600 I understand is lower geared, 900 more power overall.

How much worse is the 900 off trail and low speed crawling, towing, etc?


Been mulling a new sled over for years, and while I trap off trail a lots, I also ride longer distances, and run lakes on Georgian Bay a lot, ice fish, etc, and appreciate getting to where I'm going without it taking all day.

How much off trail performance (if any) is lost with the bigger engine?

Will I appreciate the power, given I am currently pretty happy with my 550 fan Voyageur?

The 900 does great off trail and breaking trail unless it is at a crawl. Stop n go.

Would you sacrifice the ability to slow crawl for more power?

I guess thats my question.

Love my 600....lots of power for me

Going from a 550 to either of those engines is going to be a bit of a change. The power band is way different. With that said I have driven one 600 and thought it did pretty good but I did not haul anything with it. I own two expeditions with the 900, one wide track and one super wide track. They are amazing machines that will go just about anywhere. I don't drive at speeds over 45-50 MPH very often so can't say how they do at high speeds or if they even go fast. But they do a great job breaking trail and hauling loads. I LOVE how quiet they are and that I don't smell 2stroke while trapping. The first season of riding one I had to learn all sorts of new noises on sleds I had never heard due to how quiet they are.

I would think the 600 would be more nimble off trail due to the decrease in weight. There is only a few pounds of weight difference between liquid cooled 2strokes and the 4stroke ACE series engines, not what some people say. Your 550 will weigh a good bit less than any of these sleds though.

We run mostly river so breaking trail speed is 20-30mph. Trail wise is 10 mph. If you have much for hills to climb on your line I wouldn’t go with a 600 especially if your pulling a sled.

I have both the 600 and 900, I would go with the 900 you won't regret it. If you have the chance borrow one and take it for a spin. As far as a slow crawl I put it in low and in eco mode and it crawls along just fine.

I have a 550 tundra skandik LT and a 600 ace skandik. I use both often.
The 600 for longer trips-it is amazing on gas compared to the 550.
I like the 550 for breaking some trail also for early trapline work where some water skipping is necessary.
I tried out all kinds of snowmachines before I bought the 600 ace wt.On our fieldtrips for under ice beaver there would be 20 trappers at least all with different snowmachines makes and models,and we all tried each others machines out over the few days setting and checkin the beaver run.
Even though the 900 ace and 600 ace are not much different in weight,the 600 rides way less front end heavy for some reason.
Love the 4 stroke its like a cadillac compared to the 550,but both have their place on the trapline.
Wide ski skins are a must on both machines for various reasons.

Boco, I live and trap on georgian bay where the best ice safety is maintaining 45 mph due to small thin spots and current.

My 550 voyageur can skip 250 yards of open water (don't ask how I know)

While I generally limit it to 10 yards, or small thin ice spots, what is the 600s water jumping ability given I would get it in the 16" track?

Anyone?


We have an old skandic 600 wt two stroke, and when running deep water on ice it gives me zero confidence in its water jumping ability. That wide track seems to drag you down...

I wouldnt try waterskipping with the 4 strokes.
You need the pep for that and they are not made that way.
Made for crawling in deep snow.

I have a 900 ace swt and love it, my dad has the 600 ace wt, both skandics, not expeditions. Both are great for crawling because they have the two speed transmission. Both go as fast as I want to, but I am riding logging roads and atv trails, not wide open lakes and rivers. I think I've had mine up to 50 mph about twice. The sport does not have the low range that the wt and swt do. I've rode a couple Tundra 600 aces quite a bit, and if I owned one I would see about changing out the gears in them, they are too high geared for me and I am always slipping the belt some, especially pulling a sled. They would be okay if you can just open them up and go, but you can't crawl slow enough without engaging and disengaging the clutch constantly. They may be good for want you want though, because it sounds like you are going to be wanting to go fast worse than you want to be able to crawl.

I’d go with the 900.

I've had both, I skip water a lot on the Yukon, go with the 900, definitely. The 600 is nail bitingly slow when skipping water without a towing a sled, would never attempt it with one.

Get a Yamaha SRX 1000 with Turbo boost before they are gone..Get you to them fishing spots in no time flat. Don't even need ice skip the whole lake.

Get a Yamaha SRX 1000 with Turbo boost before they are gone..Get you to them fishing spots in no time flat. Don't even need ice skip the whole lake.

That sounds like a sound review,hate to see Yamaha leaving the snow machine business, don't care to go with Arctic Cat,

I'm actually considering the 600, and then adding a $300 performance chip which adds 15%, getting it to 69 horsepower. Apparently it increases fuel economy 5% also

15% isn't enough to decrease reliability either. Heck, there's a turbo kit for it that almost doubles the horsepower to 110 lol

Huchy don't get carried away with the chip thing. I see nothing but trouble with people who have done it. I am looking at the 600 also some friends here have some and like them in our conditions. We have about the same conditions as you have but alot bigger hills inland from superior.

Water as in open holes? Or mostly overflow?

Sweet William, if you swap out the driver for a 7 tooth Avid it will give you the lower gear a 600 should have. Pretty much eliminates belt slip. They are geared to high for a utility sled I my opinion.

Only speaking for myself, I am referring to open holes.