How do you rate Ski Doo SUV Wide track

[jssbastiat]

I had a trail tour edge last year, my first year here in Ak...put 4000 on it, NO BREAKDOWNS...great, smooth ride, but, when it came to hauling alot of caribou around, it put alot of strain on it at low speeds, etc...

so, looked everything over and polaris seems to have missed the boat on making the wide track water cooled only...so, gotta have a fan cooled machine....storage room, wide ski's, long track/widetrack, 1.25 lugs for climbing the mountains around us that get icy....2 speed trans...soooo, the ski doo looks like the best bet...but, how do you rate it..

one thing, i'm 6'4" and need a tall seat like the polaris has....can you tell me anything about this?....gas mileage, ...AND how it rides since i have a bad back????

my alternative is to: get another trail tour, have the transmission knocked 2 teeth or so down so that i have a higher geared machine to haul and then have a 1.25 lug track put on it for better climbing the icy mountains we have....then iwould have a smooth ride, but, not as much floatation..so i would put 8 in skins o nthe ski's like the edge i had last year, worked pretty good to float....

any idea's....

[rugger]

SUV

I ran a SUV last year, but not as my primary rig. I would have except the gas mileage I was getting was HORRIBLE. It's quite possible I got a rig that just didn't get the mileage it should. I had the local ski-doo mechanic go through everything from carbs to reeds and everything in between. I still got only 65-70 miles per tank didn't matter if I was loaded or not.

On the other hand the ride is best I've experienced. they pull heavyyyy loads well. they get around well in the deep snow, but if you get stuck hope you have a buddy riding with you because they are heavy. I'm hoping to either solve the mystery on mine so I can afford to use it more than for just hauling big loads of wood.

Rugger

[kgrant]

I have a 04 SUV 600. I really really like it. The pulling power is awesome, the transmissions are MUCH better than the Polaris, well the last Polaris tranny I used was a 97 (which is the new style), and it's alot better than that one. Very quiet, smooth engaging power. The transmission shifts great. I never had it get stuck between gears, or couldnt get it into a gear. The shift on the fly thing is kinda neat. You can get your big load moving in low, then when you get up to 10-15mph you can shift her into high and take off.

It is a little on the narrow side, can get a little tippy in powder. Can be kinda hard to follow an old snowed over trail. I installed SLP Powder Pro skies which are a little wider and more agressive than the stock ones. I also did some messing around with the suspension, I forget exactly what I did but it sure helped the handleing in powder.

As far as fuel milage, can't really compare the liquid 600 to the fan 550. Plus I forget what I was getting. But I know it wasn't great.

If you get stuck, ya, it is heavy, and not easy to get out. Depends on where you get stuck. Anything in this class is going to be heavy. You can go with a lighter machine, but you won't get the same performance as these.

The ride is awesome, very smooth.

I also replaced the cheap rivited on grips that sliped on the bars with some 3M Gatorgrips, I really like them. Picked them up at the local Polaris dealer.

About the only thing I can complain about is the crappy hand grips, a little heavy in the front, you get a pretty good vibration through the handlebars, and snow melting on the rear of the tunnel and running forward and freezing the seat down.

One more thing. If you use a pintle type hitch for your sleds it won't matter. But if you use the little flap type with the pin, the snow flap sticks out at a pretty good angle, getting in the way of pinning the pin. Kind of a pain in the ass sometimes. Especaily when you're stuck, with your sled, and he mud flap is smashed into the tounge of the sled. I guess a pintle hitch would be the way to go, but all mine are already the flapper style.

[Adventure]

I noticed the tippy in powder thing too. It seems to be due to the track being so wide so when you turn the inside ski plows a little snow bank up and the track rides up onto it and actually tips you off towards the outside of the turn. I came up with a remedy that works most times. If I want a left turn I first turn slightly to the right which starts tipping me to the left then turn left and you can whip right around your left hand turn. This takes a little getting used to but works quite well. It doesn't work well at very slow speeds with a heavy tote behind you but what works there is a little blast on the throttle. Just enough to spin the track slightly (easy here or you'll trench and be screwed) so as to get that little snow bank out of there. .02

[kgrant]

It's the wide track coupled with a narrow ski stance. Just takes more rider input, especially when switching from a machine with a 13.5" wide track with a 43" ski stance, to a machine with a 20" track and a 37" stance that weighs like 200lbs more.

[Adventure]

Yes the combination of the 2 add to the problem. Just a thought; the new mountain ski doos have a wider ski but it's off set to the inside so the spindle doesn't mount in the middle of the ski. This way the ski can be wider with out making the over all ski stance outside to outside any wider. I wonder if these skis could be put on the SUV but put the left on the right and right on the left. This would set the ski stance a couple inches wider. These skis are also dual keeled so may help the poor steering issue as well.

[kgrant]

That's a good thought Adventure.

Here's one thing I thought of, but never persued. According to the specs the TUV uses the same front suspension as the SUV (the call it the SUV Trailing Arm), but the TUV has a 38.8" ski stance, while the SUV has a 35.4" ski stance. (these are 2005 specs)

So, I wonder if you could put TUV radius arms on a SUV and get the wider ski stance?

I'm sure that isn't all that is different, but maybe it is. That is as far as I looked into it. The only problems I could see running into would be not having enough adjustment to set your toe afterwards.

I know on the old Polaris's you could get 'widening kits', and that's all it was, was longer radius arms if I remember correctly.

It's really not that bad, just not as stable as some machines.

[Adventure]

There should be plenty of those mountains around to try the ski swap and see how it works before you spend money on them. I don't have a vivid picture in my mind as to the mountings but would think they'd be the same or at least adaptable.

The radius arm idea is a good chance too and longer tie rods should be available or can be made. Everyone has a set of left handed taps right?

[Thayno]

I Have used the skidoo for work on transmission power lines all over the state. We used four of them during the time we conducted our maintenance. They are excellent machines.
Thayno