of the older Poo sleds have been updated with newer suspensions doing this, along with quite a few of the RX sleds. -Al
 
Really thats about all there is a plate on the inside I made mine pretty big and went wround some of the bigger stuff under there. A plate on the outside (again just cut it to fit in the footwell) drill a hole for the suspension put in the front bolt. We made my rear drops from steel Daves where aluminum. We tapped the hole for the rear bolt right in the steel plate and also the three bolts in the tunnel to hold it on, but I also put self locking bolts to make doubley sure it wouldnt come out. The hardest thing was measuring the geometry of the Ski Doo so the suspension would work right. Luckily I had a buddy with one so I measures from front bolt to rear to get an idea of where it should be mounted. I may move my front bolt hole down just a bit, because I had to let me limiter strap out all of the way. Not surprising with my weight I had to go with heavier springs and set the front shock on all the way hard. A-Z also revaled my shocks and new seals synth oil etc It hooks up like crazy now can pull the skis even in powder off trail I can stand it up and on a hard pack trail it pulls the skis at 50 a little not a wheelie but it transfers great. No ratcheting track either.
 
I converted mine to a Edge and then went to a ZX2, i know its big money compared to a doo swap but this skid literally does everything. I ditchbang, groomed trail, rough trail. Never found a skid that trasnforms the sled and instills so much confidence to hit big bumps and jumps and not worry about how your back is going to take.

Zx2 = $1200
Doo = $100 plus mounting and shock revalves so its a big difference but I would say worth it. with all my apex upgrades going to a mono shock apex would be a down grade for me, this old rx flat out rocks!
 
<<<No ratcheting track either.>>>

Amen to that!!!!

Anyone that accepts any of that on any kind of regular basis has not run a decent suspension.
 
My track does ratchet every so often, only if I'm on a real hard packed trail and suddenly pin it WOT, and hold it there, after a second or two I get some cog-skipping. I added a tad bit of tension to the track and it still does it, I don't want to add any more since the track seems pretty tight.

I'm looking into this swap pretty seriously, this stock rear skid just isn't cutting it at all. In the meantime, is there anything I can do to beef it up a little, as in have it not bottom out constantly?
 
Hey race24x,

I have a SC3 X46 skid that Im putting in my RX-1.
Do you or anyone else have the measurements for the skidoo skid mounting points?
Could you please post them? :-o

Thanks!
 
I put a polaris edge in mine not a Doo. then Swapped out for the plastic ZX2.

I know the post your thinking of though, I cant seem to locate it though. I will keep looking.
 
I was going to sell my SkiDoo GT till I looked and found out it has the SC-10 High-Performance skid in it now I think im going to part out the sled and keep the skid now
 
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