thought I would give a update, the pilot is finished, took it to the desert this past weekend and to say it is amazing just is not enough. The front end ended up with 16 inches of usable wheeltravel with the stock ball joints with 2 stage Fox X coilover shocks that are 19.5 inches eye to eye and as I stated before the rear is at 14. with fox coilovers. I can still get more by redoing the shock length. My friend has 2 full blown ATV long travel??? pilots that he has no intrest in after driving this one, he is ready to scrap both front and rear arms and shocks and copy this one. I bought the front shocks off a guy that had them on a dracart and was selling some airshocks on e-bay. I have to say the front is absolutely amazing. Took a bit to adjust the steering but after some heavy head scratching trying to keep it from wanting to go left everytime we got the alignment real close to 1/4 toed in, a few wrong? adjustments with what I thought was to much toe in it was like magic, the pilot can be driven through the roughest stuff one handed like it is on rails. No pull to one side, no jerking of the wheel, my 12 year old son had a ball in it. I will have my son post some photos tomorrow, With a 100 percent stock
Engine it will eat my friends long travel 500s for lunch where suspension is needed. In plain words his suck LOL. WAY to stiff, way to much rear kick I completly guessed on the front shock location on the front arms and made new mounts up top but it strokes the entire shock and bottoms the shock just before the ball joint tops out. My friend took some video of it on a long woop section with holes out at Barstow, the pilot stays level with the wheels doing the work, then took video of his, I don't think his wheels move,. Mine was using 3/4 of the rear shocks I guessed at the spring adjustment, a little adjustment and was able to use all the rear travel and at the end it was really fun to drive, ZERO kick in the rear, the front never hit the ground but soaked it all up the only thing that limits it is its length now. With some HP this thing would be something. Total expenditure was 284 each for the rear coilover foxes with springs costing 40 buck each, the front shocks were 250 for the pair about 1500 new from what I understand, I won the bump steer kit on e-bay for 178 and I have MAYBE a hundred fifty dollars in all the front and rear arms and links plus I used top quality hymes including making the tie rods with them because the stock tie rod ends cannot come close to reaching as far as they need to. The stock front and rear brake lines worked fine and DO NOT need to be changed. I have learned a lot about what and what not to do the last month or 2 and have had a great time doing it. I feel bad for the people who have sunk fortunes into what they thought were top long travel pilots, 6-7 grand, not even close, or should I say inches away and so much to stiff you cant use 1/4 of the limited travel you have. Thank you hoser and all the input you and others have given me. Now its onto pilot number 2. hoser I will get back to you on the wheels, my friend asked me about them before I saw you had asked. I will let you know! Thanks again---Dave