After testing with MTS at Boulders OHV to find a base setting, we had them work their magic with valving. This is my first impressions of the re-valve and what value I think it provides.

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(0:25) Everybody, Nick Olson, Chupacabra Off-Road. Welcome back to the channel. Today, we're doing some suspension testing. This is going to be part two in our series of MTS suspension tuning with my 2021 Can-Am X3 XRC. Look, I know you guys are asking a lot of questions about the Speed. What's going on with the Speed? What's happening? Where is it at? Good questions. I don't have a lot of answers, but of course, you guys just know we got cameras, we got shooters. We're ready to go. It doesn't matter how hot it's going to be, how long it's going to take. But for the purpose of this video, let's focus on the Can-Am. It's going to be a good day for us after spending all those miles in the Speed. Now I get to hop back in my baby car that works very well, and I'm very excited to vlog it out here. We're here in Geyser Loop. We've shot out here a bunch. If you've seen any videos on our channel, it's very rough. It's racecourse rough. And like I mentioned, this is part two of a video suspension tuning with MTS Off-Road. If you guys aren't familiar, MTS Off-Road is a local shock tuning company based here in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm going to link below to part one. There's a ton of great information. The whole gang came out. They watched us, helped me set the car up and dial it in from where I thought was good. If you guys have seen the channel, if you haven't, you guys know I love geeking on suspension. I love this type of stuff. And I'm very excited today because after we had that first tuning session with MTS, we were just getting the right ride height and clickers dialed in for my preference with just a spring kit. After that video, we stripped the shocks off, sent them to MTS, Jeep, Porter, and the gang work their magic, and now I've got the full re-valve set up.

(1:52) So hey, if you guys have seen some of the videos on the X3, I thought this is a very well-suspended car out of the box. And now it's going to be interesting to know, hey, as the consumer, is a spring kit going to get you 90% of the way there, or is valving going to just unlock this whole new level of plushness into a small bump compliance, bottom-out resistance, all that type of stuff. So we're looking to find the answer to that today. Clicker-wise, tuning-wise, ride height-wise, we should be pretty close. We're going to run off of their base settings, what they recommended. They know us pretty well after that shoot. We're going to run in, see how she feels, maybe make some adjustments if we think we need to. Probably will anyway, just because you're good to know what we might be able to chase that might work better or not. We might make a setting that gets us further away from where I want to be, but in any event, I'm excited. So let's get into it.

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(2:50) So one thing you guys are probably going to notice is the car looks a lot different. The wrap is now off of it. We've got part of the wrap. We're working on a new idea. I had a little boo-boo. We scratched the side of our bed pretty bad or beside our bedside. And I was thinking, you know what, I got an idea of a new wrap. And the wrap on the stock doors just really wasn't sitting that well for me because of the notching. So I wanted to go with some aftermarket doors, which is what I should have done in the first place. I reached out to Danny Madigan Motorsports. Love their products. I ran almost all their products on my previous Razer Triple S. Loved the fit and finish of these doors. One thing about these doors, I think they're very well-priced compared to everybody else on the market. And the one thing that's awesome about them is you already have a bracket that's going to run our Razer 1000 and turbo door bags. We meet so many of you guys at shows. Hey, I got aftermarket doors, but can I run Chupacabra bags? The answer usually is no, and you have to kind of make something custom. Think about that before you go buy some doors, guys. I've talked to dozens of you guys as recent as an event we're at a few weeks ago. So come out again. Shout out to them for a product where you can easily add some doorbags like ours, which are awesome and an awesome value. So you end up spending three or four hundred bucks on door bags that are linked to only one brand of door. So that's a big change.

