2015 Arctic Cat M8000 Review

[lilduke]

. Although every machine has its merits, not one OEM has built a true big mountain machine, that is the sled I'm waiting for.

What changes would you say are needed to be considered a "true big mountain machine"?? 300hp& 420lbs?? yeah I'd like that too, think we could be waiting a while tho...lol

 

[maxwell]

Breaking that 200hp Barrier in a 2 stroke would be unreal. Hell even a true 180 on a stocker would be pretty unreal


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[lilduke]

Breaking that 200hp Barrier in a 2 stroke would be unreal. Hell even a true 180 on a stocker would be pretty unreal


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Yep, I wouldn't complain about a light weight 200hp stock 2 stroke.

 

[snowrideadventures]

What changes would you say are needed to be considered a "true big mountain machine"?? 300hp& 420lbs?? yeah I'd like that too, think we could be waiting a while tho...lol

I'm not going into the hp game, as long as the sled runs cleanly and consistently, I'm satisfied. I've often seen top pros ride much better with manageable power rather than with boosted power, not to mention stokers help to keep egos in check.....but an extra 20 ponies would always be nice! I also don't notice weight differences between the 3 OEMs, they all feel the same to me, I'd rather see emphasis placed on strength and durability. Making a sled feel light can often be accomplished with the proper suspension set up.

If you look at MX bikes, they aren't getting much lighter, but they are getting tremendously easier to ride, I think sleds will follow suit. The changes I'd like to see involve very practical aspects of the machine that combine handling, set-up and functional design changes. I won't say anymore than that.

 

[lilduke]

I'm not going into the hp game, as long as the sled runs cleanly and consistently, I'm satisfied. I've often seen top pros ride much better with manageable power rather than with boosted power, not to mentioned stokers help to keep egos in check.....but an extra 20 ponies would always be nice! I also don't notice weight differences between the 3 OEMs, they all feel the same to me, I'd rather see emphasis placed on strength and durability. Making a sled feel light can often be accomplished with the proper suspension set up.

If you look at MX bikes, they aren't getting much lighter, but they are getting tremendously easier to ride, I think sleds will follow suit. The changes I'd like to see involve very practical aspects of the machine that combine handling, set-up and functional design changes. I won't say anymore than that.

Fair eneogh, I raced Moto X and Enduro for a long time and don't think the bikes are getting much better at all IMO in the last 6 years at least(4stroke) 2stroke 10+ years... I find the current sleds very easy to ride, always room for improvement tho. Strength and durability are very important to me too, I ride a lot.. That's why I got the freeride this season, hope my new T3 holds up as good as It did. Arctic Cat are pretty tough, motors are good also. My friends Cat tunnel broke in half where its riveted together near the back though. a 1 piece tunnel might be better....

 

[Steve D]

Fair eneogh, I raced Moto X and Enduro for a long time and don't think the bikes are getting much better at all IMO in the last 6 years at least(4stroke) 2stroke 10+ years... I find the current sleds very easy to ride, always room for improvement tho. Strength and durability are very important to me too, I ride a lot.. That's why I got the freeride this season, hope my new T3 holds up as good as It did. Arctic Cat are pretty tough, motors are good also. My friends Cat tunnel broke in half where its riveted together near the back though. a 1 piece tunnel might be better....

I dunno, I've seen guys manage to get away just riveting on a new tail section and callin'er done. There are advantages to modular designs.

That's, of course, assuming things break in the proper spot!

 

[lilduke]

I dunno, I've seen guys manage to get away just riveting on a new tail section and callin'er done. There are advantages to modular designs.

That's, of course, assuming things break in the proper spot!

I guess it could be an advantage in certain crash situtations, he broke his jumping though....

 

[snowrideadventures]

Fair eneogh, I raced Moto X and Enduro for a long time and don't think the bikes are getting much better at all IMO in the last 6 years at least(4stroke) 2stroke 10+ years... I find the current sleds very easy to ride, always room for improvement tho. Strength and durability are very important to me too, I ride a lot.. That's why I got the freeride this season, hope my new T3 holds up as good as It did. Arctic Cat are pretty tough, motors are good also. My friends Cat tunnel broke in half where its riveted together near the back though. a 1 piece tunnel might be better....

