Looking at buying 09' 700 RMK,Good Sled?

[west dreams]

I am looking at a 09 700 RMK has about 4000 miles on it the guy wants $4500 the sled is stock, looks very clean have not been able to contact seller yet on all the specifics yet. Is this a good reliable sled? does anyone have any comments or concerns I should have about this sled? Wondering how well it would do compared to an 800? Not to beat a dead horse but when did the polaris 800 motors go bad? 08', 09'? All the reviews in the mags. say its a good motor (800) no reports of problems. Then you read all the posts and everyone is smokin them,was it aftermarket products, or just not enough seat time on the reviews? Any comments would be very helpful, thanks for your time.

 

[boondocker1]

Very good sleds. But do yourself a favor...DONT buy a rental!!! spend the extra $1500 upfront and find yourself a nice lower mileage 09 700 rmk that wasnt a rental. you will get the $1500 back in piece of mind and not having to replace worn out parts and cobbled together stuff. Ive been there....done that....not woth it in my opinion. Have you ever been to a rental shop out west? the mechanics are usually very good from what ive seen but they are trying to get a busted sled back together ASAP to make money from it....some things tend to get overlooked and/or ignored with a rental.

Like i said this is just from my expierience.

I spent my week out west last year trying to get my sled (was a rental the year before) to work right. Biggest waste of vacation ive ever had in the mountains. Never again for this guy

 

[F-Bomb]

Generally considered one of the best all around performance and reliability mtn packages money can buy in snowmobiling.

Obviously depending on maintanance and use 4000 miles is right at the point where this type of vehicle requires some replacement parts which seriously effect the value of the "deal". 4500 miles of use in a maximum of two seasons on a mountain sled is pretty high and it might possibly have been accomplished in 1 season. Most likely from a rental fleet and most rental companies attempt to replace the fleet at 2 seasons and this average mileage. One is mechanical economics and two is marketing by having a new or considered new vehicle to offer in your rental pool. Quite possibly the records of maintanance are available on this sled. If you do your own work you can do most or all minor wear items (track, hyfax, clutching, bearings, chains, misc bushings, and some electrical componants, ect) relatively inexpensively but if you have to have a shop do these things you will quickly be dollars ahead to buy a brand new hold over 09 clear on up to $8500 if the right list of parts needs replacement over it's use span for you.

Remember the engine is one aspect and is easily capable of well over 10,000 miles but that is not necessarily what will get you on this sled. Once again this is an excellent all around platform so if your homework shows this particular sled to be tight and some required stuff already taken care of this would be a good deal. Overall performance of two like stock 09 sleds one 700cc and one 800cc you will not notice a tremendous performance difference. That is the primary reason the 700cc sled is omitted from the 2011 line-up. (also note if you plan on owning this sled for an extended time you are buying a motor system that is being removed from the manufacturers inventory...generally speaking this is years down the road stuff and not a big concern)

 

[mountainhorse]

The only thing I can add to F-bombs eval is that stock-for-stock... IMO... the 800 really does not have much more on the 700's... especially with the update kit in the 800 (lower compression).

IMO... it was a mistake for Polaris not to offer the 700 in the new Pro RMK chassis, but there are many business decisions involved that I I"m not privy to.

Robs 800 rips... but I think he's far from stock.

Last season I had the chance to ride with a lot of stock 800's (08/09/10's) and I really did not notice much difference when we swapped sleds (before the suspension) ...My 700 was stock till I put the Timbersled Suspension in...

In 2008, RMX did dyno tests back to back with a 2008 700 & 2008 800 RMK at altitude and colder temps... Not compensated for sea level but actual numbers at 7000 feet.... 800 made 110.1 peak HP at 7900 RPM (this was the peak and HP dropped off to 105.7 at 8200) .... 700 made 106.2 peak hp at 8100. Not that much difference (about 4 hp)

Now an 800 with a pipe and Power Commander with / the right clutching will definitely have a noticeable edge on a 700 with pipe/clutching... especially if the compression is brought back into line on the 800 from the update.

If I had to do it over again I'd go with the 700 over the 800 UNLESS I was planning on modifying the 800 with a turbo or twin pipes... strictly from a reliability history standpoint. I think that the 800 issues are exaggerated by the forums, but I think that it is undeniable that the 700's had less issues and less warranty claims.

 

[Polar Express]

I have an 09 D8, and my wife has an 08 D7. Hers outruns mine. Knowing what I know now, I'd have bought a pair of 700's, with the idea that if/when I wanted more power, I could boost mine. Some would argue that while the T800 does make more power, the T700 is more rider friendly.

just my opinion.

 

[sledneck_03]

Very good sleds. But do yourself a favor...DONT buy a rental!!! spend the extra $1500 upfront and find yourself a nice lower mileage 09 700 rmk that wasnt a rental. you will get the $1500 back in piece of mind and not having to replace worn out parts and cobbled together stuff. Ive been there....done that....not woth it in my opinion. Have you ever been to a rental shop out west? the mechanics are usually very good from what ive seen but they are trying to get a busted sled back together ASAP to make money from it....some things tend to get overlooked and/or ignored with a rental.

Like i said this is just from my expierience.

I spent my week out west last year trying to get my sled (was a rental the year before) to work right. Biggest waste of vacation ive ever had in the mountains. Never again for this guy

Same can be said about new too, some new sleds run perfect some new sleds are in the shop all winter. My 700 rental sled is flawless other than the higher mileage but i hardly put on any miles so another winter or two and it will even out to what a higher mileage rider would put as normal miles for the year.
so far the only thing needed fixing was one ves bellow. Same goes with W/E i put some 09 takes offs on my 08 and they rock, road all winter cold to warm, week straight up a god forsaken trail up and down the mountain to the riding areas and nothing.

The 700s flawless, i would take it over a 800 polaris any day. I just want a bit more out of it so i might chip and clutch it as ive heard the stock pipe is very well tuned and a aftermarket is a waist of money.