Final assessment

[The Great White North]

You know, i bought a 2022 vk pro and tried to make the best of it. Added things to it to make it better offtrail. Its powerful and actually did well following skandics (definitely following).

We all know japanese put the effort into refining the problems in the machines and make them more durable. That comes at the cost of overall not changing the design, but fixing bugs. They’ll do that over a looong period of time, and make the same old machine a better old machine.

I live in remote, mountainous interior Alaska. After this first good snowfall, i got stuck again and got really lucky getting out alone. I realized that they made the machine extra durable, mechanically, but the overall the design is still over a decade old.
The body positioning, lighter materials have all advanced so much on the sleds nowadays and they are incredible.

I realized this winter that i have to pick and choose my destination carefully, and im just not excited about getting on the vk pro, because i know it will be a workout and i might get put in a very squirrelly position if im alone…..so, I just sold that fat, old designed hog and bought a 2023 skidoo tundra.

Mind you my vk pro is a 2022 model, and it feels like i went from a 1970s pickup truck to a brand new silverado. lol
I still have Yamaha ATV and SXS’s, but, they arent great sled makers. Maybe thats why they only have about 5% of the worlds market in snowmachines. I dunno, glad its gone.
Still love my Grizzly

 

[72Gran]

The Tundra will definitely go more places and break new trail with ease. Where It doesn’t do well is on the return trip when you are trying to run the the same single track. lf you try to go a bit faster on that single track in deep powder you will experience what I call the death wobble. The front suspension just won’t keep you on track and you end up fighting the sled in and out of the track. Most of the time you end up on your side or in the weeds. Best to make a new track.

 

[christoph]

Exactly what improvements did you try? Wider skis or skins should have been step 1.

 

[YukonMP]

The Tundra and the VK Pro are designed for completely different applications. The problems aren't so much that one sled is better than another but that one sled is better suited to the purpose.

 

[The Great White North]

The Tundra and the VK Pro are designed for completely different applications. The problems aren't so much that one sled is better than another but that one sled is better suited to the purpose.

Youre absolutely right. I live in a windy, snow drifted, mountainous area of Alaska and the VK is not made for here, but it literally was the only new utility sled not springchecked in all of Alaska last year.
But.....I believe that "rider forward" design is definitely better at driving over snow than the rider neutral design of the VK.
A 1995 tundra and a 2023 tundra both will handle quite differently, because the design was advanced to simply float and handle better as designs went on. Both year machines had the same application, but one is better than the other, no one would argue that.

The VK would be great for those flat trails, flat land areas, big lakes for ice fishing etc.
For me, weight is huge.