the 1995 sled roundup

Suspension travel is greater. There's more horsepower on tap. With more reasons to buy, more folks are buying snowmobiles.

Those smiles you might have seen at your local snowmobile dealership are real. Sled sales are up. This past spring saw some of the best early season sales ever. At least one sled maker told its stockholders that its early season sled sales were the best they had ever seen and were way beyond projections. Another sled maker is claiming it has moved into a higher position in worldwide sled production. Another sled maker disputes that claim. And, yet another sled maker- or two or three- is hoping for a more stable dollar.

It's shaping up to be another interesting season in snowmobiling. From an insider's viewpoint, the 1995 model year is already a great success. Polaris was astounded by response to the Indy models sporting its new XTRA travel suspension and/or the larger displacement 597cc triple cylinder engine. With about 37 percent of the worldwide sled market, it is estimated that Polaris' Roseau, Minnesota, factory pumps out more than 60,000 Indys a year. It's no wonder that this company, fast on its way to becoming a billion- dollar enterprise, had to buy a facility in Spirit Lake, Iowa, to manufacture its personal watercraft. With year-round ATV production and high volume sled sales, there wasn't much room or manpower left in Roseau to handle the snowmobile production line.

Down the road in Thief River Falls, it's estimated that Arctco built another 50,000 units last year. That left Ski-Doo and Yamaha to battle for the remaining 33 percent of the marketplace.
According to industry figures, more than 171,000 snowmobiles were sold worldwide last season. That's the highest sales figure since 1981 when 174,000 units were sold at retail. Since 1981 the next highest retail number was the 164,500 units sold in 1990.

Growth was strongest in the United States as American snowmobilers bought 105,000 sleds last year, the greatest number of U.S. retail sales since 127,000 units were sold in 1980. Prior to last year, U.S. sled sales were flat, hovering around annual sales of 80,000 from 1989 to 1993. But what a jump from the 1993 model year to last year. About 21,000 more 1994 model sleds were sold than '93s.

The growth in sled sales is essentially all due to American snowmobile demand. Canadian sales were flat at 57,000 units sold in both the 1993-94 and 1992-93 snow seasons.

Going into this season, the four sled makers have high expectations. All reported strong spring sales. We're coming off an extraordinary snow year in which virtually every region across the snowbelt had good to excellent snowfall. Never underestimate the importance of snow.

Ironically, one snowmobile manufacturing executive suggests that the industry isn't doing things all that much differently now than it was 20 years ago, but the results are certainly much better. He suggests that a severe lack of snow, economic problems, overproduction of sleds, and restrictions on fuel in the 1970s served to make trouble for the industry. That's not to say that we don't have some problems staring us in the eye now.

There is always the battle over rights to use public and privatized land. That will be a constant battle between the public who wants few restrictions and the public who wants near total closure for everyone but themselves or wildlife. This battle will always need to be watched.

The other potential for trouble is the emissions issue. If the government is considering your lawn mower to be environmentally unsound, imagine what they must think of two-cycle engines in boats and snowmobiles? Polaris recently introduced a four-stroke ATV. Publicly the reason was to satisfy the desires of customers who just weren't comfortable with a two-stroke engine. We suspect anticipation of governmental restrictions on two-cycle engines may have played a role as well. Where will that leave snowmobiles? We would guess that the sled makers will be monitoring this situation closely. It may be with more difficulty as the industry's top Washington "insider" is retiring at the end of the year and the snowmobile industry association he headed is being reformatted. Time will tell what impact- if any- this will have on the sport. The short-term impact won't be great in that regard.

The long-term impact as far as suspensions go, however, appears to be great. Polaris fired the opening salvo across the competitions' bows when it introduced the mass production XTRA premium travel suspension on its Indy XLT Special and Indy RXL models. Ski-Doo has a long travel unit, too, but it's not available on the sportiest models. Arctic Cat and Yamaha were standing pat as we go to press, but expect Cat to claw its way back into the competition.

For you Yamaha owners, we've been told that the F.A.S.T. M-10 long travel suspension not only bolts up nicely to the Vmax series, but it is said to mate exceedingly well with the Yamaha Telescopic Strut Suspension. The M-10 is designed to work with all of the most popular existing sleds, including the Polaris XLT series. A special shock kit for the front suspension creates a matched front to rear ride. Plus, F.A.S.T. will offer a lower cost, fewer frills M-10 version for the dollar-conscious snowmobiler.

For now, though, the only mass production sleds with premium long travel suspensions are Polaris Indys equipped with the XTRA system and Ski-Doo fan-cooled Formula and Touring models.

When we rode the 1995 models in South Dakota last March we came away with some very strong feelings about the new sleds. One, we discovered that we liked the changes to the XTRA suspension. Polaris added a second shock to the rear suspension to assist and control the ride. The change effectively lowered the center of gravity when compared to the XTRA's original single shock set-up. The new system makes cornering better.

Ski-Doo's aluminum chassis is available in one form or another from the high performance Mach Z down to the Touring E. The new touring sleds are exceedingly competent machines. We really enjoyed these fan-cooled machines during our week of testing. Of course, it's hard not to like the new Mach I with the twin-piped 670cc twin and high-performance character. Ski-Doo is definitely on the right track. In the big picture the chaps from Quebec are scoring hits.

Arctco has the thriller of the year in the ZRT. Think of this sled as a Thundercat in a ZR chassis. The ZRT's 800cc triple is based on the T-Cat engine. The chassis is based on the ZR, but with less boxy, much more sexy lines.

The snowmobile value of the year may well be Cat's new Cougar. We left South Dakota drooling over this entry. It got an upgraded "look" and all the best things from Cats of the recent past. The 550cc liquid-cooled twin in this Cougar chassis is a stroke of genius. Dollar for dollar, we'd be hard pressed to find a better overall value in the sport. Apparently we aren't the only ones to feel that way. Pre-season sales of the Cougar are said to be staggering. Value is as value does, eh?

Yamaha ups the ante in the premium sled market. The Vmax-4 is more powerful and should be smoother as well. We tend to look at everyone else's multi-cylindered, high performance missiles as lake racing hot rods. We look at Yamaha's Vmax-4 in much the same way many folks look at a Lexus or Infiniti. The sled has the power to make a lake racer smile, but it also has the fit and finish to satisfy a quality control freak. Yamaha still does the little, under the hood and overall detail things better than anyone else. And Yamaha, despite rumors to the contrary, is staying with the TSS front suspension. The big Max is a very nice piece of equipment. There is a definite trickling down of technology to the Vmax 600 and Vmax 500 series as well.

This past March, thanks to a chewing out by a subscriber, we made a point of testing the vanilla sleds like the Ovation, Puma, Touring E and Indy Lites among others. We had a real giggle with these sleds. We'll report on them in future issues, but rest assured that you don't have to buy the latest and most expensive models to get a super value in snowmobiling. The Ovation and the Polaris Indy Lites are solid, respectable machines that will give you a lot of fun while protecting your financial investment in them. In fact, if you put were to put the Ski-Doo Formula SL's swaybar on the new 369cc engined Formula S, you'd have one of the best low-buck trail sleds in the business.

For a more detailed look at what's new for 1995, we've arranged a manufacturer-by-manufacturer preview. In this and later issues, we'll also be reporting on more models than ever before. After all, when we surveyed you readers, you told us what you wanted to see. We're listening to you and we're working to deliver. For more specific manufacturer information see the 1995 Arctic Cat, Ski-Doo, Yamaha and Polaris articles.