Viper differences

[red dog]

It would be damn foolish of Cat to make a better sled than their own!

 

[natedawgedog]

I was at a dealer which had a viper on display for the day, I got there early and the yamaha rep was still there so I got to ask some question about the viper and the difference between viper and zr,

He said all bolts and nuts are grade 5 compared to cats grade 1 or 2, the frame has 9 brackets for reinforcement that cat does not have, yamaha has put a few second delay on reverse so when you press the reverse button and give it throttle nothing will happen, he said that was the biggest problem on the cats, (push the reverse button and give it gas right away before the reverse was actually engaged), the body panels colour is moulded not painted like cat, the seat hood and windshield bumpers are different too, the last thing he said was yamaha would not offer that warranty if things wouldn't last...

I had a chance to look over the sled for a while, the fit and finish is not horrible but not yamaha fit and finish yet, the seat and seating position is awesome, I didn't like the big cut out on the foot rest, wouldn't the mist and snow from the skis come up to your feet, all the rivets that I could see had rust forming inside them, not yamaha quality there, just by touching the sled and looking things over the sled moves around a bit compared to the apex which feels glued to the floor, (rep said that there's a lot more flex in the viper frame compared to the apex...

Just wanted to share what the dealer and rep told me...

Overall I like the sled only wish they had a demo ride here...

Really thinking of pulling the trigger...

the yamaha rep is going to tell you and promise you everything in the world to sign on the dotted line. He probably also told you that the MSRP is going to be a great deal cause yamaha isnt going to have enough to cover snowchecks if you dont act now too.

 

[Nytros rule]

My personal opinion this sled will be more like the Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix, shared assembly line other than cosmetics and clutches.
Arctic Cat and Yamaha have been by far the biggest inovators in the Snow Mobile bisiness, Cat in a lot of things from slide rail suspention to AWS which is the front suspention of choice by all 4. Yamaha in Engine technology and overall reliability. If this is one more of those invations and makes both companies better and improves them in the market place it's the best thing thats happened to snowmobiling in a long L O N G TIME.

 

[OVR4D]

I asked the rep about the assembly of the viper he said that cat is giving yamaha a time frame to assemble the viper, yamaha is assembling the viper not cat,

There's a lot of ways you could interpret that statement. But let's give Yamaha the benefit of the doubt for a moment ... It could mean Yamaha is going to be given access to Cat's assembly line (for a limited period of time) to build 2014 Vipers. No Cat sleds would be built during this time, and Yamaha would be overseeing assembly. When the time is up, Yamaha packs up its sleds and delivers them to dealers. Then Cat resumes production and control of the assembly line for its own sleds. Could this be arranged contractually?...you bet. If you were Cat, would you want that information getting out to the consumers?...H E double hockey sticks NO! So if that is the arrangement, you can bet there's some sort of non-disclosure agreement in the fine print. It's an interesting concept though, I'll give you that.

 

[cannondale27]

X2 This makes sense.Remember when the Tsunami hit Japan? I heard that the Suzuki engines were being built at AC at that time supervised by suzuki engineers. Turned out just fine.

 

[canadianhunter]

Does anyone know how many assembly lines cat has ?
Some wrote that Yamaha had the use of 2 of the assembly lines.

 

[bigdog_mike]

viper/cat assembly line

Assembly is being done on two seperate lines at AC one is the long line which AC uses to assemble there sleds and a separate short line that Yamaha engineers oversee the assembly of the Vipers. Both lines run at the same time with AC overseeing AC production and Yamaha overseeing Viper production.

 

[OVR4D]

How do you know this Bigdog? Not attacking your credibility, just like what you're saying as it eases my mind about build quality a little and I want to believe it's true and not just more of something that someone else said or overheard.

 

[2lapsdown]

Re: viper/cat assembly line

Assembly is being done on two seperate lines at AC one is the long line which AC uses to assemble there sleds and a separate short line that Yamaha engineers oversee the assembly of the Vipers. Both lines run at the same time with AC overseeing AC production and Yamaha overseeing Viper production.

