So as it's now 36°F and raining hard at 4 AM in February, I ponder the wisdom in getting a new sled. I've resisted the urge for 2 years now, and it was a good move. There's just been no snow in my area, and if we do get any, it's quickly blown away by howling windstorms or melted by rain within days.
Still, I feel confident that if I outlay the cash on my new toy, mother nature will be kind and give us back the winters where we had a minimum of 8 feet deep snow at any given time. It can't fail.
Polaris has always been my favorite. I've performed some stunning maneuvers like wiping out at 100 MPH and driving away from the scene my trusty Polaris, something I've never even heard of. Getting over 15k miles out of a sled under hard use without any kind of major rebuild is also in the unbelievable realm.
Anyway, this will be my new toy for next winter :
600cc of liquid cooled goodness. The liquid cooled machines require a bit of thoughtfulness as you ride down a packed trail because it relies on having loose snow thrown up on the heat exchangers above the track, so every now and then I dip off the beaten path to keep things cool. IMO, you should always do that anyway, to keep your slide rails lubed. Slide rails are the plastic bars the track is supported with on the bottom of the track, btw.
The Voyageur seen above is the only utility grade sled Polaris puts out anymore. The name of the game is to shave every ounce of weight off sleds for better performance - at the expense of structural strength, of course. All the other models are very lightweight and the chassis can't withstand the stress of pulling a heavy sled behind your machine... you'd literally rip your machine in half in short order.
One very cool feature of modern sleds these days is the variable ski stance that you can adjust in a minute or two. You can make your sled very stable for trail riding with a wide stance, or narrow it up for deep snow maneuverability. It wasn't long ago that you picked your stance when you bought the sled, and that was that. The suspensions are unreal and the difference is night and day compared to sleds just 10 years ago. You can cruise down a choppy, torn up trail that would have beat you half to death in complete comfort these days. Independent front suspension, articulating tracks, and amazing suspension travel have really come a long ways.
I remember blasting down the trail on my Dad's old 340 Cheetah, hitting a 6" bump and getting tossed from the machine. He wasn't pleased with his new Spruce-Modified bumper and a cracked cowling. These days you wouldn't even feel that bump.
Last edited by NightTrain; 02-21-2016 at 08:41 AM.
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My Next Snowmachine
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