(4:06) One last detail, guys, on the doors. We were at a show last summer in Tucson, and I saw one of the guys, Gabe, who has a cool Can-Am. He started to use this boat decking, and I know it's become a bit of a trend. I know there's some companies that make some nice custom-fit stuff that are pretty pricey. We ended up going with this boat decking. I'll link it below off Amazon. It was pretty easy to install. We ended up doing both doors and doing the roof. So we had to get three sections. I want to say it cost us about 150 bucks, and it already has an adhesive on the backside, and we just used a heat gun to kind of get it to secure around the edges. So it's brand new. We'll keep you guys posted on how it holds up. I think it looks clean. You can tell it's not the highest quality. I feel like the color of it. You got a bunch of color options, but I think for us in the Southwest, it's going to be cool. I think we were talking about when we went to install it, if we lived in a really wet environment, it might not hold up as good. But I like how it adds a little weight to the door. It makes the door close a little bit easier. Most importantly, beyond looking cool and foo-foo, it's going to prevent the rattle. So I don't want any rattles. These components are most overridling, of course. So that's why we did it. And we want to just have a clean, polished look. And I think it's going to all come together and get the new wrap. Palm stake tuned for this new wrap we're going to throw on it.

(5:22) Another thing, really, change-wise about all that was we did get the car completely professionally aligned. So we're feeling good about how the car drives alignment-wise, and I think it's going to work well. So this should be as dialed as this car has ever been. And we're going to go ahead and double check our ride heights real quick. We're going to double check our tire pressures and all that and go run some sections out here at Geyser and see how it feels.

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(6:07) You guys like that ND filter, stepping our game up. All you GoPro people, if you guys are looking to get one, the 11 is so good. This is a 9, but the coloring that comes out of both, the length of the battery, how long it lasts, the 11 is money well spent. We want to get this on the front shocks doing its thing, so I think that'll look cool.

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(7:06) Okay, so one thing that we learned testing with MTS is hit a section, watch it, look at the footage, and then kind of talk about how it felt. So let me take my helmet off so I don't sound muffled, but I know this drop-off section well. We've shot a lot of content here for my race car, this car, etc. So let's see how it goes.

(7:28) So this is coming back. Excited for you guys to see this crispy R5, 4K, 120 frames a second. What'd you think of the roofline, Jacob?

(7:43) Definitely a lot flatter for sure. Like, it doesn't look like it was chattering nowhere near as much. Coming up through these, like this big dip right before you drop off, like it didn't look like it was really unsettled very much at all. Like, it looked a lot flatter for sure.

(8:02) What's funny is we measured the car before we started. The front end looked pretty high. It was a couple inches higher than the rear. It looked very pre-runner-ish. Yeah, I was automatically thinking we're going to probably have to lower it, which I think we still might want to try. But it felt very balanced. It felt so plush. What's interesting too about how Jeep and the guys set the clickers up, the high speed and the low speed on the front end is completely wide open, and we had so much bottom-out control. We went like 48, and then we went 55, we went 65, and then the last one was 68 off of that. And I wouldn't hit stuff that rough normally. We hit the Brewers gameplay, I think, on the last one just a little bit. I don't think the car bottomed, but it's that freaking Can-Am thing where you bottom out the car before you bottom out, even on these 33s. But overall plushness, oh my gosh. And yeah, I suspected it to be a little chopper-ish, like when the back end's kind of getting working too much. But can I see another clip of it coming out this way?

(9:06) The last one? Yeah, so that's 68 miles an hour. Yeah, wow. I mean, so far, this place is so rough, guys. Like, you know, it's not that fun to drive out here. But you really can feel exactly what the car is doing or not doing. We're going to get us some drone shots of coming to the story we're leading up to, of course. With all the rain we've had here, Geyser, it takes water forever to soak up. So we might have to avoid a couple puddles, but I'm hoping we can hit a couple of these G-outs and see how she goes. And we'll go test another section and see how it goes. But so far, I'm surprised how balanced the front and rear is, as the ride height is quite a bit higher than the rear. Higher than I thought, but so far, wow. Really good stuff.

