Feel Bad for Guys with Snowmobiles

It’s January and there is zero snow. And nothing on the forecast either. I remember getting my first sled and not having enough snow.

2 friggin years in a row

I’m glad my sleds are older and I don’t care if they get started up or not. The wheeler is paying for its self 12 months a year lately.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I’m glad my sleds are older and I don’t care if they get started up or not. The wheeler is paying for its self 12 months a year lately.

my sled is at the cabin……i had the carbs redone about 5 years ago. now….everytime i am up there i start my sled and let it run for 20 minutes to a half hour. better and cheaper then having to get the carbs worked on.

and its a 1995 model!!!

Yeah we have the cold we might as well get some snow. I have 2 late 90s machines. The bearcat will always run you just can’t kill that 550. I put some money in the other one last spring because it would run well and turns out the fuel pickup lines in the tank were rotted off. Got it home ran great. Got it off the trailer and in the yard on a 4×4 under the track and my son couldn’t start it again. It’s too cold for me to monkey around with it now but I’m sure it’s low on gas and will run if I add gas and pour some in cylinders but that is for a warmer time.
Those poor guys with new sleds. I know 3 or 4 that got them last year and they never moved. Sad.

After a 50 year hiatus from sleds, we bought 2 SkiDoo 600s in 22 One A 2006 and the other a 2005. Paid 1K each for them, so my investment wasn’t much. We had so much fun with them in 22 with a new group of friends. I rode twice last year for about 120 miles, not looking promising for this year. Joined a local club and have helped put 90 miles of trails in every year. It’s alot of work, especially if there’s no snow/ return on effort.

A handful of my buddies are big sled guys and travel all over riding different mountains, but even that’s bad this year

A few years back we broke our all time record grooming and didn’t start grooming til February. That first day back on the sled reminds me why you do it. Granted I can ride the ATV but it’s just not the same. So much private land is not accessible to the wheeled vehicles.

It’s hard for a lot of guys to justify owning one when you can’t use it over the holidays, when a lot of people have a block of time off. It used to be that you could head up to the cabin over New Years and have guaranteed snow, even if there wasn’t much down in the Cities.

So we will get snow later this month into March, but then it’s just weekends here and there and bam, there’s spring.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I’m glad my sleds are older and I don’t care if they get started up or not. The wheeler is paying for its self 12 months a year lately.

Same situation here, a 2005 and a 1995. Might actually drain the gas out this season since this will be year 2 of no usage. Plus size I’ve had plenty of time to refurbish them lol. Things run like brand new right now!

I’ve been a hard core sledder as in owning my own for over 30 years. Ridden my whole life. Most years we weren’t riding in Dec unless traveling far. Seems like most winters started off like this with riding late in the season for several weekends. Last year was unique. I hope we don’t see that again this season.

suzuki wrote:

I’ve been a hard core sledder as in owning my own for over 30 years. Ridden my whole life. Most years we weren’t riding in Dec unless traveling far. Seems like most winters started off like this with riding late in the season for several weekends. Last year was unique. I hope we don’t see that again this season.

That was my experience as well. Rode alot throughout the 90’s into early ‘00’s. Many years it required travel north or west to find snow. I do miss it and have been keeping an eye on sled prices and they’re getting somewhat tempting. Just have to be willing to watch it collect dust.

This has happened before, multiple low snow years. But the last time they happened back to back was the 79/80 and 80/81.

As Joe says, you just have to be willing it to use the sleds some years. That’s not new.

I feel for the resorts, bares, restaurants etc that depend on sthe snowmobiles for their winter revenue.

I haven’t started ours up yet year but going too soon just to run them. Used to ride almost every day when I was younger. Not rocking anything new, 05 and 07 so not completely bummed about it.

