Is the new viper worth it ?

[YamahaTim]

Maybe for stupid things like the wheels coming loose or the early ones. But all of that have been fixed or ironed out. The chassis is proved itself with the racing seen. I have a few friends with this chassis and they ride it very hard and zero problems with the chassis. It is the best chassis out there overall maybe the r motion is better in chatter bumps and the pro ride is better in big bumps but the pro cross does those particular things real well where as the pro ride sucks in small chatter bumps and the r motion isn't as good in the moguls so overall the pro cross chassis is the best. Plus it looks the best especially in blue or red!!

 

[09nytro]

Well it's a proven motor and a proven chassis so should be a good mix. So nothing is really new. I had a Nytro and loved it in fact had two, but totaled one. I test rode the Viper and loved it even before all of the updates. Way easier to ride and better handling. It probably won't be built as strong as the past Yamaha snowmobiles, but I think it will be pretty close. All top snowmobiles are expensive yes maybe 800's but also two strokes. I have not driven mine yet really only seen it but it looked really good. Waiting for some stuff before I pick it up. I think it is worth the money and will be a great sled. Plus if it sells good this year and ends up being a great sled the price won't go down next year anyway. Probably go up. Unless your buying a used one. Then who knows how it was taken care of...

Proven what? It's been quite unreliable in Cat's form.

Just yours , not all !

 

[Studroes144]

Maybe for stupid things like the wheels coming loose or the early ones. But all of that have been fixed or ironed out. The chassis is proved itself with the racing seen. I have a few friends with this chassis and they ride it very hard and zero problems with the chassis. It is the best chassis out there overall maybe the r motion is better in chatter bumps and the pro ride is better in big bumps but the pro cross does those particular things real well where as the pro ride sucks in small chatter bumps and the r motion isn't as good in the moguls so overall the pro cross chassis is the best. Plus it looks the best especially in blue or red!!

Very well said! U can not pick little things that go wrong with any sled. All the other yamaha sleds that I've owned have had a lot of trouble with wheels. Never been on a pro r chassis. R motion is nice and very smooth but have never had much seat time on really rough trails. Drove a procross turbo on really rough and besides the fact that the turbo was kinda hard to drive with the slight turbo lag it rode incredible!

 

[68_340_Cuda]

How was the chassis unreliable? I've never heard of an unrealizable procross chassis. People blame cats belt issue on the chassis but its 95% the poor clutching.

You honestly think 95% of the belt problems are clutch related? How come nobody figured out how to make belts survive even with high quality aftermarket primary & secondary clutches? There are some real smart people that have not been able to solve the mystery. I agree with you that their clutches are just plain crap. The control arm sway bar attaching points crack and snap off, bushings & ball joints wear out real fast. With the turbos the tracks would ratchet big time cause drivers were inadequate but shouldn't be an issue with the Viper engine. The jackshafts would bend and cause gear & chain problems, cases strip, crack and leak very easily. The chassis in Cat's form is extremely unreliable, there are more issues that I have not pointed out. I hope Yamaha's version will be more refined and more reliable.

 

[68_340_Cuda]

Well it's a proven motor and a proven chassis so should be a good mix. So nothing is really new. I had a Nytro and loved it in fact had two, but totaled one. I test rode the Viper and loved it even before all of the updates. Way easier to ride and better handling. It probably won't be built as strong as the past Yamaha snowmobiles, but I think it will be pretty close. All top snowmobiles are expensive yes maybe 800's but also two strokes. I have not driven mine yet really only seen it but it looked really good. Waiting for some stuff before I pick it up. I think it is worth the money and will be a great sled. Plus if it sells good this year and ends up being a great sled the price won't go down next year anyway. Probably go up. Unless your buying a used one. Then who knows how it was taken care of...

Proven what? It's been quite unreliable in Cat's form.

Just yours , not all !

You really think so?