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(10:23) So Jacob and I just ran the car down along straightaway, went over the G-out again with him in it. He weighs a little bit more than David, who was in the car before. Jacob, you've been in this car a bunch coming off this G-out that we've filmed a bunch. What did it feel like compared to before?

(10:38) The bottom-out was definitely a lot more controlled. There's a lot more centralized, I feel, in the car rather than just bottoming out the rear. I did notice right afterwards, I feel like with me having that little bit of extra weight and maybe the rebound was a little excessive, I noticed the car was wanting to hop a little bit. But again, I think a lot of that has to do with just that little extra weight in the car maybe moving around. But other than that, it's a lot smoother, a lot more controlled feeling. I feel like it's a lot more predictable. You know what the car's going to do. It doesn't seem like it's as tippy as much. Like, it wants to kind of roll, but it gets to a certain point and just kind of holds its body. It doesn't want to keep diving into the corners as much.

(11:16) Yeah, so I want to talk about tippy. So we've just been running the racecourse stuff, but that's not day-to-day. We went over here and we're zipping around on some twisty little turns, and I was trying to see what it felt like, body roll, breaking loose. And my suspicion was that, okay, the current ride height feels fantastic for this rough stuff, but what about day-to-day, all-around setting that we're chasing? We're about 17 1/4, 17 1/2. Don't mark me on these ride heights, guys, because I'm running 33s with 17 PSI. MTS Off-Road has some guides for you guys. They like to look at the angle of the CVs. But just so you know, we're about an inch and three-quarter higher in the front. We're 19, 19 1/2. So I thought maybe the front end kind of feels a little pre-runner-ish, and that's going to lead to it maybe feeling like the front end wants to push when you're going through that fun, zippy stuff. And I'm blown away. It feels more predictable in that type of riding, and I'm excited to do that more because that's a lot of Arizona Peace Trail, long rides that I do, fun little twisty stuff. I love that stuff. It's like single track on my dirt bike. So I don't want it to be so high that it's pushing, but man, I thought it felt even more controlled.

(12:31) Even with the little stuff, it kind of keeps the front end up out of the deeper spots and stuff like that that we were hitting through a lot of the tighter areas. To me, it just felt like it was something that said before. It just feels a lot more controlled, a lot more stable. It doesn't want to wander as much. It doesn't want to hook things as much and grab and go. It just kind of stays where you're wanting it to go.

(12:54) What I mentioned, they have these completely wide open on your high and low speed compression on the front. They only had about one turn on the rear. So I like that. As long as we have this small bump sensitivity for slow, all-day trail stuff with this setting, I'm going to be happy as a clam because I'm definitely going to want to crank this up when I go to the dunes. So being that we're at a setting where we've got all that bottom-out control, I wouldn't hit stuff like this much faster than that in general. This isn't a race car. I'm very happy with hitting this drop-off at 65 miles an hour. And like I said, it's controlled. We've got plenty of bottom-out control. The metering is... I'm really impressed, guys. MTS, Jeep, you guys, I'm looking to make a change on some of the clickers. That's why I want to take it to different terrains. Maybe we will, but for the purpose of today, we're going to go run a different corner, which is a cool action shot. It's going to be hard to see what the car is feeling like, but it will. It's tippy and it's weird. We're going to hit it in both different directions and again, kind of see what that side-to-side sway feels like in control when this turn really wants to throw you out of sorts and see what that does. But I don't know, man. So far, I don't know if I want to make a clicker adjustment yet.

(14:04) It feels like it's definitely at a good point where it does what you want it to do. You know what it's going to do. You don't really have to guess whether it's going to give out in certain spots or maybe be a little bit more washy or anything like that. Like you said, it's a lot more predictable. You kind of know when the rear end is going to kick out. You kind of correct it as needed, or you can kind of ride it out if you did so. You've got a little bit more play with it.

