History lesson

[Luke The Drifter]

I had an 02' ZR 440 sno pro, which for its time was pretty revolutionary. First laydown engine with front exhaust and intake. It was also advertised as being very lightweight as well. It paved the way for the M series.

I would say any of the manufacturers took it to the next level in their own way. Longer tracks, deeper lugs, direct injection, narrower stances etc etc. Remember when the king cat came out? A 162" track? Ludicrous! It'll never turn or have enough power. Now everyone runs that as a standard mountain length. Or when Ski-Doo brought out the rev and sitting on a powered couch was no longer the norm.

It's pretty amazing to think that we have mountain sleds today that right out the crate, literally need nothing done to them aside from oil and gas. Even crazier is that you can pretty much ride all day and only have to play with clutching and suspension (if you so choose).

 

[gonehuntnpowder]

this opened peoples eyes
this isn't the style I remember but some here will remember
I remember kimpex had a plastic version that was kind of dished

http://assets1.mytrainsite.com/501450/ti_paddle-2_500nolines.jpg

I wanted them pretty bad back in 95 but bet they were putting them on clear back n the eighties

I recall a book that was published in the early nineties called some thing like "how to build your own fire breathing mod led" or something like that. it was built out of an xlt probably 94-95. it looked like the mountain scene was in at that time. the sky was the limit, there were no real mt sleds, people were trying all sorts of things mixing brands, custom parts, using their imagination. lots of wedges with doo motors. I vividly remember a 93 wedge a 583 twin piped doo 151 with those bolt on paddles shooting a 30 foot rooster in the air then the drop brackets ohh the drop brackets.

I had a 91 wildcat Bret Rasmussen built. It had a hand built aluminum bulkhead, twin pipes, and 50 some 7.5 inch long 1.5 inch tall Simmons plastic cleats. 85 lbs lighter than stock. It was incredible.

 

[Ride_The_Rockies]

97 polaris 700 rmk. Changed snowmobiling like the ipod changed portable music.

EXACTLY!!!

 

[Mafesto]

Had a '98 Summit & a '99 & "01 RMK
I liked the Summit a lot more than either RMK

 

[greencat900]

the Rev chassis (going to independent/A-arm suspension with "pyramidal geometry")

Arctic cat started the A-arm front suspension before the revs. The mountain cat had independent front suspension with A-arms in 2000, but i agree that this progressed sleds.

 

[MT Backcountry]

Cat AWS front

Just to add to above the AWS front was introduced in the early 90's. Had a 1995 EXT 580 Mountain Cat 136" with AWS 2 I think, so before that even. Tucker's dad race the old ZR chassis and they also ran the cat AWS front end way back in the day. Good front end back in the day, forward thinking for sure.

 

[boondocker97]

Just to add to above the AWS front was introduced in the early 90's. Had a 1995 EXT 580 Mountain Cat 136" with AWS 2 I think, so before that even. Tucker's dad race the old ZR chassis and they also ran the cat AWS front end way back in the day. Good front end back in the day, forward thinking for sure.

1990 was the first year of the true dual a-arm front suspension on the Prowler. I will give credit to the Doo Rev for having the first rigid pyramid structure chassis though.

I remember lots of "wedge" chassis Polaris mod sleds in the 90s. Piped triples, 1-1/2" extended 136 tracks, taper cut tunnels at the running boards then tucking them back inside themselves to re-rivet for more snow clearance. Plastic skis were considered a major aftermarket upgrade then.

Dad's '93 EXT 550 with the "Mountain Cat" package was his first ever brand new sled I think. Came stock with fuel injection and 3/4" paddle 136" track and he thought that was pretty awesome. No more re-jetting to ride the mountains on the weekend and started on the 2nd pull every time! His '95 EXT 580 "Mountain Cat" came stock with the 1-1/2" track. A year or two later 2" tracks came out and he put one on his '95. I got to start riding his old 550 and we swapped that 1-1/2" track onto that. Pretty big step up from the 1980 Jag 340 I was riding!

Roller secondary clutches were a big thing in the late 90s. Lots of Polaris guys would buy them from us to put on their sleds since they were a direct swap. 800cc engines were a big deal and came about in the early 2000s and seem to be where the meat of the mountain riding market has settled. 2003 900 Cat was a big deal for us. 35lb chassis weight reduction from the '02 models and that much motor paired with a stock 151 track seemed like it would take you wherever you wanted to go.

The M7 came out and did everything the old 900 was able to do with far less effort. It was a true stand-up riding style sled. Even though they take two different styles to ride them the M7 and the Rev were the last big revolutions in mountain riding sleds I think.

 

[joshkoltes]

Arctic cat started the A-arm front suspension before the revs. The mountain cat had independent front suspension with A-arms in 2000, but i agree that this progressed sleds.

cat had a arms in the eighties
im on a serious search for a niceish shape 92 wildcat in that eighties body style. I like ugly things

 

[The Fourth Wolf]

In the 70's Alouette started using aircraft riveting and aircraft aluminum to build tunnels and bulkheads and they introduced the liquid cooled motor. That was revolutionary then and quickly became industry standard. The hyfax rear skid came out in the 70s as well.

As mentioned, in the early 80's the Phazer changed everything to that point

Also in the 80's (IIRC) Polaris introduced the Indy chassis. The Indy became the most common starting point for homebuilt mountain sleds. The early Summits were also popular homebuilt mod sleds.