I have a 2023 sitting in the enclosed trailer in my garage. I rode 800 miles on it the year I got it, and it didn’t leave the trailer last year. I will admit that the thought of selling it has crossed my mind the last week. I’m old, and only a few guys still have sleds. It isn’t like when I was in my 20’s and there were a dozen people available on a given weekend to go ride.

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Y’all can have the 10+ inches we got here in SW OH. 2-3″ more forecast…we have no use for it.

I feel worse for the snow plowers rather then the snowmobilers

I do that too, but all but one of my contracts are a flat rate per month rather than per-push. I feel bad for anyone that has mostly per push contracts. Two years ago flat rate wasn’t great, but it seems flat rate I come out ahead more often than not. I used to have them 50/50, but I think 5 years ago I switched everything over to flat that I could.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I feel worse for the snow plowers rather then the snowmobilers

Bearcat89 wrote:

I feel worse for the snow plowers rather then the snowmobilers

No kidding, not to mention all the small businesses up north that depend on snowmobiles and their riders, bars, restaurants hotels etc..

Have never owned one and no interest in doing so but it seems to be a bad idea to be buying one as time goes on.

Hopefully your a contracted snowplower… you get paid x amount for the season and if we get no snow, you do better, if we get tons, your profit gets skinny.

Were planning a trip mid Feb to Iron River. They have no snow at this time either.:(

reddog wrote:

Were planning a trip mid Feb to Iron River. They have no snow at this time either.:(

It’s looking like you’re going to have to go a lot further than that to get into any significant snow. The UP reports I’m seeing are not terrible, but areas are still hit/miss and man are the trails up there getting pounded.

As I said in another thread, I sold my 2-up because the kids want their own machines now. I was going to buy this winter/spring, but now I just can’t see doing it. IMO it’s game over for MN riding this year, there is no way that on average we can catch up to get groomed open trails by the end of season.

Also, used prices are still just silly high as so many guys bought both new/used during the big price runups. It doesn’t matter what you paid, current value is what you can SELL for.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>reddog wrote:</div>
Were planning a trip mid Feb to Iron River. They have no snow at this time either.:(

It’s looking like you’re going to have to go a lot further than that to get into any significant snow. The UP reports I’m seeing are not terrible, but areas are still hit/miss and man are the trails up there getting pounded.

As I said in another thread, I sold my 2-up because the kids want their own machines now. I was going to buy this winter/spring, but now I just can’t see doing it. IMO it’s game over for MN riding this year, there is no way that on average we can catch up to get groomed open trails by the end of season.

Also, used prices are still just silly high as so many guys bought both new/used during the big price runups. It doesn’t matter what you paid, current value is what you can SELL for.

I am so waiting for the crash these damn wedge chassis are so freaking high still.

Charles wrote:

I am so waiting for the crash these damn wedge chassis are so freaking high still.

And they’re starting to get almost a cult following so clean ones are in high demand it seems. Reminds me of the run on square body chev’s and similar older vehicles.

Joe Jarl wrote:

Reminds me of the run on square body chev’s and similar older vehicles.

That is still ongoing! You find a good one they are crazy spendy!

Joe Jarl wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Charles wrote:</div>
I am so waiting for the crash these damn wedge chassis are so freaking high still.

And they’re starting to get almost a cult following so clean ones are in high demand it seems. Reminds me of the run on square body chev’s and similar older vehicles.

starting they are already there. 89 indy 500 are stupid high in good condition.

Depending on what you’re looking for and what you consider high, IMO some freaking awesome deals DO come up. It’s not as good as it used to be but these are collectors sleds now so the bottom end of the price range has been reached.

I’m a total fan of the greasy triples and love the Polaris XLTs. Just in the last week 2 beautiful original condition machines came up for $1200 each. Help me. Must resist.

Pretty sure Nashville is our alternate destination..

Finally got er out.
Had it WOT across the lake and only 89 mph

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Eelpoutguy wrote:

Finally got er out.
Had it WOT across the lake and only 89 mph

why is it parked at the channel bar and grill??????