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Has anyone seen the new Evo from Polaris?

Escmanaze

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clearance

Thanks for the info Devilmanak. I just went down and measured a couple other sleds for reference.

1988 Phazer I: 6.5" Ground clearance

2015 Pro: 9" Ground clearance

2018 yamaha snoscoot: 5.25" ground clearance.

For what it's worth, the Phazer I also had a 34" center to center ski stance. The new evo is at 39.

Earlier I was comparing it to a phazer II, but I don't have one here to measure as easily.
 

Thistledoo

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I was also in my local Polaris dealer Friday and saw one sitting in the corner. At first I thought it was a grass drag sled or pavement ready sled lol

crazy low...front susp is 2 inch travel maybe....I too don't get it...they could have built a killer kid mtn sled that dads all over would have gobbled up but they didn't....:face-icon-small-coo
 

Devilmanak

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I was also in my local Polaris dealer Friday and saw one sitting in the corner. At first I thought it was a grass drag sled or pavement ready sled lol

crazy low...front susp is 2 inch travel maybe....I too don't get it...they could have built a killer kid mtn sled that dads all over would have gobbled up but they didn't....:face-icon-small-coo

It's hard, same with bikes, no money in a $4000 rig. So they build a POS for 4000. I really would have stabbed myself in the eye with a huge knife if I would have ordered a couple of these. Anyone who has seen one in person would agree. Same as posted, thought it was a drag sled when I first saw it.
 
I
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I bought one for my 12 year old daughter. We live in the north east and just ride trails. $5600 for a brand new snowmobile with electric start seemed like a deal, especially when you compare it to the new snoscoot thats $4000 and is tiny...

The only mods for this season are a 1.35 cobra track, pulled the speed limiter, clutches calibrated to stock indy 550 specs, and a throttle lever that opens the carbs all the way. They only open about 60% with the stock lever. The electronic limiter would kick in around 50-51mph, I've already disabled it.

She loves it.
 

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Dazzler

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I bought one for my 12 year old daughter. We live in the north east and just ride trails. $5600 for a brand new snowmobile with electric start seemed like a deal, especially when you compare it to the new snoscoot thats $4000 and is tiny...

The only mods for this season are a 1.35 cobra track, pulled the speed limiter, clutches calibrated to stock indy 550 specs, and a throttle lever that opens the carbs all the way. They only open about 60% with the stock lever. The electronic limiter would kick in around 50-51mph, I've already disabled it.

She loves it.

I bought one as well for the grand kids, I think they're awesome.. Electric start, reverse, they sit higher than the old sleds we have. I will likely purchase a second one and dump a couple of my 340 Yammies.
They also have an up grade kit for it as the kids get older. Throttle flipper to get full throttle, clutch parts and suspension parts to get a little more clearance etc. I was quoted $2000 Canadian for the upgrade kit.
 

Escmanaze

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Snow show measurement

Well the Utah snow show is this weekend so I stopped in with my measuring tape. I measured about 5.5" in about the same place as what I measured in my post above. However, I noticed that they didn't have any ski runners on there, so a truly fair comparison would probably put it right around 6" clearance.

I talked to the guys there for quite a while. It seems that it wouldn't be too wildly difficult to get it lifted back up to the level of an indy 550, and my buddy's 9 year old boy sat on it and the ergonomics seemed about right for him.

Then I just spent the rest the time begging the guy for an RMK version for next year...ok, not exactly, but kinda. We had a pretty good discussion about it actually. I'll keep hope alive for another year or two.

Nothing I saw tonight changes my original assessment that it is awfully close to being a phazer II, which has a pretty decent rep as a pretty decent kids sled. The nice part here being that you don't have to own a sled that's at least 20 years old, and for guys like me who aren't gearheads, there is definitely value in that.
 

