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Four needed improvements
As always, there are a few things we noticed during our testing. First this sled is still relatively heavy, weighing in at 623 lbs. totally wet, with a stud package installed. You won’t feel the excess weight though until you are either stuck, or trying to move the sled around your garage.
Second, it has an appetite at the gas pump. The F8 was our least efficient sled last season, getting just 10.6 mpg for the season and we needed to top the oil at every other fill-up or risk running low.
Third, we love the seat’s form and storage, but it needs to be covered with a more grippy material. With all the power the F8 churns out we found ourselves nearly sliding off the seat when we grabbed a handful of throttle. Cat would do well to look at the material on Ski-Doo’s X-seat or grippier stuff like most race sleds use.
Fourth, the stock front bumper is still hard to use to move the sled. Even with the slight revisions Cat has made, this is still a useless front bumper in our eyes. Also, make sure you trade up to at least a mid-height windshield as the standard here barely covers the gauges.
Final thought We are not sure how much longer the ACT Diamond Drive is going to be in the majority of Cat’s trail sleds. It has been a point of contention for many years as it is a heavy system and many contend that it robs Cat’s sleds of too much horsepower vs. using a traditional chaincase. We’ll see, but for the new 2011 versions of this sled the ACT is still in place.