I plan to change from the stock 10W fork oil in my '10 Fat Bob to 15W oil because the ride is too soft and there's too much fork travel.

The service manual talks about doing this with the forks out. Is there an easy way to change the oil?

 

I just changed mine with Screaming Eagle Fork Oil (no idea what weight it is)...
real nice results.
Yes, you'll have to remove the fork tubs & hang em up-side-down to drain the stock oil,
other than that... it's a very easy up grade.
I spent $20 on 4 bottles of fluid.

 

You can pull the front wheel/axle and there is a 12mm hex bolt on the bottom. Could remove that and the fluid would drain. No need to remove the forks from the trees.

 

DON'T, DON'T, DON'T do that!!!!!!
Those bolts are the 'seat pipe' screws... not drain plugs!

 

Whats wrong with removing those bolts? Nothing. I've done it a few times.

As long as the fork cap hasn't been removed, you can remove those bolts and reinstall without a problem at all. Again, I've done that a few times now without one darn issue.

 

So...forks out, remove caps, invert, drain, refill, fit caps, refit forks?

 

As long as the fork cap hasn't been removed? How did you add the oil?

From what I read in the service manual I thought that if the 'seat pipe bolt' was removed the fork tube would fall away from the slider until the slider bushing contacted the fork tube bushing guide, i.e. the assembly would almost double in length.

It sounds like you:
1. removed the seat pipe bolt... alowing the oil to drain
2. re-installed the seat pipe bolt ?
3. removed the fork cap, spring & collar... to add the new oil ?
4. slowly pumped the slider 8-10 times to exhaust air from the assembly
5. measured for proper fluid level with the slider fully compressed
6. extended the slider, installed the spring & collar
7. tightened the fork cap to @ 40 ft lbs

 

From a similar post: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/dyna-...procedure.html

 

Yea, that's the way I did it. It wasn't any harder than doing it the easier way.

 

Thanks for the help. Think I may as well take the forks out as it only a couple of bolts to drop them off the trees.