My '04 X don't seem to corner confidently. I've noticed on this forum that it might be a common complaint and everyone seems to point at the bad caster. I also have seen aftermarket a-arms that suposidly fix this. Very expensive too. I was checking out how much work it would be to make some adjustable billet aluminum lowers. I saw something that might work. The black bushings that stick out past the actual a-arm is about .2" thick on each end. Do you guys think it would be worth shaving one side of the bushing to move the top arm back and the lower one forward? I think you could get about a .3" extra difference in ball joint location. Before I took my arms apart I thought I'd run it by any one who already took theirs apart and maybe saw a problem with this thought.

 

An interesting proposition Halfliter. Moving the upper A-arm back by shimming (or in this case trimming the plastic bushing down and moving a likewise amount to the front) could be a very cheap and effective way of increasing caster. The way the plastic bushings on the DS are designed, this could be easily done.

I was not aware that the new Baja X needed this fix. I put Timmy Boy upper A-arms on my '01DS, which totally fixed that problem, but my '02 Baja was good to go stock. The aluminum A-arms on the new DS are so trick I wouldn't want to replace them anyway.

I have to sell my Baja before I can allow myself to upgrade to the X. I have my son's Raptor to sell too, as he is already thrashing his new Z-400, and that is too many quads in the garage at the same time. I almost went with a Predator, which I like alot, but it's no DS. IF I had gone with a Predator, I could have justified keeping the Baja, but now that I have decided to go with the X, the Baja has to go. I did sell my '01 DS, I will probably cave in and buy the X as soon as one of these other quads sells....

 

I'm not sure that the caster is my problem. I've only had this for a short while and the steering is one thing I'm not sure about. I just know everyone complains about caster so I tought that is what I'll look at first. It seems like an easy fix. I too don't want to replace my cool aluminum uppers. I would, however, make billet aluminum lowers. I think they would look cool. I just have a hard time putting on parts to a quad that has everything from the factory. That's one of the things that makes this quad awsome.

 

Try a steering stabilizer. It takes a lot of the twitchyness out of the steering.

TBR make some upper-only a-arms. That's what I have and they work great. I set the castor at 10-degree for desert racing.

 

This topic comes up every now and then. Some people have changed the stock front tire and said that it made a good difference. You could also try a taller front tire or lowering the rear ride height, basically anything for more caster. When I first bought my DS I thought it was a problem but after some time on it I trust the handling fully now but I would not want a short front tire either[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Tire selection, steering stabilizer, setting the correct toe out for your weight would all probably come before working on the a-arms. The toe in-toe out changes as the suspension moves up and down. Setting up the bikes front end for your weight should probably come first. There have been some good posts by Hightower on this if you will do a search for them. Can you desrcibe your steering symptoms?