 

[YamahaTim]

No matter what sled you have there could always be a little problem. Some people in that sled might have the problem and some people won't. Depends on how it's driven and how it's taken care of. The pro cross chassis has had its little problems but they have been taken care of. It's not the chassis fault if the belt breaks even though that's where arctic cat blamed the problem on. That has nothing to do with the Viper. Because they are yammi clutches.so no worries with that problem so now what we have is the best chassis.

 

[09nytro]

Well it's a proven motor and a proven chassis so should be a good mix. So nothing is really new. I had a Nytro and loved it in fact had two, but totaled one. I test rode the Viper and loved it even before all of the updates. Way easier to ride and better handling. It probably won't be built as strong as the past Yamaha snowmobiles, but I think it will be pretty close. All top snowmobiles are expensive yes maybe 800's but also two strokes. I have not driven mine yet really only seen it but it looked really good. Waiting for some stuff before I pick it up. I think it is worth the money and will be a great sled. Plus if it sells good this year and ends up being a great sled the price won't go down next year anyway. Probably go up. Unless your buying a used one. Then who knows how it was taken care of...

Proven what? It's been quite unreliable in Cat's form.

Just yours , not all !

You really think so?

Yes!

 

[YamahaTim]

No matter what anyone says snowmobiles are not built to last forever. Over time and abuse things will wear. The more you beat on it the faster it will wear or break. Granted 180+ hp is a lot and I don't think anything will hold up to that amount of hp without constant maintenance. Every time I go on a trip I grease everything and check all of the more important nut and bolts to make sure they are tight. Bushings go out and that comes with the sport. Reliability only goes so far. They are not building these sleds to go snowcross riding everyday and never being rebuilt or maintained. People with a lot of hp have to be a little more reserved and understand that the sled was probably not made for that kind of hp. So if you have that kind of hp you need to build everything else up to handle the extra hp. I mean you don't put 1000 hp in a pinto without fixing up the tranny. Same thing. Things break then fix them. Don't say it's bad. This sport is not cheap and the more hp you put in it the more you will fix odds and ends.

 

[Studroes144]

How was the chassis unreliable? I've never heard of an unrealizable procross chassis. People blame cats belt issue on the chassis but its 95% the poor clutching.

You honestly think 95% of the belt problems are clutch related? How come nobody figured out how to make belts survive even with high quality aftermarket primary & secondary clutches? There are some real smart people that have not been able to solve the mystery. I agree with you that their clutches are just plain crap. The control arm sway bar attaching points crack and snap off, bushings & ball joints wear out real fast. With the turbos the tracks would ratchet big time cause drivers were inadequate but shouldn't be an issue with the Viper engine. The jackshafts would bend and cause gear & chain problems, cases strip, crack and leak very easily. The chassis in Cat's form is extremely unreliable, there are more issues that I have not pointed out. I hope Yamaha's version will be more refined and more reliable.

The only thing u listed that had an relevance to the chassis was bushings and ball joints. I ride with many procross owners and never heard of that to be an issue. All the other things were either drivetrain or engine issues. No links at all to the procross chassis. The viper is truly the best of both worlds in sleds and I can guarantee every viper owner will agree with me.

 

[snowbeast]

How was the chassis unreliable? I've never heard of an unrealizable procross chassis. People blame cats belt issue on the chassis but its 95% the poor clutching.

You honestly think 95% of the belt problems are clutch related? How come nobody figured out how to make belts survive even with high quality aftermarket primary & secondary clutches? There are some real smart people that have not been able to solve the mystery. I agree with you that their clutches are just plain crap. The control arm sway bar attaching points crack and snap off, bushings & ball joints wear out real fast. With the turbos the tracks would ratchet big time cause drivers were inadequate but shouldn't be an issue with the Viper engine. The jackshafts would bend and cause gear & chain problems, cases strip, crack and leak very easily. The chassis in Cat's form is extremely unreliable, there are more issues that I have not pointed out. I hope Yamaha's version will be more refined and more reliable.