Everyone is going to have a different take on things, I had an 09 Honda CRF 450 and thought the 14 CRF 450 felt like cheating in comparison, mind you I also thought the 14 Yam YZ450F absolutely slaughtered the 14 Honda. The difference between the 09 and the 14 was the 14s were really planted and tracked far better, for me, I could stay on the power longer in and out of corners longer and my lap times dropped. I was riding faster and had a lot less fatigue, I think its fair to say the bikes are getting easier to ride, as are the sleds. I think the next chassis for all 3 OEMs will be very competitive, by now, they should have enough info collected to do great things....at least we can hope!!!!!

 

[lilduke]

Everyone is going to have a different take on things, I had an 09 Honda CRF 450 and thought the 14 CRF 450 felt like cheating in comparison, mind you I also thought the 14 Yam YZ450F absolutely slaughtered the 14 Honda. The difference between the 09 and the 14 was the 14s were really planted and tracked far better, for me, I could stay on the power longer in and out of corners longer and my lap times dropped. I was riding faster and had a lot less fatigue, I think its fair to say the bikes are getting easier to ride, as are the sleds. I think the next chassis for all 3 OEMs will be very competitive, by now, they should have enough info collected to do great things....at least we can hope!!!!!

Sure the bikes get better from year to year, I race Suzuki. I look at a 2006 RMZ 450 vs a 2014, sure the new one is FI and suspension has been tweaked over the years, but the wheel base is the same, the seat height is the same, bars are in the same spot, tires are the same size, suspension design hasn't changed ext. If you sucked on a 2006 RMZ you'll still suck on a 2014. Sleds, I ride ski doo, take a 2006 summit VS a 2014 summit,,, not even fawking close.... see my point??

 

[Modman]

Yep, I wouldn't complain about a light weight 200hp stock 2 stroke.

HP is just a calculation. What you want is a motor that makes torque up high and over a very long power curve so the power stays linear. They'll need to make a 1200-1300 cc 2 stroke to make that happen. The 800 will simply not cut it in current configuration in stock output, they could spin it to 10,000 rpm and make 200 HP, but it won't last at a sustained RPM that high. They will need to add the displacement and raise the torque values for the 7500 RPM range to get 200 HP, or build a small block turbo 2 stroke. Variable boost (based on throttle load) is where its at. It will be hard to make a consumer want to buy a 1200 cc motor these days, the big pistons need lots of fuel to keep cool, fuel is less productive when you add ethanol to it, so now you need to compensate for that, increase compression and still meet air regs, this is another host of problems. You could design it like the ETEC, but then you need big pressures to inject the fuel at the last possible moment. To run the high pressure injectors you need bigger voltage (magneto). And there are issues with harmonics and counterbalancing etc, when you start spinning bigger weight on the cranks.

On my big sled I put on over 115 kms on the other day, and burnt 31 L of fuel, still cheaper than my old mod triple, it would burn about 50 L to go 100 kms. Some of these guys with ETECs could go for a week how much fuel I used to burn in a weekend. I'd love to see a stock 200 HP sled too, trouble is most guys have their hands full with an 800, not much of a market to build a bigger motor and with current fuel prices, going to be tough to get a consumer to buy into the logic.

 

[T-team]

HP is just a calculation. What you want is a motor that makes torque up high and over a very long power curve so the power stays linear. They'll need to make a 1200-1300 cc 2 stroke to make that happen. The 800 will simply not cut it in current configuration in stock output, they could spin it to 10,000 rpm and make 200 HP, but it won't last at a sustained RPM that high. They will need to add the displacement and raise the torque values for the 7500 RPM range to get 200 HP, or build a small block turbo 2 stroke. Variable boost (based on throttle load) is where its at. It will be hard to make a consumer want to buy a 1200 cc motor these days, the big pistons need lots of fuel to keep cool, fuel is less productive when you add ethanol to it, so now you need to compensate for that, increase compression and still meet air regs, this is another host of problems. You could design it like the ETEC, but then you need big pressures to inject the fuel at the last possible moment. To run the high pressure injectors you need bigger voltage (magneto). And there are issues with harmonics and counterbalancing etc, when you start spinning bigger weight on the cranks.

