[Prometheus]

UPDATE: So I took it out last Sunday and adjusted the settings. Turns out all 4 shocks were cranked all the way to the stiffest setting. I softened them up a bit and it made a massive difference in every aspect. It still doesn't feel like an X3 of course but it is so much better and I feel like I can wait a little before having to upgrade the suspension. I am still probably going to do long travel eventually, I just don't feel like I have to ASAP now haha


So I have a 2021 YXZ SS SE and I recently took a trip out of state to see my brother and we rented an X3 XRS Turbo RR for the weekend and I loved the way it handled. I don't want an X3 because I am a die hard Yamaha fan and won't get anything with a rubber band transmission but damn that suspension was amazing. I get that the X3 makes double the power, I will be throwing a turbo on the YXZ to help with that. My question is, what suspension set up can I get for the YXZ that will be comparable to the X3? Do I need to do a long travel kit or can I get by doing a less expensive route?

 

[leadmic]

Long travel will help a lot, but the Can-am has a longer wheelbase and a trailing arm rear suspension so the Yamaha will never be as good. I have a YXZ and would not buy a Can-am because of the belt and fun factor of shifting the YXZ. I would like the trailing arm suspension and longer wheelbase of the Can-am though. There is someone making a trailing arm kit and wheelbase extinction kit. I forget who it was, maybe some will post up with more INFO.

 

[Whatuhunit]

Check out Avid UTV they are coming out with some really cool yxz stuff lately and he has mild to wild setups. The wild setup is pretty big money however if you were gonna be in your car long term you would never look back again. Or you would look back every time you go out looking for the can ams that are slower than you😂

 

[Prometheus]

Check out Avid UTV they are coming out with some really cool yxz stuff lately and he has mild to wild setups. The wild setup is pretty big money however if you were gonna be in your car long term you would never look back again. Or you would look back every time you go out looking for the can ams that are slower than you😂

That 77 inch LT is pretty good looking. I might have to do that... big money for sure but it may be worth it

 

[Prometheus]

Long travel will help a lot, but the Can-am has a longer wheelbase and a trailing arm rear suspension so the Yamaha will never be as good. I have a YXZ and would not buy a Can-am because of the belt and fun factor of shifting the YXZ. I would like the trailing arm suspension and longer wheelbase of the Can-am though. There is someone making a trailing arm kit and wheelbase extinction kit. I forget who it was, maybe some will post up with more INFO.

It's Avid UTV that is doing the trailing arm conversion and it is quite expensive lol. If that's what it takes to have the best of both worlds, it must be done.

 

[Whatuhunit]

That 77 inch LT is pretty good looking. I might have to do that... big money for sure but it may be worth it

The new 77” kit also has the stock shocks option now which is a huge money saver. Still close to 10k by the time you buy axles, but if it is a total game changer it might be a bullet worth biting!

 

[greevesqub]

For a lower cost alternative check out the Fireball LT. Fireball adds 7" to the width and 3.5" to the wheelbase. Just installed one on my 2016 and it has transformed the car. It is so much more stable and plush. The stock suspension was really beating me up. Also installed 30" tires when I installed the LT. The guys at Fireball were very helpful as I called them several times during the install. The Fireball kit was a bit over $3000 and it included axles.

 

[AdrenalineATV]

Have any of you guys tried the Shock Therapy Ride Improvement System?

 

[Whatuhunit]

eventually I would like to try and stand up the rear shocks with the goal of improving geometry and higher quality travel, I know some travel will be lost. From what it looks like it would require a new upper arm for clearance, building the upper shock mount, and messing with valving.

 

[Prometheus]

Have any of you guys tried the Shock Therapy Ride Improvement System?

