Time to end this Debate

[Powerage]

My floor drain in my shop is just a 45 gallon drum cut in half. After a day of riding with 2 sleds they are parked in the shop to thaw and melt. I empty that 22.5 gallons "maybe" once per season. Don't get me wrong it does evaporate but it does not get over full every time i put 2 snow machines in from a day of riding. I would say it gets an inch or 2 after melting 2 sleds.

Also snow is 10 times that of water when it falls. 1" of rain is the same as 10" of snow. Snow packs though when disturbed. But even still

 

[M8onEdge]

Not sure how they got a Pro to weigh 543 to start with. We just weighed the '15 sleds completely fueled and the 163 Pro with standard track and no electric start was 516 lbs. You can reference snowmobile.com for that information for the '15 sleds. Not saying they rigged this test, but it looks like a pretty unusual situation and I can't fathom a sled holding that much snow. I ride a Cat and the powder coating does work well but still pack some snow around depending on the temps etc. Regardless of how much snow the Polaris packs, it still gets on the snow noticeably better than my cat and leaves a trench about half as deep most of the time. The bottom line though, having spent a couple days riding the '15 Yamaha is the thing feels extremely heavy in technical boondocking situations and the best use I could see for it is open meadow or point and shoot type riding or maybe to get yourself a great upper body workout.

 

[sledneck_03]

They hate us cause they aint us! They are just peanut butter and jellous!

 

[snowmobiler]

One time i dryed out a poo it flooded the neighborhood.

 

[JJ_0909]

I ride with a strange group in that we're all on different sleds (ProClimb, T3, Pro)

Though I love my Pro I do believe it holds significantly more snow than the Cat...and marginally more than the Ski-Doo.

Not sure about 100+ pounds but as a guy who has built some snow science data acquisition software I can say in the (not so) perfect conditions there is certainly enough room on a Pro for a 100+ pounds to pack on.

Is this normal? Far from it. But I'd wager on a pow day you'll have 40-50lbs of snow buildup, and on the wettest/heaviest/deepest days you could have 100+ pounds.

Why don't you see all this on your garage floor? Well a lot of it is knocked off before it even gets into your garage, some evaporates while some is meting etc etc.

 

[shattuck]

One time i dryed out a poo it flooded the neighborhood.

Haha Yamaha should claim Pros are partially responsible for global warming they are bringing all that snow down from higher elevations to get melted. Imagine if there were several Pros in one neighborhood all ridden the same day and brought back home wonder what kind of flood that would create?

 

[89sandman]

They claimed the 125 pounds of snow because they knew that no one has that much to do a comparison with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBOgtp0Hac

 

[tincuprider]

Thanks for that opinion based response jj0909, even though we just demonstrated with mathematical clarity that 100 pound snow load on a sled is nearly impossible, your opinion surely carries more weight, just like your Pro I guess.

 

[CO Powder]

I ride with a strange group in that we're all on different sleds (ProClimb, T3, Pro)

Though I love my Pro I do believe it holds significantly more snow than the Cat...and marginally more than the Ski-Doo.

Not sure about 100+ pounds but as a guy who has built some snow science data acquisition software I can say in the (not so) perfect conditions there is certainly enough room on a Pro for a 100+ pounds to pack on.

You build software and that qualifies you?

Is this normal? Far from it. But I'd wager on a pow day you'll have 40-50lbs of snow buildup, and on the wettest/heaviest/deepest days you could have 100+ pounds.

Why don't you see all this on your garage floor? Well a lot of it is knocked off before it even gets into your garage, some evaporates while some is meting etc etc.

I can not speak for the other areas but in Colorado, ain't no way your packing 124 lbs of snow without pulling a trailer.

I live 12 miles from the mountain, even when the sled rides down in an enclosed trailer there isn't 50 lbs of snow that fell off, and it certainly doesn't evaporate in 20 minutes in freezing temps does it?

I have never had even 2 gallons of water come off the sled in the warm garage much less the 15 gallons the video purports.

It is REDICULOUS at best. The Yammi had one 55 gallon drum of snow, the Doo had two and the Pro carried three? You would have to be an epic moron to buy that garbage...

 

[akMcat]

So with just a little googling I found a publication put out by the city of Coeur d’Alene discussing snow loading on roofs stating

"Basic calculation – (for a quick analysis only) This calculation is based on a 25% moisture density which may be conservative for our current snow fall. As a rule of thumb, saturated snow weighs approximately 20 pounds per cubic foot. The moisture content of snow can range from approximately 1% to 33%, which relates to snow potentially weighing from 1 pound per cubic foot to over 21 pounds per cubic foot."

If saturated snow weighs in at approximately 20 lbs/cuft, then 6 cuft of saturated snow would give you 120 lbs of added weight. It seems to me that if your rear skid is completely packed you could get close to 6 cuft of snow pack in there, add in some more packed under the hood and stuck to the tunnel and there's 125lbs of added weight that you are carrying around.

Whether or not the "test" done in the promo video is realistic or unbiased could still be debated but the amount of snowpack required to add 125lbs does seem to me to be possible.

http://building.cdaid.org/images/Handouts/Shovel%20Roof%20Snow.pdf

 

[shattuck]

We need a contest fellow PRO owners with snow get out there and pack your machines with as much snow as possible and tell us what it weighs let's see who can make their machines the heaviest and no hiding dirt, rocks or lead fishing weights in the snow and after you do that try to find A Yamaha turbo (good luck with that I think I've seen one in the last three years) then race against it across a frozen lake and post the results. No cheating the Yamaha must be a turbo.

