Has anyone else out there other than me tried spacers front/back w/ short sport tires yet? Has anyone bent there axle or front hubs or there any other negatives from adding spacers? I added spacers & dominator tires & WOW, what a difference in cornering ability. I took it to Victory Motorsports motorcross track to try it out w/ the big boys, which in stock form would never have even concidered since it was so tippy feeling, under powered & heavy. I have to lean but can hold the throttle pinned w/o out high siding. My goodness, you can really see the suspension weaknesses of the Scrambler in that environment since I had my ride vidio taped & I've watch the replays over allot of times. The rear end just bounces around. This was just about the most fun I think I ever had on my quad so far & it is very humbling compaired to motorcross quads & what they can do. Man can the 400EX's fly. I might have more power, since I'm modified, but they will absolutly smoke me anywhere on the track & even in the straights since I'm bouncing all over the place & hanging on for dear life & they're just flat out accelerating. My Scrambler is down to about 460-470 lbs which is still heavy but better than stock but the shocks still bottomed. If you can try out a motorcross track sometime, you wont reget it, what a blast. This is a practice track in Ohio that I went to.
Jim Maloney 98 400 Scrambler.

 

I have tried smaller sport tires. The handling was a LOT better, a lot less pushing, and REALLY BIG difference in cornering speed because of the lack of tire roll over.

Did you try the tires before & after the spacers? I am wondering how much a difference just the spacers would make.

 

What size spacers, and where do you get them?

Does changing your tire size affect rpms and how the clutch reacts?

I would really like to be able to corner better. I come flying down a straight-a-way with all this speed built up and have to slam on the brakes, roll it up on the two outside wheels, and hope like hell I don't roll over. Maybe it's a lack of knowlege / experience in taking corners while racing...

 

Hawkman, I dont think it's inexperience, it's definatley the quad because in a stock setup it is very tippy feeling. After lowering it w/ the Dominator tire & adding spacer to get 49" wide in the rear & 48.5" wide in the front, the cornering ability is improved 100%. I measured the change in ride heigth & I think I lost 1.25" in ride heigth, the Dominator tires are the shortest/lightest tire in it's size especially compaired to the Holeshots which are tall for the same size. I added the durablue spacers front & rear but had .75" machined off the rear spacers so I dint have the rear any wider than 49". I didn't want to get too wide for the woods riding I do. The smaller tires also acted like I got a 5hp increase but I guess I loose about 5mph on the top end. I still run over the same rocks, logs etc as before w/ less ground clearance & it doesn't even slow me down but I do feel the rear skid plate hit more now than before. I ran w/ the shorter tires for a while & was very pleased w/ the improvement in handling but not until I added the spacers did the cornering drastically improve over stock. Do both changes at the same time & you'll REALLY notice what I mean which will make you glad you made the improvement.
Jim Maloney 98 400 Scrambler

 

What size Dominator/wheel did you go to? How do you measure the width? from the outside of the spacers across the front?

How long have you been running this way and what problems, if any are you experiencing? I can find in the manual where Polaris recommends against going to larger tires, but no mention of going to smaller. They do recommend that if you change tire size, that you keep the same size difference between front and rear size.

Did you change sprockets as well?

Thanks!

 

Jim, when I switched to 20" tires from 22" on my Scrambler, I probaly lost 5 mph on top, and it took longer to get there. The 2-stroke might do better since it revs more.

The PVT really makes up the difference in tire sizing except top end and right off the bottom. The main reason I like smaller tires is handling.

 

I run 20" rear & 21" front Dominators & the stock advertised width is 45.5" which I verified by measuring & I measured the spacers so I now know the new total width by addition plus I verified by measuring. I kept the 1" difference between front & rear tire diameter. You cant change the gearing in the front (driveshaft) so I didn't change the rear gearing. I've only been using the spacers for a couple of months so far w/o any problems & I thought if I did ever see problems, it would show up at the mx track. The mx track really beats the crap out of man & machine especially w/ all the jumping. My friend vidio taped me for 4 laps & one of the jumps, about 3', I landed really croocked on the left rear tire first, way before any other tire hit the ground & in slow motion replay you can see the rear axle bow but it didn't bend. I bet if it was any higher, then the title of this entry would be dont use spacers or you'll bend your axle. I was really supprised that everything was fine. The point of this entry was to see if anyone else had any problem w/ this setup but for me not yet. I'm going back to the mx track next month & this time my dad said he'll vidio tape all the laps so I can see on replay how much the rear axle is bowing. The stock axle stress limit is 70,000psi but the durablue one is 300,000psi & durablue said that they had them bend but their guaranteed so I guess it doen't matter but my point is if you can bend the dura blue one then you would think the stock axle is really weak. I'll let you know if it ever bends & if anyone has experince w/ theirs bending I'd love to hear about it.
Jim Maloney 98 400 Scrambler

 

Thanks, Jim.

Good info.

 

By the way Adam Dowden, did you write the article on the Hot Aeat steering post & lower mount? If so great job.
Jim