Sled Tests

2012 Long-track Snowmobiles

GREAT 8s DOMINATE GROWING CROSSOVER MARKET

By Mark Boncher
Published: August 9, 2011
cat-xf-downhill
Photo by Kort Duce
No doubt about it, eights are great. Whether you put a big 800 twin in a short-tracked trail sled, a mountain sled, a utility sled or as we tested here, several new crossovers. This group of high-power extended sleds is deemed by the Big 4s’ marketing departments to be aimed more at trail riding and less at off-trail boondockers. Yet all in this group can satisfy both ride-preferences with confidence.

In this comparo we tested Arctic Cat’s all new XF 800 LXR, Polaris’ all new Switchback 800 Pro-R, and Yamaha’s “new-last-year” 4-stroke Apex XTX. We’ll also briefly discuss Ski-Doo’s Renegade Adrenaline 800R, but we cannot compare this one directly as we did not have one to test at the time we had the other three … we feel fairness is compromised if we don’t get a chance to compare sleds directly.
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