I'm sure you can, but with how far you are at that point, I have always just pulled the skid and thrown it on a bench so it is at working height.

 

You can tip the sled on its side loosen the track, unlock the torsion springs, remove the inner idler, the two shock bolts and it comes right out. To me it’s the simplest way as the tunnel bolts keep the skid arms from flopping around

 

I'd pull the rear susp & check everything out while you're at it myself.

 

if low mileage no reason to pull the skid. i take shocks out all the time with out removing the skid.

 

The shocks will come out, but by the time you fiddle around with that, you could probably have the skid out. It doesn't take that long.

 

It's just me but the effort your putting into removing the rear shock without removing the slkid defeats the benefits of just removing the skid. With the skid out you can look at the FTS which should be serviced anyway. Look at the bushings, bearings, slides and just a unrestricted over view of the skid. Lubricant all your pivot points install the rebuilt shocks and reinstall.

 

Very good points

 

But to answer the op's question. Yes. You can remove the shock without removing the skid.

 

You guys act like it’s super hard I’ve swapped shocks trail side testing stuff. It’s definitely quicker than pulling everything

 

on a new 22 sled thar every walker evans shock has had either low gas charge, wrong valving, and or low oil. you are gong to pull the skid? i can have both shock's out in 10 minutes. and not scratch some ones brand new sled. and maybe not even 10 minutes.

 

thank you, this is a 1,100 mi sled

 

Rick, maybe I’m missing a step in my advanced age … but the last time I put a coupled suspension shock back in (2022 VR1 137) I wished like hell I’d pulled the skid first; taking the shocks out was easy enough but trying to sync up the front and rear arm compression to line up the bolts to put them
back in was a bitch, with the skid in the sled.

What’d I miss?

 

Rick, maybe I’m missing a step in my advanced age … but the last time I put a coupled suspension shock back in (2022 VR1 137) I wished like hell I’d pulled the skid first; taking the shocks out was easy enough but trying to sync up the front and rear arm compression to line up the bolts to put them
back in was a bitch, with the skid in the sled.

What’d I miss?

Yes. To pull the FTS out you have to aline the bottom bolt with the clearance hole of the front idler wheels which is not bad. Then you need to realign it when having the shock/spring partially compress to realign the bolt to reinstall it. Much easier to just pull the skid and unbolt the limiter straps to install the FTS.

 

Fts is easiest shock in rear skid to replace.
With sled on lift roll jack under sled and jack front of track up taking pressure of limiter straps.
Unbolt limiter straps.
Let jack down now plenty of room to remove nuts from bolts.
Then jack suspension up a bit to relieve shock pressure of bolts.
Remove bolts and pull shock!!
Rear is a bit more difficult!

 

with the sled on it's side. on a moving blanket. i made a very simple tool that goes between the front torque arm and the limiter strap bottom shaft. that collapses the arm just enough to remove to remove the limiter strap top bolt or bolts remove the front idler wheel's very simple. then with a Milwaukee 3/8" impact remove the two 13mm bolts one on each side. remove the top 15mm nut/bolt and pull shock and lower rod out. be careful of the washer against the rails. ( you have to do this with the rear suspension out) no difference. then unhook the rear torsion springs and move all the way to the back. remove the 2 inner idler wheels. again about 2 minutes to do. then remove the bolt at the torque arm control rod nut/bolt. remove the upper shock nut/bolt. then the lower shock nut bolt. pull out with the control rod attached. i don't even loosen the track to do this. all of this has to be done either in or out of the sled. it easier out of the sled but not faster. i do this stuff every day. you get very good and fast this way. time is money in my business. i rebuilt probably 200-300 shocks this past season, had 131 sleds through the shop. not counting motors etc. sent through the mail to rebuild. sold thousands of clutch kits, a-arm bushing's, and greaseable drive shaft bearing kit's. motor mounts, etc. mainly just 2 of us. me and my wife. we are both 63 years old. had my 32 year old son for maybe two weeks. you learn how to beat the system working on this much stuff.

 

Rick I am glad you mentioned the part about steps having to be done regardless whether in or out of the sled. In the past I have always pulled the skid out to service the shocks, fighting the skid in and out of the sled. This fall when servicing I decided to try removing both shocks while leaving the skid in as I thought about the steps involved, and came to the conclusion that they needed to be done one way or the other. So I left the skid in and was happy I did, a few less steps to get to the same result.

 

TY so much! Collapsing the front arm without removing the skid was the missing piece. My method was the same… except remove the skid so I could flip the skid upside down and use a boot on the front arm, use body weight to compress and align. Then stand on it again to bolt it back together.

Let me guess, the very simple tool works on the same principle as a c clamp?

 

TY so much! Collapsing the front arm without removing the skid was the missing piece. My method was the same… except remove the skid so I could flip the skid upside down and use a boot on the front arm, use body weight to compress and align. Then stand on it again to bolt it back together.

Let me guess, the very simple tool works on the same principle as a c clamp?

yes i will post a picture of it if i can figure out how to post pic's here? seems real confusing to me.

 

I made a stand for tipping my sled on its side many years ago out of plumbing parts and it still works awesome to this day. I just changed my hyfax recently on my 2023 XCR.
Everyone makes a huge ordeal about pulling the skid.
Working alone, it took me 5 minutes to have mine completely out of the sled.

Re-installing it is a little trickier, so I did have one other person help me to align the 4 bolts. It took us maybe 8 minutes.

For the record, I'm not an expert mechanic by ANY means.
Pull the skid!

 

Touch/click the photo icon.

Touch/click in square

Select photo gallery or one of the other 2

Select the photo you want and then hit add. Five steps to do.