Unlocked boot canting?

[BadBrad]

Another thread here has drifted into a discussion of stiff versus flexy bindings, which got me thinking about lateral boot flex, and rather than further drifting that other topic I thought I'd start a new one here about boot and binding flex.

I've been riding in Burton Wind boots since around 1999, with Burton race plates. Before that I rode Burton Reactor boots. I've done a lot of riding in them in walk mode, and I rode for years with the boot cant mechanism loosed up so that the cant was free-floating, and nothing has broken. A year or two ago I found the old boot instructions which said to never leave the cant mechanism loose, so I adjusted the boot cant to a comfortable position and locked it in (no cant front boot and a little inward cant rear boot).

The old Burton liners finally packed out and tongue was digging into my foot, so I bought a set of ZipFit Grand Prix liners last year. They are very comfortable and warm, but stiffened up the boot significantly. I find that I buckle my boots pretty loosely to reduce the stiffness, but my foot has some slop inside the boot, which I know is not ideal. I tighted the boots a notch to reduce the slop and did not feel comfortable. I felt like the ride was jarring and could not edge as well and it reduced my confidence at higher speeds and steeper terrain. I also recently got some TD2 step-ins, so my binding interface is stiffer, but I felt the same way on the Burton plates. The Burton and the TD2 bindings both work fine for me, but I prefer the cant/lift options that I get with the TD2's, which allow me to dial in a more balanced, comfortable position.

So, I'm just looking for suggestions on how to tweak my setup from here. Some things I am thinking of:

1. Get some Intuition Freeride liners, which will hopefully give the boot a softer overall flex.

http://www.intuitionliners.com/products2.htm

2. Make the boot canting free-floating again. Is this a dangerous thing to do? Will it make my boot fail?

3. Add suspension to the TD2 bindings. I actually have a new TD3 second board kit (yellow e-rings) and will install it before the next time I ride.

4. Crank my boots down tight and ride like that for a couple of days to try to get used to it.