Wow I must say the number of chassie problems is very very low,now maybe 2012 had a small area of concern,i do believe cat got better R&D on the 13 models,as mine has been flawless,as far as any chassie issues goes,yes I did lose a chain,which took out both drive gears,but that was not until 2500 miles,and on a boosted sled and all warrentied,not one slider/wheel issue,no cracked anything,but I did have belt issues,and at start of the year I had a stuck primary,but was cleranced by my cat tech and never again had any primary problems,other than a Dalton weight losing the center set screw and sliding into spider,and I did not say Dalton in a bad way,as dales stuff is top notch,and not the fault of his weight,but the damn design is cats,why cant they repeat history and go back to the bushed weight with washers on each side,well that is what I now have,yamaha has and always has had that design,and theres works good,so does poo poo's,never any weight problems,ok back on point,my trihub still good,still on original slides.and I did swap out my stock skis only cause my sled is the lxr w/cats version of dule runners,not good IMO so rockerdan did the pilot conversion,with great results,and I followed his lead,and I love them too,i did vent the crap out of my sled much like Dan did,but it did not help much with heat,that turbo just gets to darn hot. So I have not seen any of these issues you had,glad so far I have not.

 

[YamahaTim]

Exactly...I mean what snowmobile doesn't go through bushings and ball joints? What vehicle doesn't go through those. Everything does! Best of both worlds is right! And Viper owners will enjoy that simple fact!

 

[snowbeast]

No matter what anyone says snowmobiles are not built to last forever. Over time and abuse things will wear. The more you beat on it the faster it will wear or break. Granted 180+ hp is a lot and I don't think anything will hold up to that amount of hp without constant maintenance. Every time I go on a trip I grease everything and check all of the more important nut and bolts to make sure they are tight. Bushings go out and that comes with the sport. Reliability only goes so far. They are not building these sleds to go snowcross riding everyday and never being rebuilt or maintained. People with a lot of hp have to be a little more reserved and understand that the sled was probably not made for that kind of hp. So if you have that kind of hp you need to build everything else up to handle the extra hp. I mean you don't put 1000 hp in a pinto without fixing up the tranny. Same thing. Things break then fix them. Don't say it's bad. This sport is not cheap and the more hp you put in it the more you will fix odds and ends.

Absolutely agree.

 

[Yamadog]

Speculate, Speculate, Speculate..... Lets face it if it were not for us guys buying these things in 1st yr form we would still be on a pogo sticked v-max.

I bought the 1st year old viper, the first yr RX, The first yr Apex RTX The first yr Attack GT and would have bought a nytro but could not sit on it. I bought the first year Pro R 800 and 1st yr Pro R800 Switchback and have never looked back. Each may have a little issue here and there but Yamaha did not do this without doing its homwork and testing. They have 10,000s of miles on the combo before they put it to market.

I know any sled I buy is made for the general rider that averages 1000 miles per yr and I am going to have to do some work to keep them going at an average of over 6,000 miles per yr. but guess what, I do the same thing with my race cars and everything else I beat the crap out of. Everyone cries make it lighter, make it faster make it trouble free -GOOD LUCK

 

[YamahaTim]

True true....nothing last forever. Buy it enjoy it and don't complain about it fix it or buy a different one. But most important maintain it!

 

[snowbeast]

Speculate, Speculate, Speculate..... Lets face it if it were not for us guys buying these things in 1st yr form we would still be on a pogo sticked v-max.

I bought the 1st year old viper, the first yr RX, The first yr Apex RTX The first yr Attack GT and would have bought a nytro but could not sit on it. I bought the first year Pro R 800 and 1st yr Pro R800 Switchback and have never looked back. Each may have a little issue here and there but Yamaha did not do this without doing its homwork and testing. They have 10,000s of miles on the combo before they put it to market.

I know any sled I buy is made for the general rider that averages 1000 miles per yr and I am going to have to do some work to keep them going at an average of over 6,000 miles per yr. but guess what, I do the same thing with my race cars and everything else I beat the crap out of. Everyone cries make it lighter, make it faster make it trouble free -GOOD LUCK

Yup x2