Voters Make Their Preference for North America’s Top Snowmobiler Known!

After less than one week of intense voting it’s clear, snowmobilers are excited about Ski-Doo’s North America’s Top Snowmobiler Competition.

Snowmobilers are voting by the thousands and each nominee’s percentage of votes in this first round is on display at supertraxmag.com/nats for all to see. You need to keep voting every day!

Already Top Snowmobilers Are Emerging!

There’’s been a huge response to both Matthew Corbeil and Kevin Hanlon who posted entertaining and compelling video bios.

Questions about Kevin’s ability to produce ride-able, real snow in October are rampant. Watch his video. There’s no doubt that’s real snow!

Matthew Corbeil’s bio was so professional we might use his cameraman on SnowTrax Television! Other first round nominees have interesting bios.

You can read and decide for yourself who you will vote for at supertraxmag.com/nats. Remember, you can vote once a day every day for your North America’s Top Snowmobiler nominee!

Already We Have Winning Voters!

That’s right! We’ve awarded the first voter prizes! Tons more winners will be announced each and every week of the North America’s Top Snowmobiler Competition.

Congratulations and thanks to John Strandmark for his participation in casting a vote for North America’s Top Snowmobiler!

John was randomly drawn as the lucky recipient of a BV2S Modular helmet from (@skidoo facebook link) Ski-Doo Accessories.

Continue to cast your vote daily for the current round of nominees at supertraxmag.com/nats. We’ll be giving away another awesome prize package from our list of sponsors to a lucky recipient soon!
Click here to learn about the BV2S helmet.

Wait! Here’s Another Winning Voter!

Brandon Dumouchel has won a $300.00 Woodys gift certificate! Looks like his carbide budget is looked after for this season! Check in often for more prize winners!

You Can Still Nominate Yourself!

That’s right! There’s still time for you to submit your nomination for North America’s Top Snowmobiler! Get out your iPhone, mobile device or video camera and record your story, telling voters and the whole world why you should be North America’s Top Snowmobiler!

It’s easy to submit your nomination at www.supertraxmag.com/nats . Get ‘er done today!

Keep On Voting – Keep On Winning!

The top three nominees from this first round will move on to the finals. On Friday October 23rd six new nominees will be posted! Every time you vote you increase your chance to win exceptional prizes!

Go to supertraxmag.com/nats

The current crop of the most popular snowmobile offerings are focusing on track length – or at least, more of it.

Arctic Cat began the shift to minimum 129-inch tracks for trail sleds a decade ago and then Yamaha followed with the Apex and then the Viper and, this year, the Vector. In MY2016, Ski-Doo is offering 129s on most of its trail-targeted sleds.

Meanwhile, about four years ago, it began to be noticed the trail market was moving to what used to be called long-tracked sleds at 137-inches.

These sleds, originally labeled Crossovers, have now become standard-issue trail sled upgrades and allow riders to both trail ride and occasionally run in powder, too.

What we’re wondering, is why?

Could it be the riding habits of snowmobilers are evolving into something completely different? Certainly, we’re talking to many 20 and 30-something flatland riders who really love to run powder wherever they can find it.

It’s not about mountain climbing, high-marking or perpendicular sidehilling – their geography doesn’t always allow it – rather, it’s just about boondocking in powder for a few hours and finding some nice drifts and cornices to launch from, then resuming the day’s ride back home on trails. You could almost call it Eastern riding as opposed to Western.

Many hardcore trail riders could care less about ever riding in the fluff and just want to stick to the groomed white. No problem, and the 129-inchers seem to be extremely good for that use (frankly, we’ve been hard-pressed to note any compromise in handling with a 129 compared to a 120).

There is the weight factor and any extra track length adds pounds – but most riders seem okay with that.

An important consideration with track length is the weight of the snowmobile chassis. Surprisingly, super-lights like the AXYS and MX-Z are amazingly good in powder, even with their shortest tracks.

We think it has a lot more to do with the mindset of a potential sled buyer when they’re making a decision in the showroom.