I am looking in to that as a temporary solution until I want to do LT. I am hearing that Shock Therapy doesn't like the YXZ though so I'm a bit hesitant

 

[RobBeck]

And here I always thought the YXZ suspension looked much fancier and likely worked much better, surely it has its advantages somewhere, over the trailing arm setups? The newer RZR's and X3's are much different, lots of ground clearance, serious amounts of suspension travel, bigger car, bigger tires, bigger etc. Are we sure we should give it all to the trailing arm suspension?

I don't have much time on my new wheel/tires/springs but so far those changes alone have radically transformed the machine, I'd start there.

 

[Prometheus]

And here I always thought the YXZ suspension looked much fancier and likely worked much better, surely it has its advantages somewhere, over the trailing arm setups? The newer RZR's and X3's are much different, lots of ground clearance, serious amounts of suspension travel, bigger car, bigger tires, bigger etc. Are we sure we should give it all to the trailing arm suspension?

I don't have much time on my new wheel/tires/springs but so far those changes alone have radically transformed the machine, I'd start there.

I am far from a suspension expert. To be honest, I have never even heard of trailing arm suspension until very recently and I heard that it is superior. Of course the internet is a place of many opinions. One thing I do know is that the suspension on a stock X3 is much better than a stock YXZ, not that the YXZ has bad suspension overall. I haven't even adjusted mine yet because I have no idea what I would even be doing. That X3 felt like a Cadillac on trails and whoops man. My YXZ beats me up on trails and I have only tackled smaller whoops so far but I imagine the bigger ones won't feel as plush at higher speeds like in the X3.

 

[RobBeck]

I am far from a suspension expert. To be honest, I have never even heard of trailing arm suspension until very recently and I heard that it is superior. Of course the internet is a place of many opinions. One thing I do know is that the suspension on a stock X3 is much better than a stock YXZ, not that the YXZ has bad suspension overall. I haven't even adjusted mine yet because I have no idea what I would even be doing. That X3 felt like a Cadillac on trails and whoops man. My YXZ beats me up on trails and I have only tackled smaller whoops so far but I imagine the bigger ones won't feel as plush at higher speeds like in the X3.

Yeah as stated above though, its a much bigger (in most every way) ride. Ground clearance and suspension travel, width for sure is a huge bonus too where it applies (ie. 72" x3 swallowing up whoops). Trailing arm setup alone I just am not sure is the crux of the matter, but I'm no expert either.

Most all my friends have X3's or RZR Turbo/Pro XPs, I get it, but width to width the same I think most of their benefit from there is in the spring/wheel setup and power in itself. The YXZ is a driver car that you have to work much harder to always keep in the power band, the simplicity/functionality of the belt helps there too.

If you end up keeping your YXZ, definitely look into the Weller HD spring kit. Gave me back a lot more ground clearance, added 30 carnivores too. Machine feels much closer to what you are probably looking for without needing a 2nd mortgage.

 

[fortrdb]

I am far from a suspension expert. To be honest, I have never even heard of trailing arm suspension until very recently and I heard that it is superior. Of course the internet is a place of many opinions. One thing I do know is that the suspension on a stock X3 is much better than a stock YXZ, not that the YXZ has bad suspension overall. I haven't even adjusted mine yet because I have no idea what I would even be doing. That X3 felt like a Cadillac on trails and whoops man. My YXZ beats me up on trails and I have only tackled smaller whoops so far but I imagine the bigger ones won't feel as plush at higher speeds like in the X3.

You should definitely at least understand where your shock settings are set. I have seen them set all over the place from the factory on early units. If you are getting beat up, then it sounds like you should set everything to full loose, or at least a known soft setting, and start tightening . It is just a simple wrench/screwdriver adjustment and it may make you wish you had checked it sooner..... It makes a huge difference.

 

[ranamuck]

You should definitely at least understand where your shock settings are set. I have seen them set all over the place from the factory on early units. If you are getting beat up, then it sounds like you should set everything to full loose, or at least a known soft setting, and start tightening . It is just a simple wrench/screwdriver adjustment and it may make you wish you had checked it sooner..... It makes a huge difference.