That is not correct. Arctic Cat is not going to set up a completely different assembly line. That would make zero economic sense for either party. The sleds will be assembled, and the components manufactured by the same people that do it now. Yamaha will be overseeing the production and that is all.

 

[ccrider]

There is so much speculation and BS flying around....people's eyes are turning brown from all the #*$&@ they are throwing out there.

You blue bloods had better stop sitting together in a circle jerk and getting each other pumped up with a bunch of wild ideas. This isn't a high school basketball team firing each other up in the locker room. Its a traditonal Japanese company and a traditional USA iron range redneck company coming together for BUSINESS purposes. Anyone ever sit back and critically think about the stuff they are saying?

Do you really think that Yamaha had helped design the Procross?
Do you really think that Cat will build a BETTER sled for Yamaha in their own facility than they do for themselves? This is almost as dumb as thinking that Yamaha will let them build a worse quality sled!

Bottom line...same sleds...built on same line to get the best cost structure. Oh yeah...probably using the same bolts too. Different clutch? Okay. Different colors? Okay. But all this other BS thrown out there? No way. Its just too salacious to be true.

Again, none of this is to say that the Viper won't be a good sled. But c'mon guys...

 

[Nytro40th]

There is so much speculation and BS flying around....people's eyes are turning brown from all the poop they are throwing out there.

You blue bloods had better stop sitting together in a circle jerk and getting each other pumped up with a bunch of wild ideas. This isn't a high school basketball team firing each other up in the locker room. Its a traditonal Japanese company and a traditional USA iron range redneck company coming together for BUSINESS purposes. Anyone ever sit back and critically think about the stuff they are saying?

Do you really think that Yamaha had helped design the Procross?
Do you really think that Cat will build a BETTER sled for Yamaha in their own facility than they do for themselves? This is almost as dumb as thinking that Yamaha will let them build a worse quality sled!

Bottom line...same sleds...built on same line to get the best cost structure. Oh yeah...probably using the same bolts too. Different clutch? Okay. Different colors? Okay. But all this other BS thrown out there? No way. Its just too salacious to be true.

Again, none of this is to say that the Viper won't be a good sled. But c'mon guys...

How was the tour of the plant in trf ? What did you think about the assembly line ?

 

[ccrider]

There is so much speculation and BS flying around....people's eyes are turning brown from all the poop they are throwing out there.

You blue bloods had better stop sitting together in a circle jerk and getting each other pumped up with a bunch of wild ideas. This isn't a high school basketball team firing each other up in the locker room. Its a traditonal Japanese company and a traditional USA iron range redneck company coming together for BUSINESS purposes. Anyone ever sit back and critically think about the stuff they are saying?

Do you really think that Yamaha had helped design the Procross?
Do you really think that Cat will build a BETTER sled for Yamaha in their own facility than they do for themselves? This is almost as dumb as thinking that Yamaha will let them build a worse quality sled!

Bottom line...same sleds...built on same line to get the best cost structure. Oh yeah...probably using the same bolts too. Different clutch? Okay. Different colors? Okay. But all this other BS thrown out there? No way. Its just too salacious to be true.

Again, none of this is to say that the Viper won't be a good sled. But c'mon guys...

How was the tour of the plant in trf ? What did you think about the assembly line ?

It was the same as your tour. Non-existent. Amazing all the knowledge of the production line when the sleds aren't even in production? Common sense goes a long way.

Nytro40th - you are one of the biggest supporters of this sled. And thats cool. But when the BS gets this deep...I can't resist myself.

 

[Nytro40th]

Like I have said before, we will see once the sled is delivered. Let people speculate, and say what they have heard, whether it is factual or not who are we to judge.

 

[Nytro40th]

Believe me if the sled is pos I will definitely let people know. And yes again I am gambling on the first model year.

 

[red dog]

2lapsdown ,

Your about an hour away from TRF ? Dont suppose you know anyone working there ?