All trailing arms created equal?

S

srx_eh

Guest
A 2 part question,

1) Are all stock trailing arms interchangeable between models, including the SRX?

2) What is the best after market trailing arm for durablility and price?
 

I am a little confused but I will try

1. The srx has short in hieght trailing arms meaning that the spindal is much shorter on the srx's opposed to the vipers. As for shock mounting, they are all the same so you can put a viper trailing arm on a srx and a srx trailing arm on a viper.

2. We sell an all aluminum front end for yamaha trailing arms sleds and they are stronger then stock and lightest on the market. I cant say that we are the best but I think we are worth you checking out. Our price for a pair of trailing arms are $500. Like I said though we are stronger then stock and are the lightest. Check out our sire for more info or PM.

www.cbperformanceparts.com
 
There are 4 different trailing arm versions.
SX/SRX are the same.
MM/PZML are the same.
All 9" 42.1" wide are the same.
All Vipers are the same.

The difference is in caster, shock bracket angle, spindle. Look at the identification letter on the front of the arm.
 
Thanks, ...I've been hearing good things about moly trailing arms, ...how does stock compare to the different materials offered by after market such as Aluminum, Chrome Moly and Titanium in terms of weight, strength and "bang for buck"?
 
Aluminum Are Junk. Cr-moly are great and Ti are the best you can buy, but cost 600.00 the best bang for your buck is Mountain Performance 100% Cr-moly Arms at 400.00. They "almost" never bend, so it recomended that you drill a small hole (aprox 1/8 ) through the center of the rear mounting bolt to make it sheer off on impact. If you break one....its very quick and easy to screw out the broken bolt and install a new one. ===SRXSRULE===
 
SRXSRULE, You are obviously unaware of the heat treated and annealed aluminum and the strength that it has. If aluminum is treated properly, it is of equal strength as chrome moly. We have many of our products out on the trails and none have called back and complained. Stop making accusations about our products. It would be a different story if you tried our products and were not happy with them but for you to go ahead and say our products are junk.
 
2000srx.....if you think treated aluminum is equall to Cr-molly your smoking some good sh1t. Tell me how many different brands of trailing arms you have ACTUALLY ran on YOUR sled? I have destroied More Trailing arms then years you have been alive so dont try to tell me what I know and dont know you punkass kid. ===SRXSRULE===
 
Well theres a broad statement, "Aluminum is junk" I suppose that we all need to replace every aluminum part of our snowmobiles with steel like SRXSRULE did because aluminum is junk. Unless of course we replace all of the aluminum on our sleds with TI like SRXSRULE may have, but I doubt it.

As well as would I post that I should drill out a main structural bolt so it breaks off easier? Does the instruction sheet for those arms say that? I doubt it, the lawyers would have a field day with that one.

I guess the real question that should have been asked is are you building some special purpose unit or just replacing a bent part. If you just bent an arm replace it with what was there. If you have put 3 times the value in every other part of your sled, then investigate other material parts. If I was going for the common $100 a pound weight savings, then thats what to, as I always do, but hey thats just me. If I was buying a set of steel arms for $400 and I could get TI for $200 more, why even look at the cheap steel parts, you're taking cheap steel parts off!

To answer your original question, the srx and sx arms are interchangable, all others have slight differences as listed above. To answer your second part, the best arm available for durability, for the price, is a stock part.

There are MANY aftermarket manufacturers that sell QUALITY lighter parts, out of various materials, alot of them aluminum, to spend the extra money is up to you, depending on your application. However, you'll have to WEIGH that out for yourself.
 
800 said:
Well theres a broad statement, "Aluminum is junk" I suppose that we all need to replace every aluminum part of our snowmobiles with steel like SRXSRULE did because aluminum is junk.


800.....Where did I say to replace all aluminum parts on your sled? I believe this post talks only about trailing arms....Does it not?

As for drilling the bolt....Yes that is recomended to prevnt buckeling the tunnle on an impact....the arms dont bend like the stockers. This is directly from Mac, the owner and designer at Mountain Perf.

I'm sure alum arms work fine for lake racers and trail crusiers that never get the skis off the ground but if you do ANY jumping or Drops they fold like butter. ===SRXSRULE===
 
I thought I remember seeing someone make CrMo head with carbon fibre shafts for trailing arms, the shafts were replaceable too.
 
I agree with the stock trailing arms being junk. If you break one why would you spend the money on another "breakable" piece when there are easy and fairly inexpensive ways to eliminate a weak spot of your sled (ie buy new arms for 400-500$).

2ooo, tell us a little bit more about the aluminum that you use in your arms, some details please.

BTW...i hope nobody here thinks that aluminum is equal in strength to chro-moly.
 
I guess I went with a general statement because you did. To say ALL aluminum trailing arms are junk would mean you've used them all and failed them all, which you haven't, so YOU cannot make that statement. Further the fact that you have wrecked alot snowmobiles? Is that a plus or a minus?
I'll add that aluminum CAN be heat treated to be as strong or stronger than CM and has been for years. And don't go into the fact that aluminum arms have not been beaten to death and lived, because again you obviously haven't cross country raced where A. a suspension component receives a much higher load as well as cycle times than anyone can give it out in the mountians and B. get jumped, and jumped hard. In cross country racing a part will receive said loads THOUSANDS of times in a 2 hr. race. The parts that CB builds have been built to those same specs and run in these conditions for almost 20yrs. so keep in mind this is not something new.