On my big sled I put on over 115 kms on the other day, and burnt 31 L of fuel, still cheaper than my old mod triple, it would burn about 50 L to go 100 kms. Some of these guys with ETECs could go for a week how much fuel I used to burn in a weekend. I'd love to see a stock 200 HP sled too, trouble is most guys have their hands full with an 800, not much of a market to build a bigger motor and with current fuel prices, going to be tough to get a consumer to buy into the logic.

I remember back in the day I used to try to argue with you.........jesus what was wrong with me. lol.

 

[0neoldfart]

There is a lot of good points here. The manufacturers (all of them) have made great strides in improving the snowmobiles year after year. Brand bias and forums can make or break a sled in a heartbeat, based on one person's opinion. Magazine articles need to be taken with a grain of salt, and the opinions of sponsored riders mean NOTHING to me. The OP posted his findings on the M8000, and his personal ride is an XM - so I feel there was no bias... that type of review is worth something.

 

[Clode]

In all reality you can't go wrong with any of the sleds offered today, pick your poison and have fun, I think the dealer has a bigger role in choice of sled, pick the best dealer in your area and ride what they sell, it will make the experience much better.

 

[bigfish]

In all reality you can't go wrong with any of the sleds offered today, pick your poison and have fun, I think the dealer has a bigger role in choice of sled, pick the best dealer in your area and ride what they sell, it will make the experience much better.

yup you can put a bad rider on a light pro & he will make it look bad & say it garbage because i gets stuck all the time & you can put a good rider on any sled & people will say dam that sled handles amazing:d.most of the time its not the sled thats the prob its just that it isnt set up right for that rider or its the rider lol.all the sleds out for 2015 are looking to be the best we have ever had,try them all & the one you ride best is the one for you.

 

[snowrideadventures]

Totally off topic, but here is another video of my buds ripping their snowbikes.

On The Pipe Snowbike Ride - YouTube

 

[snowbuster]

Those snow bikes make everything so easy,it's like cheating! i am gonna have to try one for a day.

 

[noob]

That is a legit question, the answer is no, at this time, I have no relationship with AC nor am I on their payroll. If that ever changes, I'll let you know. You may have noticed that there is no AC logo on the video, my supporting partners are listed at the end. I get demo sleds to use from a local dealer in Langley, bc. I own a 2013 Ski Doo XM and split my time between the AC and XM. Next week I'll release an edit where I am predominately riding my XM in a big mountain application. If Ski Doo and Polaris would give me a demo for week, I'd do a review on them as well. Although every machine has its merits, not one OEM has built a true big mountain machine, that is the sled I'm waiting for.

so with you getting a demo sled from a local dealer would be the same somewhat as a sponsorship right?? I don't see many of us getting demo sleds from dealers to do reviews on a sled. just asking??

 

[Slamnek]

so with you getting a demo sled from a local dealer would be the same somewhat as a sponsorship right?? I don't see many of us getting demo sleds from dealers to do reviews on a sled. just asking??

Dealers don't just hand out sleds to anyone that asks, you have to have a long time relationship with them. The fact that he is a doo rider that gave a positive review on the cat makes me think that he really gave it a fair chance. Anyone that takes a brand new sled for a mountain bashing and comes back and says what a POS it is and "my brand is far superior" is just foolish. I think all the new machines are awesome in there own way and with a bit of seat time on any of them I'm sure I could dangle them as good as I can on my cat.

 

[bigfish]

so with you getting a demo sled from a local dealer would be the same somewhat as a sponsorship right?? I don't see many of us getting demo sleds from dealers to do reviews on a sled. just asking??

i do but have been buying sleds from my dealer since 1998.

 

[DDrake]

Dealers don't just hand out sleds to anyone that asks, you have to have a long time relationship with them. The fact that he is a doo rider that gave a positive review on the cat makes me think that he really gave it a fair chance. Anyone that takes a brand new sled for a mountain bashing and comes back and says what a POS it is and "my brand is far superior" is just foolish. I think all the new machines are awesome in there own way and with a bit of seat time on any of them I'm sure I could dangle them as good as I can on my cat.

Well said.