I have an 03 viper with 2.5" drop brackets on the rear skid. The front suspension seems really stiff and rides rough. I weigh about 160 and have the FRA set in the soft position, and I have about a 50/50 gap on the transfer rods when I'm sitting on the sled. I'm happy with the ride of the rear suspension. But like I said the front rides rough. The front end seems to sit low with the drop brackets installed, and I'm afraid if I soften the front shocks the front end will ride even lower. I've never messed with it before so idk. Also how will adjusting the front shocks affect ski pressure and turning or will it even have any effect? Right now it kinda wants to push in the turns even with new shaper bars on the skis. I'm learning here..so bear with me lol
yamaholic22
Active member
Get aftermarket drop brackets from Hauck. That will drop the top mount of the shocks down to give more ski pressure. You can get the shocks valved softer for more compliance. If you have over 2-3,000 miles on them it's time for a rebuild anyway.
i dont know of any drop bracket for vipers. what happened in effect is that you decreased the preasure of your center shock spring and or even worse, didnt let out the limiters.
you will need to increase the preload on the center spring, let out the limiters all the way. increasing your preload will change your rear settings a little.
increase the preload on the center shock 10-20mm and set everything up from there again and try it. center spring preasure should be a stiff as you can make it without lifting the front of the sled when you sit on it. it should also not lower the front of the sled when you sit on it.
you will need to increase the preload on the center spring, let out the limiters all the way. increasing your preload will change your rear settings a little.
increase the preload on the center shock 10-20mm and set everything up from there again and try it. center spring preasure should be a stiff as you can make it without lifting the front of the sled when you sit on it. it should also not lower the front of the sled when you sit on it.
BTV, are you referring to when I put on the skid drop brackets? That makes sense. I didn't change anything after putting them on except move the FRA softer (which I should have done anyway for my weight). My center shock is about 88 mm so it's in the mid range(77-97 mm I believe is the range), and the limiters are set with about equal threads on the top and bottom of the adjusting bolts. The track is completely flat on the ground all the way back to the rear axle which would indicate that there is more pressure on the rear and not enough in the center, correct? So basically I need to stiffen the center shock preload and let the limiters out all the way to put more weight on the front of the track, so that I can get more weight transfer to the rear and also lessen ski pressure?BETHEVIPER said:
Last edited:
Also, before I read any of this yesterday, I actually stiffened the front shock preload. It seemed I was getting too much sag and just bottoming out right away when I hit a bump. And to me that makes sense because wouldn't the drop brackets in the rear push the weight bias forward a little bit and increase the load on the shocks causing them to sag more. There was a noticeable improvement on the 25 mile ride I went on yesterday.
camviperride
New member
Where did u find the rear drop brackets? I would like to try them on my viper.