Worst sled purchase? What should you have bought instead?

[vetcorman05]

That's to bad,other than it was like riding a rock I loved my 94,instead of getting the two indy 500's I should have picked up another vmax and upgraded the suspension.

 

[MrSled]

Mine was a 87 Exciter... non stop problems...finally sold it and then it blew.

 

[Metallicat]

Mine was a 87 Exciter... non stop problems...finally sold it and then it blew.

We had one in our riding group back then. It kept locking up the engine. Then after psi twin pipes and porting it suddenly became very reliable.

 

[MrSled]

We had one in our riding group back then. It kept locking up the engine. Then after psi twin pipes and porting it suddenly became very reliable.

This was Wayback before I knew what I was even doing LOL

 

[maim]

01 sx500r. sled handled great but the fuel milage sucked bad. should have bought a sx600r instead as it was still in the bracket that my insurance company would cover. anything over 600cc at the time was being charged $1000.00 for basic insurance.

 

[pdiddy]

Never had a sled I didn't love.
Each one was a serious upgrade over the previous.
I do credit my early Skidoo experience for my well developed mechanical aptitude!

'65 Skidoo Chalet
'70 Skidoo Olympique 12/3
'77 Polaris Colt 340ss
'85 Indy 400
'90 Indy 400
'91 Indy 500
'05 Yamaha Vector
'10 Yamaha Vector LTX GT

 

[voyager]

Your early Ski-Doo experience reminds me of my 1st girlfriend - I called her Ski-Doo because I had to work for 4 hours for a 15 minute ride ...

 

[canoehead]

1st sled 70 440 Moto Ski Capri
2nd 73 Scorpion 340 Brut, 1st of the liquid cooled machines, later patent bought by AC
3rd 80 John Deere 440 JDX8
4th 91 Arctic Cat 440 Prowler
5th 94 Arctic Cat 700 ZR (by far the most troublesome)
6th 04 Yamaha RX1
7th 09 Yamaha Nytro XTX (by far the best one yet)

 

[Sasquatch]

First bad sled I ever bought was a 1977 Ski-Doo TNT 440 free air. Ate pistons like candy, had the fan cooled version same year and it was a great sled. Next was a 1978 Moto-Ski 400. Bad crank design, took it in under warranty because you could move the crank back and forth in the block from side to side. Their fix was to shim the bearings. Next winter the pistons and rings stopped making compression and it quit running. Yep crank walking back and forth in the block, they wouldn't fix it because it was out of warranty and the 90 day warranty from their workmanship was void because it was fixed end of the season as the snow was melting the year before even though it had not run for a month in total from time of repair. Cylinders out of round from crank walking and the block ground to powder the motor was junk like all the 400 Futura's sold in 78. The sled itself was good the 440 version ran forever! I dropped a 440 in it from an older sled and ran it for a long time after that.

Yep last Bombardier I ever bought. Although I looked at a 1998 700 triple two up Ski-doo and was no able to make a deal so I bought a 1998 800 triple Cat Pantera end of season put a few hundred miles before its summer nap, loved that sled! The 700 Doo's all blew up, the dealer sold three and all three melted down. The 800 Cat was good to me (handling ride power) and I put 4,500 miles on it the next season and traded it in with 5,500 miles on a Left over 2000 1000 Pantera. That sled was an Animal that I sold with 7,500 miles and replaced with a 2005 Warrior. I still miss my Rocket Couch's!

So Doo's have blown up and been junk because of Motor's. Cat's have been good with the 1000 dropping a rod fixed under warranty with no more problems, The kids little 2000 600 ZL has been flawless. My Yamahas have been blessed with perfect engines with the RX Warrior chassis not the best but with upgrades to the rear skid and a stiffer swaybar the ride/handling was made up to snuff along with a few other little nit pik's and that motor still pulls as hard now as ever. My 2011 XTX is as close to perfection that was my 800 Cat was straight out of the box.

