Arctic Cat in Trouble

[Turblue]

This is an interesting read. From another forum.

As somone who worked with AC before, and during textron, They are ignorant and arrogant, absolutly refused to listen to anyone who knew the industry, their dealers, or their customers. There is not 1 single aspect of the business they didn't make worse, or more difficult.

1) The dealer situation was caused by textron, they canceled/forced out hundreds of dealers to ensure that tracker wouldn't have competition.

2) Build to order doesn't work very well, textron has done that already with AC.

3)The catalyst development was underway when textron took over. They got rid of the staff working on it, and shelved the project along with countless other projects.
a)The blast has almost 0 unique parts. Its a "parts bin special" and exists because AC had already developed a snow bike, and the engine for that was used in the blast (rest of the bike was sent to the crusher)
b)Under development with/for the catalyst was also a direct injection system for the new engine (not used because textron refused to fund development)
c)Under development with/for the catalyst was also a turbo system for the new engine (not used because textron refused to fund development) Gunnar Kleveland told a handfull of the top performing dealers they would be releaseing a turbo 600 years ago
d)Under development with/for the catalyst was also a new rear suspension design that used composite leaf style springs instead of metal springs/arm(s) (not used because textron refused to fund development) (and Brian Dick was fired)
e)Under development was a 4 stroke chassis, it being countless years behind was a major bone of contention between them and yamaha to the point yamaha was going to walk away more than once before they actually did. I've heard that in a meeting of hight ups in TRF Heidi McNary told yamaha if they don't like how long its taking they should design and build their own.
f)Under development were at least 2 new 4 stroke offerings (n/a and turbo) to be used in both dirt and snow sides of the business (I expected them to be seen at haydays last fall)

4) The major attraction for a buyer is the manufacturing facilities. The cost to replace/relocate would be a factor of 10 more that the sale price of the entire company. There may be enough room in TRF to move the production equipment from st cloud, but they built st cloud so they could have access to more/better skilled employees. Digi-key pays more than AC, and has significantly better benifits, after gutting the majority of empoloyees textron had a difficult time re-filling those positions. The majority of line workers the last few years are/were folks that lost their job in the poultry industry when the flocks had to be culled, most don't speak english.

5) Dirt should be the proffit center, its the side of the industry that has been experienceing growth these last several years

 

[IDspud]

That first statement is false.
Dealer distress was almost a decade before textron. Forced flooring of side by sides to match sled sales took far more of my dealers out through flooring costs long before textron.

Build to order has been a huge benefit to me. It increased value across all years of cat sleds by creating demand for older machines where other brands have flooded that market with oversupply, discounted carryovers.

 

[Vern]

Dealer issues were definitely well before textron got involved. We went through 2 or 3 different cat dealers local to me in the ten years leading up to textron buying them, and I was told the reasons they kept dropping cat was cat forcing them to take more machines than they knew they could sell or that cat was just a pain in the butt to work with. Our current cat dealer has made it longer than any of the others in the last 20 years.

 

[PSI 800]

very interesting read thou

 

[IDspud]

When such blatant inaccuracies occur in a read, one should question the entirety of the read as well as the motivations of the writer.

 

[tenacious84]

When such blatant inaccuracies occur in a read, one should question the entirety of the read as well as the motivations of the writer.

Agreed. Along the development statements, they read like every idea just needs more money and then it magically happens. When in reality, despite time, money, and appropriate resources there are just some ideas/concepts/patents that simply are not viable in a production setting and don't make it to market.

 

[hansenmac]

the leaf spring idea is interesting, i read about development of the 120 snowmobile and it had fiberglass leaf springs. the idea came from experiments on the big sleds. the flexible leaf spring is what attached the skid to the chassis so it could twist a little almost like T motion. they only ran it on the 120's for one year, and the big downfall was there were no shocks on them. i can see the benefit of it but wonder how well the leafs would hold up.

 

[IDspud]

There’s an old 70’s sled with leaf spring skis in a neighbors shed. Not even sure what make. Broken springs.

 

[frozenfarmer]

There are things that are inaccurate in that.

On Tracker, I would solely blame Scott Ernest. My understanding was he had a relative at Tracker that helped cement the deal and went there shortly after being forced out of Textron in 2019. He lasted one year roughly as a divisional president of TSV.

He is also highly responsible for the lack of older service parts being no longer available in his big push to scrap or trash most of things on the books.

Blast wasn't the initial application of the engine, but the other application was early and rough in what a consumer would consider when it was shuttered.

One shouldn't expect HayDays releases. It should be an exception to the rule. Catalyst shown off and then 6 months later before you could even order took the polish off if you ask me. Remember all the comments on things being 3d printed...

On funding... lots of ideas get proposed, and MANY get cut because they aren't the primary focus of the business. They get held off on until something major breaks or causes them to spend the money. Am I disappointed by several of the choices, yes. I wasn't there as long as some, but the amount of product line changes or pivots under Textron was wild.

The other line you heard often was, "who is going to buy that" or "I wouldn't buy that" when things would launch that are expensive or unique at competitors. Just because I might not buy it doesn't mean I didn't know someone who might not spend the money. Example: Ranger 1500 Northstar Crew... it is expensive, but a family friend had their Ranger Crew 1000 Northstar in for warranty or a recall and asked what the "to boot" # would be to go to a 1500. They weren't even actively shopping, but they thought about it until the number was more than they wanted. Their next purchase I bet is a 1500 though.

 

[Hawkster]

The local Cat dealer is also an Argo dealer now and they are selling the full line.

They have even sold a couple of these.

Sasquatch XTX | Argo XTV

argoxtv.com

The original manufacture has a much advanced version that all four steer but that's a different story.

Textron will tell us when we are allowed to buy thier stuff.