In 94 Polaris introduced RMK, officially the first "dedicated" mountain sled. Then in 2001 the debuted the Edge sleds.

This was the start of the rapid evolution we're all familiar with. The Rev sleds really upped the game with more HP, the a-arm front suspensions and rider forward ergos.

The M's followed shortly after with what was more of a refinement of existing technology.

Then, after a bad run with the 900 and the EFI-4 Dragons, Polaris released the Pro and now the Axys.

IMHO neither the XP nor the Pro Climb were game changers.

The XM is an outstanding machine.

I don't know who invented the coil over rear skid but they really changed the way sleds perform in the deep and IMO this is the defining characteristic of a "true" mountain sled. YMMV.

 

[Deep Powder Guy]

All these sleds mentioned would not be able to dung in the steep & deep, without a paddle track....Imagine how well your 800 Polaris, Cat, Doo or Yamaha would do in deep mountain pow, pow with a .75" or 1.00" track.

Polaris 550 & 650 RXL were beasts back in the day.

Steel Ski's were also a real gem.

DPG

 

[geo]

Any of the late 70's and early 80's Yamaha's because they were cheap, would start everyday, and the next year, and the next year and didn't rust.

 

[sno*jet]

No love for mountain max?

the M series cats were great. but i think people who referred to them as rider forward were nuts the hoods on those are huge, theres still a boat in front of you. The 97 mountain max was more rider forward than that. it was a tighter front end body wise. not the huge clam shell hood/belly pan most still had in the day. Mountain Max always trailed behind on track size and a little weight tho. Look at 2000, the 151 doo came out. polaris had a 144 and quickly optioned a 151 to compete. yamaha stayed 141. Then they figured americans must not care about nimble, and released a fatter version with a 144, the viper. $hit just snowballed down from there for yamaha.

The 96 summit really kicked off the mountain sled thing. the 94-95 summits sucked in that lead weight chassis with dual rear shocks and low clearance. the 96s were more competetive with the mighty wedge chassis polaris. the king of custom modding chassis. still not as good as a wedge imo, but better motors. 670 twin was better than any poo motor till the small blocks they are using today came out.
rotary valves, rave valves... everybody followed. IIRC, poo bought the rave valve design from doo for their VES valves. Or traded it for the patented coupled rear skid design on the x-10.
correct me if im wrong there.
But in my mind, with the exception of the mountain max, polaris has always had the chassis to beat, and ski-doo the motors.
the ultimate sled in the day was a custom wedge with a 670 swap.

I still like a modded MM700 over all the old school non-rider forward stuff though. Even most edge chassis. I was just never a fan of the big block twins after seeing some of their water pump issues, kehin carb issues, and durability issues on the 800. and I had an 800 edge too. It worked great, till it didnt.

 

[boondocker97]

The Mountain Maxes I rode were fine submarines! The hoods may have been shorter, but they were still a wide tub.

 

[Chewy22]

CMX started in 1996. How much of what they were doing influenced the big 4?

 

[Dirty Steve]

97 polaris 700 rmk. Changed snowmobiling like the ipod changed portable music.

I remember being in Island Park that first year. Everyone riding 120" sleds couldn't stop moving in the pow or you were stuck. Got a chance to ride a 700 RMK for a short time and remember being amazed at how much better it was in the pow than my 1996 Formula III.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Jake N]

96 Summit 670, Mark Thompson was the first one to take a stock sled over the top of Snow King Hill at Jackson.

 

[GST]

Lolly Wong, one of the pioneers of back country snowmobiling. Cutting the tunnels on the Kawasaki's, 670 Skidoo motors in Polaris's there were many other things before and after these two things that I could go on and on about. I grew up next door to him, no one has ever loved the sport of snowmobiling more than Lolly. Wong's bowl, it would take two days to get there back in his day, didn't as far as I know even have a name then. I, snowmobiling and I am sure many others sure miss him. There is some history.

 

[sledsuperman]

Scorpion

I remember the scorpions. I know they weren't much of what we call a mountain sled today but they worked back in the day. We would modify them into a mountain sled by lowering the track and cutting the tunnel to get it up out of the snow. We called it a "Track and Tunnel" mod. We had lots of good times on the shop modifying them and on the mountain riding them.

 

[lundracing]

I would have to say the sleds that changed snowmobiling for me were as follows
1993 Ski Doo Summit-I remember seeing that long track thinking who would ever need that much track.
1994 early release ZR 440 race sled. Forever changed they way sleds handled for the better.
1997 Polaris RMK 700. I would call it the first true mountain sled. They still do pretty good even compared to todays sleds.
2002 Ski Doo Rev-Futuristic looking. I would say that base for what we are riding today.
2005-M7 and to be more specific Brett Rasmussen and his unique style of ridding and bringing it to the main stream.
And last but not least the 2011 RMK 800. For sure this sled pushed the limits on technology and weight savings.


This was a lot of fun thinking back to the days of my youth when I would make my daily rounds to all the dealerships in town after school with my buds just waiting for the new literature to come out so I could spend all day studding brochures instead of my math homework.

 

[joshkoltes]

CMX started in 1996. How much of what they were doing influenced the big 4?

Oh yeah I remember paging through a mag and seeing two ads, the cmx, and the goat. They were one in the same but then they had differences and split to two companies

http://excellmodels.com/Page5.html