I guess I should have bought the XTX first LOL! Finest sled I have ever owned to date. As much as I love my RX Warrior I would have to rank the 800 Pantera ahead of it as a better riding and handling sled. Even the engine of the 800 Pantera was sweet with its triple pipes and triple dump exhaust making 150 hp, it would have run with the RX no problem and out handled and out rode it. Its only drawback being it was a two stroke and I needed a motor that would run like a Swiss watch till I was tired of the sled. I found that in a Yamaha four stroke.

 

[Dr. FeeLGooD]

72 Ski Doo Elan ... awesome kids first sled
74 Ski Doo Olympic... complete junk
81 Polaris Gemini ok for its time
86 Polaris Star 340 cc. cruel joke.
91 Ski Doo Formula Plus 521 cc (I think) Solid sled
98 Ski Doo Formula 3 600 cc. Boat.
94 Arctic Cat Puma 340 cc for the wife. Good sled for her
96 Polaris Indy trail 340 cc for the wife. Good sled for her
2000 Arctic Cat Kitty Cat for kids.. Only sled I never lost money on.
2003 Yamaha Viper 700 cc Best overall, better suspension would have been nice. 10,000 miles on a triple cyl 2 stroke and still had factory compression levels.
2004 Ski Doo Rev 800cc for son Junk.
2006 Polaris IQ 600 cc for daughter. Junk
2009 Yamaha Nytro xtx. Heavy but better ride than the Viper. I am liking it.
2011 Polaris Switchback 600cc for the wife. Trouble free good sled for her. The only brand new sled I ever bought. Shes easier on the sleds than I am and is ready for a bigger one but my wallet isnt.
If it wasnt for this site, my next one would be a Polaris Assault 800cc. Looks good and much lighter than my Nytro. Dont know if it would hold up as well though, I am pretty hard on my sleds.

 

[Bill14viper]

Worst was a 82 srv, cost me a season and a half; never ran from day one and the dealer (or me or anyone else) could make it run. Engine problems,clutch,suspension everything failed. Sat in the garage for years and i finally crushed it. could not bring myself to sell it to anyone else.

 

[Bill14viper]

Best was 03 blade stryker 700. was the total package. ride handeling, reliable, and with a little clutching very fast. Was a lot of money at the time but with one topend i put over 20000 mile on it before crashing it. Just an incredable sled. If i could find another used one reasonable i would buy just to have it.

 

[pdiddy]

Mine was a 87 Exciter... non stop problems...finally sold it and then it blew.

We had one in our riding group back then. It kept locking up the engine. Then after psi twin pipes and porting it suddenly became very reliable.

A friend of mine had one - never ran right. Didn't they used to call these "Exploders"?

 

[newfie09xtx]

First sled I had as a youngster was 1972 250 twin élan. Bullet proof never had an issue except ski broke and sent me over the windshield.

82 Yamaha Srv had 3 weeks and lost the motor.

1998 arctic cat 550 cougar liquid. Absolute JUNK. 2 motors and one stator in 3 months. Almost gave it away to get rid of it. My buddy wouldn't leave home without the tow rope to tow me.

Current sled 09 nytro love/hate it at the same time. Love the motor but had to do a lot of upgrades to fix exhaust donuts/subframe/ and damn ball Joints etc! But I still love this sled!

 

[sorenson1610]

Growing up we had a Yamaha 440 with the headlight offset to the one side, drove the track off that thing! Was a blast, ski shocks so it was a smoothhhhhhh ride haha Next we a 93' XLT 583 ported/triple pipes/billet head-Very reliable for the mods and flat out hauled #*$&@. Next we got a 98' Polaris XC 600-twin pipes/billet heads/boost bottle etc-What a finicky motor with mods, would squeak the motor at least once a year. It would run ok but very peaky powerband. Fun times growing up spending time tinkering with my dad that is for sure!