 

[turboless terry]

I can't believe everyone won't let this debate go. The heavyweights are trying to make themselves look lighter than they are. If the pro was the same weight as the Viper the pro is still going to handle better imo because all the added weight will be on the rear whereas the Viper will still be front heavy. I will guarantee the Viper is 10 times better than my old t Nytro. I am not going to trash on them. I would like to ride one. I actually think yamaha is a joke. They can't come up with their own chassis. I guess i should say they won't. Comparing a viper and pro are like coating a 174 and a 146. Two different sleds designed for different stuff.

 

[BLSDEEP]

I can't believe everyone won't let this debate go. The heavyweights are trying to make themselves look lighter than they are. If the pro was the same weight as the Viper the pro is still going to handle better imo because all the added weight will be on the rear whereas the Viper will still be front heavy. I will guarantee the Viper is 10 times better than my old t Nytro. I am not going to trash on them. I would like to ride one. I actually think yamaha is a joke. They can't come up with their own chassis. I guess i should say they won't. Comparing a viper and pro are like coating a 174 and a 146. Two different sleds designed for different stuff.

The debate is about how much snow weight a Po or Doo gains while riding powder.
The vids made are clearly dishonest. I personally would like to know the truth.

 

[stormrider_69]

i dont know for snow, but i have weighted some ice that was stick to my tunnel after a long ride back to the truck on a cold day and just with the big chunk of ice, i got over 50 pound and that was just for the back of the sled. I didnt weight the ice and snow that build inside the cab, near drive belt, and where the front suspension mount. I bet i would had another 30-40 pounds, but as i said, ice, not snow.

My pro, keep more snow that my buddy Cat, but it dont matter, its still float more.

I will post the picture, i have it somewhere and it was on a 13 pro 163.

 

[cateye5312]

Well, I have the scale and we just got the snow _THANK GOD! If I'm not too tired after work tonight maybe I'll go home and pack my 2014 Pro RMK 155 ES with snow to see what it takes to make it gain 125 lbs. I'll bet it's not easy to do. I'll see if I can match the video.

There is however a grain of truth to the video and that is that the Poo design does hold more snow. I don't think it adds up to 125 lbs though. I've ridden with every make and my Pro will hold more snow - not as much as the video but definitely more. And I have powder coated or vinyl wrapped basically everything on my sled except for the underside of the tunnel which doesn't hold snow or ice. The wide open front end on a Yammi Cat certainly holds less snow than the Poo or Doo.

If Poo could make their design hold less snow that would be awesome! Just looking at the tight spaces and raw aluminum A -arms on the AXYS makes me think they just made the problem (if there is one) worse.

Poo could easily end the debate - just address the issue and correct it.

 

[JJ_0909]

You build software and that qualifies you?

Yes. Its real time snow software. Software that takes snow water equivalent and utilizes an algorithm that takes into account a number of variables and conditions. It then spits out a snowfall for a given interval of time.

As a result of this, we've had to become very aware of snow weight, density etc.

So yes, I'd say this "qualifies" me as knowing more about snow.

Again, I'm not saying its normal. Far from it. But in the absolute worst conditions (for snow buildup) I could see the pro carrying in excess of 100lbs of snow.

The video is still silly.

 

[BLSDEEP]

Well, I have the scale and we just got the snow _THANK GOD! If I'm not too tired after work tonight maybe I'll go home and pack my 2014 Pro RMK 155 ES with snow to see what it takes to make it gain 125 lbs. I'll bet it's not easy to do. I'll see if I can match the video.

There is however a grain of truth to the video and that is that the Poo design does hold more snow. I don't think it adds up to 125 lbs though. I've ridden with every make and my Pro will hold more snow - not as much as the video but definitely more. And I have powder coated or vinyl wrapped basically everything on my sled except for the underside of the tunnel which doesn't hold snow or ice. The wide open front end on a Yammi Cat certainly holds less snow than the Poo or Doo.

If Poo could make their design hold less snow that would be awesome! Just looking at the tight spaces and raw aluminum A -arms on the AXYS makes me think they just made the problem (if there is one) worse.

Poo could easily end the debate - just address the issue and correct it.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
OH, and should we be concerned that your name has CAT in it? ha ha..

 

[polarisperformance]

Snow condition

I think the snow condition when they do the test were the worst for snow sticking on sled, But I rarely ride in that type of snow so i don't care about this video.

I just ride in powder last weekend and absolutely zero snow in the skid. (just a little bit on the back of running board).

 

[cateye5312]

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
OH, and should we be concerned that your name has CAT in it? ha ha..

Nah, I haven't owned a Cat in years - I don't care how much snow the Poo holds it's still a heck of a lot more fun to ride.

You only time you really notice weight is when your machine is stuck and I don't think I've ever seen a machine stuck (of ANY brand) that didn't have a skid full of snow packed into it.

I have a meeting tonight so this is gonna have to wait. I'm thinking maybe I can use my tow sled for ice fishing and see how much snow I have to put in it to get 125 pounds.