So please refrain from DOWNING a quality product you are not familiar with as well as an area such as metalurgy which again does not appear to be your area of extpertise, because unfortunately in this case, the 15yr. old kid is more familiar in this area than you are.

Also, it may be common where you come from for someone you may know to tell people how to make a structural bolt fail. My statement was that if he does that in writing, I'm sure his lawyer as well as his product liability people would not agree with him. If a customer were to do that by his written instructions and the bolt shears for any reason, and causes a fatal accident, that persons wife may rename your friends company when the lawsuit is over.........maybe it'll be your wife?
 
I am interested to hear about how they treat their aluminum, as well as the alloy and the temper. My statement above about chromo being stronger than aluminum was only a general statement, which is only true in most cases, not all cases.
 
800, just to let ya know, I know who you are. If you think your aluminum arms are so strong, send me a set and I will see how they hold up to my "abuse". Also, I never said I wrecked alot of sleds...just that I have destroied many trailing arms. 90 % of the time I never hit anything, just the way the sled landed. I broke 2 Fabecraft Carbon Fiber arms in 22 miles and never hit anything. By the way ....you ever even been to the Mountains? ===SRXSRULE===
 
ya, sure, aluminum can be treated to be stronger than CM, no doubt, nikasil is still techincally an aluminum base.

Is it a good choice to use aluminum for suspension compnents, sure aslong as it's engineered for strength, not producability. I'm not 100% confident in CB's design, looks great forsure, but I dunno if I would trust it in an impact.

Hebi, I don't think Rules was trying to knock your product, there's ALOT of aluminum trailing arm companies out there, I'm a dealer for ekholm and I can say that I didn't take it offensivly when he said that, I took it as CUSTOMER FEEDBACK, if the customer doesn't have faith in aluminum, perhaps it's time to consider making your arms out of something else?

ok, that's enough on that front, now for the one that really alarmed me

800

I really think you need to step back and look for a second and what eric has contributed on the forum and you might realize that he flogs the bejesus out of his machines.

the reason that he rides the mountains (which you so foolishly talk down on him for, being as the mountains are responsible for a substantial portion of the R&D that goes into making lightweight sleds) is becuase he has made a life of flogging his sleds on the trails and in endurance and drag racing, and was almost killed in one of the most spectacular crashes I've ever heard of. He escaped that crash with his life, but then decided to take it slow ans steady in the mountains as it's much safer riding style.

to think that he doesn't know what kind of abuse an aftermarket part can take is foolish, I have never seen a sled snap as many trailing arms as his have, and just ''cause he can accordian a trailing arm doesn't mean that he wrote off the sled, enough air at enough speed will do that easily enough to. and THAT is how most of his breakages have occured.

Next issue is your questioning the drilling of the trailing arm mount bolt.

yes... you're compromising the strength of the chassis. sounds scarey sure, ever hear of a crumple zone? same premis, localize the damage in an area that's less likely to harm the operator and to a lesser extent the chassis.


whatever, we've all got our idea's on how to make a machine better, if you guys wanna say that an aluminum arm is stronger and lighter than all the competition, you can say it, but have you put them side by side with all the competition on a scale and on a press? until you do that, claims don't mean s#!t


anyways, this thread has turned from a valid question thread into a messy entaglement between somone trying to sell some stuff and one of the original yamaha guru's

I for one move that you shouldn't be allowed to advertise anywhere except the vendors forums and the classified section. if a person needs a product, they can ask about pricing and availability there.
 
Chill out everyone . . .

The variables at play in terms of materials used, construction, and special processing are so vast that any of these statements about which general product is better can each be made true or false with changes in these factors.

We had earlier embarked upon engineering (on paper) the different forces that could be transmitted to the arms across a variety of riding situations, hoping to shed some light on why some chassis and arm combinations might appear to fail more easily. (i.e. Viper with the "M" arms) However once the A-arm suspension appeared on the RX-1, we dropped it.

Indeed the "legal" considerations of advising that a fastener be "weakened" to allow failure in conditions that might damage other parts are significant. However, I would rather have the bolt shear, than bend the tunnel or arm. One thing to consider though is that the bending of the arm absorbs energy that shearing a bolt does not. That energy must get absorbed somewhere else . . .

I have bent 5 "M" trailing arms, and have bent a tunnel that was connected to a "R" arm. All of these were NOT as a result of a wreck. I am thoroughly convinced that the geometry of the Viper chassis and the "M" arm combine to deliver greater forces than other combinations.
 
Just a thought for the CB Performance folks:

If you have a very high confidence in the durability of your arms, go ahead and send Rules a set. If they pass the test sufficiently, you will get the endorsment of a very respected TY member. Many members including myself would likely make a purchase.
 


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