shim the carbides?

lonevmax

New member
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
24
Age
50
Location
Muskegon, MI
Hi, I was having darting problems on my 96 vmax xt, and I wanted to shim the skis. However, I couldn't remove the skis during season (frozen on). Is there any problem with shimming the carbides? I used two washers under the rear carbide stud and one washer under the second from the back (there are four total). It seems to work well. I just want to know if I could have problems with it. i finally have both sleds running great, and we are getting a meltdown tomorrow.
 
Most shim the rubber piece that sits on the ski shoe, but if you made your carbide level on the ground or slightly up in the front you should be good to go.I usually check how its sitting on a cement floor in the garage as its too hard to see what your looking at out in the snow.Supposed to get a meltdown here also, but I hope the weatherman is wrong!
 
shims on siezed skis

i recently shimmed my wifes' sx and my xt,i took the skiis off and pit the shim
under the rear of the ski rubber like you are supposed to on the sx,i could not get the skiis off my xt so i just turned the steering and lifted the front of the ski up about 8" and put the shims on top of the rubber till i can get the skiis off this spring,if the file attatchment worked there are pictures to illustrate,for shims i took some worn hifax and cut the part that goes on the rail off with a stanley knife so i had a flat 1 by 3"(appx.) 1/4"iece of plastic
i don't think that shimming the carbides is a good idea beacause things can catch,or get stuck in the gap,and rip them off,i once rode about 45 miles with 7 inches of host bar sticking out from my ski at a right angle,talk about hard
steering,anyway,hope this helps
 

Attachments

  • Photo0370.jpg
    Photo0370.jpg
    155.3 KB · Views: 17
  • Photo0371.jpg
    Photo0371.jpg
    130.5 KB · Views: 17
I don't think you'll be solving anything by shimming the carbide as the ski is still sitting flat with no down pressure in the rear. As a matter of fact, you may be making it worse as it will want to push the front of ski down even more, doing the opposite of what you want.
 
Otta's right. The geometry of only shimming the carbide will push the front of the ski down. Adding the shim to the rubber will raise the ski tip up.
 
I put a set up USI skis on my XT and it set the rear up to weight transfer better and the darting is gone. The way it was stock was hard to ride with all the darting!
I was able to ride this past weekend but it was getting ugly on Sunday.
 
I put a set of dual carbides on my sled last year and it now drives like a Cadillac. However, it seems to have stolen a good deal of horsepower. Has anyone else notice this?
 


Back
Top