I got the missus convinced I need a new sled, I'm gonna go poke around at the ski-doo dealership when I go into town next

Let me know what you end up getting and why.

Going with a skandic, just haven't decided if I want the 600efi or 600ace

I let the wife take my old sled out for a spin last night knowing it wasn't going to go positively for her. Long story short I had to walk about 2 miles (after she walked that 2 miles home) and go get it unstuck and replace the belt she ate up trying to power out. When I got home she asked if that happens often, I told her there's 3 belts riding on the machine for a reason...she said I probably shouldn't be doing that in the middle of nowhere in the dark all the time lol

Quote.....Going with a skandic, just haven't decided if I want the 600efi or 600ace

Whats the diffrence between those two?

The efi is a two stroke,the ace is a four stroke.
Two stroke has more horsepower,the four stroke is very good on gas
I have a 600 ace wide track skandic I find it has plenty of power for me.
Some trappers here use the 900 ace superwide track,but I found them front heavy compared to the 600 even though the 900 engine is not that much heavier.
A couple big winter beaver trappers here have the 1200,I found that machine way front end heavy but its like a tank in the bush.

Just 2 stroke vs. 4 stroke, and about $1,800 difference on the machine price. 4 strokes last longer and burn less fuel, but 2 strokes are easy and cheap to fix and I can put a pull start on it easy

Now you can put the good belt back on lol

It's an Arctic cat, no such thing as a good belt. You can chew through a brand new one in no time flat if you're not careful

Good plan

The ACE engines are easier to work on than the 2strokes for the most part. Plus parts cost the same.

Probably gonna go with the ace, I inhale enough 2 stroke smoke in my day to day life as it is

What size track are you going with?

20" all the 24's I've seen have the 900. Not sure if they make a 24" with a 600, maybe they just don't have any at our dealership, not sure. Either way, I'll be more than pleased I'm sure, I've always rode old worn out junk so I'm excited for my Cadillac lol

This is why you buy the machine for where you are going to use it. My dad has a 600 ACE wide track like yours. It has plenty of power with the two speed transmission. But my biggest complaint with it is that it is light in the front end. Here we have a lot of ups and downs in the mountains and spend quite a bit of time on ATV trails, some of which can be quite steep as well as narrow and twisty. That light front end is easy to steer on the level or on a road, but you get going up hills on those ATV trails and the skis are riding four inches in the air and it doesn't steer well that way. My 900 ACE (SWT so not comparing apples to apples, but if anything it should be worse because of the heavier track on the back end) doesn't have that issue at all, it can work your arms a little more in deep wet snow, but I'll trade that for the ability to steer better on the trails here. I did a lot of tweaking to the suspension on the Arctic Cat I had previously, in order to put more weight on the skis in an attempt to improve the steering. By the time I was done tweaking it, if you parked in wet snow on level ground, you couldn't turn the skis when you were stopped, you would have to start moving before you could turn the handlebars, but it did steer better.

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20" all the 24's I've seen have the 900. Not sure if they make a 24" with a 600, maybe they just don't have any at our dealership, not sure. Either way, I'll be more than pleased I'm sure, I've always rode old worn out junk so I'm excited for my Cadillac lol[/quote]
They made the 24" track with the 600 ACE for a couple years, but haven't for several years. You can get it with the 900 ACE, or the 900 ACE turbo (loud, lots of power, I don't know about fuel mileage) or I believe you can still get one with the 600 efi, but not the 600 ACE.

The 1200 is very front heavy,not for me here,but some winter beaver trappers like it for pulling tandem sleighs when hauling lots of traps and gear in and piles of beaver out.
I stay away from the ravines around the big rivers but the kids like that country for high marking with their loud mountain sleds
I agree with you bearcat there are plenty of options nowadays to suit your needs.(except the little sleds you can toss in the back of your pick up.)

It will be interesting to see if BRP will come out with anything new in their utility line of sleds since Arctic Cat is closing up, besides the Lynx line of snow machines.

Ski-doo was originally meant to be ski-dog, so maybe they'll buy them out and make ski-cats

They already make ski-cats-the lynx line of sleds.