But their marketing department never bothered to change the numbers, or they changed them a fraction of the actual gain. They responded with more robust components, which in turn increased the sleds’ weights. After coming out with their original XP chassis, they ran into durability issues (a common affliction for sleds designed to be ultra-light, which the XPs were/are). In recent years, I believe that Ski-Doo has been guilty of playing very fast-and-loose with their published weights. Not exactly the fault of the magazine, because they didn’t realize the wool being pulled over their eyes. Smart move, but of course it skewed the results by upwards of 15 lbs.
Worse, Ski-Doo had brought in a huge heated tent, in which they placed their sleds to melt all of the snow/ice. There was snow/ice built up in the skidframes there was no “standard” as to how full the fuel or oil tanks were some sleds had spare belts and tool kits, while others had neither. The sleds were weighed in the middle of the event, after days of use. Sounds good on the surface, for sure, but the way it actually played out was complete BS. I remember a 2- 3 year period in the late 1990s when one magazine brought a scale to the Snow Shoot tests, then proceeded to weight every sled there. Some blame can be leveled at a couple of the magazines. So much so that I’m always suspect of such numbers.īut the manufactures are not solely responsible for this mess. And there have been some egregious examples. Not every manufacture, and not every year. And as long as I can remember, OEMs have lied about their sled weights. But what about when sleds aren’t really as light as you think?Įven though I’m younger than I look, I am actually an old codger who’s worked in the snowmobile industry for a bazillion years. Manufacturers know the importance of sled weight when it comes to marketing snowmobiles. I also suspect it has to do with the wacky history of snowmobile weight claims. When I asked why, the answer was because the numbers might change – in either direction – before actual production, due to changes that could occur in material selection. They didn’t send it to the media (or to me).
A handful of weeks back, Arctic Cat sent to their dealers a document listing the estimated dry weights of their pre-production 2012 snowmobiles.
0 kommentar(er)
