torpedo
Member
I have 09 800 146x about three hundred klm now love it ,reminds me of my 06 I can't believe what a great job BRP did even the clutching seems good.
My XP was blowing belts every 200k. Launched me over the handle bars 3 times. Friggin near broke my neck. Great handling sled but BRP dropped the ball on fit and finish. Thought about buying a new one but decide to fix thisone. Put and o6 clutch and a beefed up driveshaft. Also had the POS rear shocks fail so I replaced them with Fox. Also remapped the computer module to increase the midrange, which was really lacking out of the box. Is it a good sled? Not out of the box, but it is now and the 09s seem to have the problems ironed out.The belt problem was unreal I heard as bad as belt per 100-200km. Was this a clutch alignment or motor mounts what was final fix? Drive shaft is a biggie heard of a couple of those too. Bottom line is this first year owners are gunie pigs (always) I had an 05 summit 1000 second year rock solid. Would buy an XP if I wanted a stock sled.
I think a big portion of it was the belts themselves, but a few more factors contributed to it (alignment, gearing, snow ingestion, and the plastic piece in the secondary that wouldn't stay tight until you cut the slots all the way through, etc). The first belt that I saw from one of them was like butter when it was warm, the thing was like a rubber band, no wonder they didn't last, get warm, stretch and slip, the more they heat, the more they stretch, the more they stretch the more they slip, the more they slip the more they heat, the more they heat the more they stretch.....round and round til they just come unglued and threads everywhere. One rider switched to the harder Doo belt, the other went to Carlisle and neither had problems after that. The other guy just kept taking belts into the dealer for replacement LOL.
gsmoke - I honestly can say that they are a great sled and I don't ride one (unbiased observer). I have never seen a stock sled keep with mod sleds or go the places that these the XP's went last year - watched one guy ride in a steep and deep creek valley in the trees in 4-5 ft of powder, we all thought we would be doing a major extraction on his sled when he turned in there (no way out basically on a 45-60 degree slope) and he picked his way through the trees and made it all the way to within 100 ft of the top before he got stuck. Walked a small trail to him, quick tug on the snowbunjie and he was out, he was a good rider but the sleds capabilities are impressive, I'll give it that.
The issues with the sled last year and peoples bitter feelings towards them have a lot to do with Ski Doo's response on the customer service end of things, which left a bad taste in some peoples mouths (understandably). The other thing that factors in is brand bias from other riders. Some guys get a tad jealous when a stock sled rides up and posts a highmark above their "mod" sled mark. All i can say is listen to the guys that actually ride them, not the rest of us that don't. Being towed out doesn't mean that it is the sleds fault, at least 50% of the time I see sleds on the hook, it was driver error!
Ya but Kirk, you're such a tiny guy, hardly put any load on that big 800R.put 1500kl. on my xp 163.Put new belt on at 1300kl.Had 7 trip to the mountains,played hard.LOVE THE MACHINE!!!HAD NO TROUBLE.