Here is my attempt to fix it........

Front Skid shock rebuilt/revalved for stiffer springs
Hy-Gear Twisted dual rate spring kit
Hy-Gear heavy duty bottom out bumper
Hy-Gear HD shock bushing.

was your old spring a sno pro one?

Yes, that is my old Sno Pro spring in the pic. I was running the preload adjustment about half way up the threads. Hy-Gear's setup allows me to not set any preload as the tender(small grey one) spring handles the initial travel, then progressively both springs handled the load, and finally a spacer behing the tender spring transfers the load to the red spring(300 lb rate) to slows travel down before it hits the HD bottom out bumper. The shock was revalved for these springs.

Hopefully I can try it out in a few weeks, for now I will ride my ZR500..............