(14:24) The only thing I'm thinking, maybe lower the front a little, raise the back a little, and even that. But I don't feel like I'm giving up that performance. And then maybe I'm doing a big ride, two guys with all of our gear. It might be way down and the back might be a little on the low side. But we've got the B2E loaded up with the cooler, of course, the spare and tools. It's hard for me to pick this apart. I'm really stoked. And I think throughout the whole stroke, I was talking to Jacob who were in the car. I think this made a bigger improvement for the money than the spring kit. And the spring kit made a big difference. So as good as the stock car is, which I think is very good, like you guys have seen on the channel, holy cow. I think not only comfort, the range of small bump and all that, but it's smoother everywhere. It's less jolty. That's not even a good word. But with all these chatters, it just feels like it just settled.

(15:15) Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's beating up as much. It doesn't feel like it's as harsh. You don't feel it in your back as much as easy. A lot of these bigger G-outs, stuff like that, you don't feel it as harsh on your body. And as good as stock valving is, that's always going to be the downside. A real professionally valved car is going to have that suppleness. They know how to make that magic work in the valving. So happy as a clam. We're going to jump back in and go hit this corner, and we'll report back.

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(16:42) Okay, so that last section went back to this turn back here, which is very nasty. We've shot it a bunch of times. It's nastier than ever on this first run, and I get pretty buck wild. A little hashtag two-wheel Tuesday. I took the worst line on purpose, and honestly, the driving was kind of coming in hot and then slamming on the brake to make the car act all funny for the content, as well as see how the car feels. It's not my best driving. The last one, I tried to get through there smoothly like I actually would if I was trying to race or just have a nice, smooth turn. But man, the car is great. Put a bow on this. What we want to emphasize in this video is, hey, your stock car is good. Spending money on the spring count. I know some of you guys are more price-sensitive, and you're like, hey, is it worth it? Should I just do the spring kit? Should I just spend money on the valving? I can honestly say, guys, spending money having it all done at once is amazing. It's gone up quite a bit. I almost say the valving made a more impressive difference than the springs, but I wouldn't do the valving without the spring, if that makes sense. I know most of you guys, if you're going to do something, you're just going to do the spring kit and run it. I've heard some comments, too, about a guy I know very well who knows what's going on. He said, yeah, I heard a spring kit will get you like 90% there of where you want to be. And that's what I was really hoping to find out with doing this upgrade in stages. And I don't think so, guys. I think we've got, percentage-wise, 60% of where we want to be with the spring kit, and then another 50-60%. We've got 120%, and I'm really excited.

(18:00) So this is unusual that we're not moving the car around up and down, left and right. I'm going to do, if you guys know, I'm a motocross supercross fan. They've been talking about this lately with some of the top riders. Riders always searching for comfort, searching for their best settings. What they'll do is just get to a point where they get a setting they like, and they'll run it for a few races in a row and really get to gel with the machine. So it's a little out of character, but I mean, it makes sense. We had the guys out here. Out of character for me to not tinker with it, but I don't know what I want to change. I just want to drive it more in different settings. Now, of course, when I go to Glamis, we're going to crank up the high-speed compression. We're hoping to shoot a Glamis video with MTS, but we want to do it all together when we got the speed. And now the speed's still delayed, unfortunately. It's going to be a little toasty by the time I get out there. So hopefully, we can do that with MTS in the dunes. But this is kind of a part two, and that might be a part three where we get to run the sucker in the sand dunes and show you the settings that I would change. But overall, I'm very impressed. MTS guys did a killer job. If you guys want to learn more about what they did specifically, the internals, talk to Jeep, talk to the gang. Ask for the Chupacabra internals, which is no special whiz stuff, but they can share some of the specs. And if you're like me and you like some of those characteristics that I talked about in the first video, kind of similar to what Ned likes, I think he and I are kind of on the same page with our characteristics. Give those guys a shout. Link below. MTS Off-Road, you guys killed it. Thank you guys for watching the content. Of course, we've got a whole lot more coming your way. We'll see you on the next one.

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