8" rear wheels

A

alswagg

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I am in the process in modifying the rear axle to accept 8" rear wheels. I found some nice billet outers and some inner wheels I found Kawasaki nos black wheels. I have to switch the bearings to 20mm id. I am also going to upgrade to the 5 3/8" idler wheels. Oh, I am not going with the offsett axle. I am hopeing to achieve smoother rotation resistance with less drag. This is on my 128" SXR. Any thoughts?? Al
 
Interesting... Without using an offset axle, or an extension, How are you planning on doing this? I have a Polaris skid on my kid's sled and want to get rid of the little rear wheels and have thinking about how I want to do it.
 
I have the special bearings ordered for the wheels. Not sure about what you mean by an extension? I am also switching all of the idler wheels to 5 3/8" Basically polaris wheels.. I hope to have the bearings on Friday.
 
Na, not going with any extensions. Basically going to install the 8" wheels in place of the 7" wheels. This will raise the skid from the track maybe 1/2" more than the 7" wheels. Along with the larger idler wheels, my goal is to lessen track drag and of coarse change the looks. When I get all completed and installed I will post some photos. Note, this is going on the 128" SXR. Al
 
Would the 8" wheels bolt in easier if you had 8 tooth drivers?
 
I won't have any issues bolting in the skid or track tension. There is plenty of adjustment. This sled also has 204 studs. We just installed Viper trailing arms and spindles. The ski's this year are from an Apex. The ride height in front is nearly the same with a much better floating ski. Can't wait to ride. Al
 
you installed 8 tooth drivers so you could install long studs, both of which increase drag
8in rear wheels are as close to a non gain as you can get on a yamaha, especially if your mounting them that far down off the rail. on anything hard, your carbides are not going to engage very good as the rear axle will be holding the weight.

my suggestion is, if your looking for more efficiency
remove the drivers, change back to 9 tooth
change your studs to 1.185
keep your 7in rear wheels or use 8in with an offset axle or just remake the rail
while your drivers are out, put them on a lathe and true them
 
BETHEVIPER said:
you installed 8 tooth drivers so you could install long studs, both of which increase drag
8in rear wheels are as close to a non gain as you can get on a yamaha, especially if your mounting them that far down off the rail. on anything hard, your carbides are not going to engage very good as the rear axle will be holding the weight.

my suggestion is, if your looking for more efficiency
remove the drivers, change back to 9 tooth
change your studs to 1.185
keep your 7in rear wheels or use 8in with an offset axle or just remake the rail
while your drivers are out, put them on a lathe and true them
Click to expand...
Maybe you have the SXR 128 confused with the Viper post we also have. On the 128 we have the stock 9 tooth drivers and are using 204 1.125 studs in a 1" ripsaw. The skid has been relocated. I was hoping to install the 8" wheels along with the 5 3/8" idlers. The stud pattern is 2 in middle one on each outer. This sled is our boon docker, point and shoot type sled. Not really meant for high speeds but alot of fun. Some might call it ditch banging, but we don't ride to many ditches. Maybe 7 1/2" wheels would be better? Al
 
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Well the 8" wheels and bearings went on fairly easily. The new bearings are 15mm wide verses 12mm on the oem 7" wheels. I basically cut the spacers and filed to verify they are square. Note, all 5 spacers must be cut or ground down and trued. The new bearings are much stronger looking also. Once the slides were installed as well as the larger idler wheels, I did notice the rear wheels are 1/2" lower than the slides, and the idler wheels are 3/8" lower. I am going to install in the tunnel once the new bushings arrive. At that time I will decide to either keep the 8" wheels or locate some 7 1/2". Al
 
i was going to try the 7 1/2 off a srx 440 but would love to run 8 if possible,thought i read somewhere some slides where thicker then others?
 
I am running the Garland slides profile #20 These are .050 thicker than the OEM yamaha slides. This is not really enough to even consider. Betheviper recommend I might have an issue with stud engagment while under way. Oh, I forgot to mention, the track is a narrow window style. Not sure if that would have any effect or not.
 
Update; Here are a few photos of the billet 8" wheels on the SXR with a 128" track.
Sxr8wheels1.jpg

Completed and ready to load up and ride.
SXR128skid.jpg
Before
Sxr8wheels2.jpg

After
 
The rear wheels outers were bought on Ebay, the inners 8" are Kawasaki Intruder wheels. The skid idlers are Polaris sized 5 3/8". The track rotates very easily. We measured the approch angle while loaded 21*. Oh, you might notice, I built a tunnell extension for the rear also. Total cost on the modification is $387.00. This includes all 6 idler wheels, 4 rear axle wheels/bearings and aluminum for tunnel extension. I had the rivits on hand as well as the paint for the tunnel extension.
 
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sleddineinar said:
I bought those same 8" wheels on Ebay. I was able to go to a bearing warehouse and get the same exact width bearing so I didn't have to shorten the spacers.
Click to expand...
How did you do that? The OEM bearings are 12MM wide and the larger wheel bearings are 15MM wide. The snap ring groove is set for 15MM. Did you add some 8" wheels to the inners? That was the spacers which really needed to be modified. Basically all spacers needed to be cut and squared up. The modification was really simple actually. Oh, we have plenty of room for installing the skid also. The mod of the 128" track is one of the best we have done on this sled except for the Boss Seat.
 
I would remove the rear shock and cycle the rear suspension to make sure the studs won't hit the rear exchanger or tunnel under a hard tail landing due to the added height of the wheels.
 
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