Indeed. The stock suspension settings are quite firm to enable performance handling. Unfortunately, a cush suspension and performance setup are mutually exclusive. I've set mine to the most comfort settings per the manual and it's indeed far more cush but it came at a price of losing performance handling. I'm ok with this as I'm not jumping, hitting woops at 60mph or duning like a crazy person (to old for that any more) but some sort of happy medium should be possible; but it takes some time and dedication to dial it in. I'd at least play with the shock settings before dumping more money into it.

 

[RobBeck]

On my heavy (with accessories) '19 YXZ (X2 shock setup), the car was just dragging everything, very unstable and bicycling everywhere. Way too soft for my riding. Firming it up and cranking the suspension settings to nearly full hard basically everywhere helped quite a bit, but the travel was still not there even with cranking preload substantially. Without travel there is not much movement for the suspension, and that is never a good thing with any rough terrain and hard riding.

I've read the older cars were stiff/etc.; not the case with mine but the springs just didnt have any backbone either (car weight surely wasn't helping). Anyway adding those Weller HD springs gave it back the feel of having some suspension travel (ride height is back where I want it), and a spring that actually has enough backbone to actually do some work. I still need to work on my shock settings but right off I think it is not too far off with mostly stiff settings. Also doesn't look as much like a lowered sports car next to everyone else's 4x4's lol.

 

[darkjuju]

I have been from stock tweaks, to full stock X2 respring/revalve, to Weller LT respring/revalve to finally 3.0 IBP in the rear. IMO you can get a decent ride out of stock shocks with springs and valving, even the LT was nice but nothing made a major change in the suspension of the car (jumping, large long whoop sections, major G outs) like 3.0 IBP in the rear. So if you want to go direct to X3 like ride dont waist money in between, go straight LT and replace the rears with the 3.0 IBP, they work on more than just the Cognito LT kit, I know I have seen someone from Texas on youtube I think with some nice yxz's and fireball LT with the 3.0s.

 

[Prometheus]

I have been from stock tweaks, to full stock X2 respring/revalve, to Weller LT respring/revalve to finally 3.0 IBP in the rear. IMO you can get a decent ride out of stock shocks with springs and valving, even the LT was nice but nothing made a major change in the suspension of the car (jumping, large long whoop sections, major G outs) like 3.0 IBP in the rear. So if you want to go direct to X3 like ride dont waist money in between, go straight LT and replace the rears with the 3.0 IBP, they work on more than just the Cognito LT kit, I know I have seen someone from Texas on youtube I think with some nice yxz's and fireball LT with the 3.0s.

Thank you for your input! That is the sort of direct answer I was looking for. I'm going to look more in to the Fireball kit with the King's. That set up and a turbo will make the YXZ better than any Can Am out there lol

 

[Prometheus]

Indeed. The stock suspension settings are quite firm to enable performance handling. Unfortunately, a cush suspension and performance setup are mutually exclusive. I've set mine to the most comfort settings per the manual and it's indeed far more cush but it came at a price of losing performance handling. I'm ok with this as I'm not jumping, hitting woops at 60mph or duning like a crazy person (to old for that any more) but some sort of happy medium should be possible; but it takes some time and dedication to dial it in. I'd at least play with the shock settings before dumping more money into it.

I wouldn't say I drive that hard but I do love a good, fast run through some whoops! We had the X3 hitting some pretty big ones at 80+ and it was a great time. It seems like the X3 was pretty soft overall but still ate the whoops up like they weren't even there

 

[Prometheus]

You should definitely at least understand where your shock settings are set. I have seen them set all over the place from the factory on early units. If you are getting beat up, then it sounds like you should set everything to full loose, or at least a known soft setting, and start tightening . It is just a simple wrench/screwdriver adjustment and it may make you wish you had checked it sooner..... It makes a huge difference.

I am taking it out tomorrow and I'm going to play with suspension settings