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The Renegade we had is the “trail-minded” Adrenaline package. It has a wide 16x137x1.25-inch track and has great power, so off-trail it’s still plenty capable. It does NOT have the huge 1.75-inch lugs that the more extreme Renegade Backcountry offers, so your buddies behind you won’t get pelted with ice-chunks the size of cinder blocks.
A few small things we appreciated - a spare belt can be carried in the sled’s nose, leaving plenty of storage in the seat’s trunk. Speaking of seats, this REV-XP seat has the perfect amount of grip material on it as well as the right amount of semi-stiff foam. Unlike earlier production XP-chassied sleds, this seat does not get pounded down or “sacked out” in the first few miles of major trail chatter.
Another small, but useful component is the easy to customize quick-clicker system on the primary clutch. These are easy to change by just loosening them and then moving to one of six settings. One day on the trail we noticed our demo sled was revving over the recommended setting of 8150 rpm, so we stopped. In just five minutes we adjusted the clickers and had the sled running spot on.
This 2011 Renegade also had better than average wind protection. All the OEMs have seemed to realize in the last year or so that the bikini windshields just aren’t practical on the trail. This is a high-powered long-track trail sled that many buy expecting to put a heap of miles on it each year, so the Renegade needs extra wind deflection.
Renegade rap sheet There really isn’t anything major that we don’t like about this Renegade. Besides being nimble in the corners, the 2011 Renegade Adrenaline certainly felt solid. We believe this is partly because the XP chassis has gained some weight since it first went into production for model year 2008.
Note, for example, that the dry weight we received from the factory was 461 lbs., but fully wet and with a trail-oriented traction package installed, our Renegade Adrenaline weighed 591 lbs. That is quite the increase, and a bigger change in reported dry weight vs. our own verified wet weight than the increase we saw with the Polaris Switchback Assault or Cat Crossfire.
Also, all was not perfect for the season. We did have an oil pump failure and had to replace an injector on our demo sled. We have not heard of this happening to other 800R E-TECs, so ours may have been a fluke failure.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure you have access to premium fuel with this one because it does not run well on anything less than 91 octane.