The potential to ride off-trail when you’re cutting the check is pretty enticing. Extra track length gives you full license to do that.

Don’t Drink the 4-Stroke Kool-Aid

Seems there’s been a lot of talk on this site about 4-strokes and how great they are.

Okay, 4-strokes have their place and are selling well from the OEM’s who offer them. I want to clarify a couple things which continue to make the modern 2-stroke the choice for snowmobile power. Yeah, that’s right, I said “the choice”.

WEIGHT

The closest you’re going to get when comparing the weight of 2-strokes and 4-strokes is about 60 pounds.

In the most popular engine class in the biz this measurement holds true. A 125-hp class 4-stroke compared to a 125-hp class 2-stroke is 60 pounds heavier. Sixty pounds right over your skis. On your carbides. In your wrists when you saw the bars. On the front suspension when you ditch bang. Rolling to the outside in every corner when you shred a trail. Did somebody say you can’t feel the diff between a 2-stroke and a 4-stroke when riding trails. Really? I can.

ECONOMY

If there’s any comparison that should tilt the scales in favor of 4-strokes you would think fuel economy would be it, wouldn’t you? Don’t look here for a clear victory for 4-stroke snowmobiles.

Consistently the best fuel economy in the 120-130-hp segment comes from the Ski-Doo Rotax E-TEC 600 engine followed by Arctic Cat’s C-TEC 600. Since 2009 when E-TEC first arrived we’ve been unable to better the E-TEC 600’s fuel economy. Moreover, its superiority is not incremental.

The 600 E-TEC regularly cards over 20-mpg in comparable nose-to-tail, all-day rides. A 600 E-TEC can get as much as 25-percent better mpg than a comparable HP 4-stroke.

Don’t come back with, “Oh yeah! The 900 ACE gets better fuel economy than a 600 E-TEC.” Yes, it does. However it delivers at least 30 horsepower less than the E-TEC. That’s 25-percent less power.

Try this instead: Compare the fuel economy of Ski-Doo’s 1170 4-TEC rated at 130-hp and you’ll see the 600 E-TEC is consistently more efficient. In defense of 4-strokes – on average, across the entire fleet of 4-stroke engines offered in MY 2016 – average mpg would be higher than the entire 2-stroke fleet.

COST TO OPERATE

We get lots of comments from 4-stroke readers who enjoy not carrying injector oil when they tour. Agreed. However, few readers claim their 4-stroke is definitively cheaper to maintain than a 2-stroke.

There’s a good reason for this. Today’s new EPA clean 2-strokes use way less injector oil.

We can talk about E-TEC again but we’ll use Polaris as an example instead. Polaris Cleanfire 600 and 800 HO engines are oil miserly and run with very little smoke – only on initial cold start-up. The issue here is the amount of oil and the cost of a 4-stroke oil filter and oil change.

The necessity to seasonally (at least) dump your 4-stroke oil and change the filter brings this comparison into focus. Oil ain’t cheap and neither are filters.

This is a significant cost and if you choose, as many 4-stroke owners do, to have the oil and filter changed by a dealer, you’re looking at spending upwards of 150 clams.

This needs to be balanced against the total cost of injector oil used in a 2-stroke each season.

One more thing: Many 4-stroke sled engines require valve lash adjustments at pre-determined service intervals. Check with your dealer on the cost of this service. Think about sitting down before you ask.

ARE 4-STROKES THE FUTURE?

4-strokes are without a doubt in the sno-mo-future. As technology continues to improve and lighter, higher output 4-strokes emerge 4-stroke snowmobiles will continue to proliferate. However, 4-strokes are not solely the future of snowmobiling. There’s beaucoup legs left in today’s EPA clean, fuel efficient, lightweight and low maintenance 2-strokes.

Even if someday 4-stroke weight matches 2-stroke weight, pound for HP, the simple, lower cost-to-build, lower cost-to-maintain and exceptionally fuel efficient, low emission 2-stroke will live on.