Reeb

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Yes I listened to a podcast where they mention a kit to raise it to normal Indy 550 height. But is this new shocks or simply a cheap atv style lift using steel brackets?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I
Nov 27, 2007
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Yes I listened to a podcast where they mention a kit to raise it to normal Indy 550 height. But is this new shocks or simply a cheap atv style lift using steel brackets?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is the upgrade kit:

https://snowmobiles.polaris.com/en-us/shop/accessories/shocks-suspension/2883939/


This is the list of everything it includes:

1542993 1.000 EA ASM-SHOCK FRONT TRACK
1823875 1.000 EA ASM-SPINDLE F/C,LH
1823876 1.000 EA ASM-SPINDLE,F/C,RH
1823883-309 2.000 EA ASM-TIE ROD,WIDE,NAT
1823916-070 2.000 EA ASM-SKI SVC BLK
1824010-067 2.000 EA ASM-SHOCK IFS,WIDE,BLK
1824624-067 1.000 EA ASM-ARM LOWER CONTROL LH BLK
1824625-067 1.000 EA ASM-ARM LOWER CONTROL RH BLK
1824626-067 1.000 EA ASM-ARM UPPER CONTROL LH BLK
1824627-067 1.000 EA ASM-ARM UPPER CONTROL RH BLK
2010431 1.000 EA ASM-LEVER,HTR,HI/LO 35.5MM
2205307 3.000 EA SLUG-43 GR,CVT,135-1083
3090428 1.000 EA EC55 CDI INDY
3221094 1.000 EA SPROCKET-18T,3/4W,15 SPL,HV,PM
3222192 1.000 EA SPRKT-42T,3/4W,LWT,HYVO,PM
5010422 1.000 EA BUSHING-.385X.618X.95
5136910 2.000 EA BUSHING-15.88X10.13X76.20
5137360 4.000 EA BUSHING-M10X17.5X30
5220646 4.000 EA WASHER-DOMED
5333905 2.000 EA SLEEVE-.385X.560X1.24
5333906 1.000 EA SLEEVE-.385X.560X1.72
5414450 1.000 EA STRAP-LIMITER
7043281 1.000 EA SHOCK-R/T,ARVIN MPV
7043859-329 1.000 EA SPRING-TOR,.347S,80,10#,LH BLK
7043860-329 1.000 EA SPRING-TOR,.347S,80,10#,RH BLK
7044154 1.000 EA SPRING-DRV,202#,CVT 1151-1135
7044155 1.000 EA SPRING-DRVN,90#,CVT 5951-1006
7515391 1.000 EA SCR-5/16-18X1-1/2 TX/TAP,Y
7518070 1.000 EA SCR-5/16-18X1,TRX,GR5,Y
7518917 1.000 EA SCR-M10X1.5X95 HX FLG 10.9 ZOD
7519004 2.000 EA SCR-M10X1.25X20 8.8 HH ZOD P30
7519015 2.000 EA SCR-M10X1.5X75 10.9 HCS ZOD
7519145 2.000 EA SCR-HXFL-M6X1.0X12 8.8 ZOD P30
7542344 2.000 EA NUT-5/16-18,NYLOC,THIN-Y
7547263 4.000 EA NUT-3/8-24 FLG LOC
7547332 14.000 EA NUT-M8X1.25,FLG,NYLOC-OLIVE D
7547423 13.000 EA NUT-M10X1.5 HFN NYLOC ZOD
7547464 2.000 EA NUT-HEX-M12X1.5 8 ZOD NYL
7555730 5.000 EA WASHER-.189X.314X.015 - AL
7555806 6.000 EA WSHR-FL .406X.812X.065-Y
7556212 4.000 EA WASHER-7/16 SAE,STF,THRU-HRD-Y
9929062 1.000 EA INSTR-EVO UPGRADE
 

Escmanaze

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good and bad

Well I find this news to be both extremely encouraging and also very discouraging. Encouraging because it's obvious that with just a few parts that Polaris already has at the factory, they could EASILY put together an EVO RMK option. Discouraging that they seem to have had such a blatant disregard for the western rider in their initial design.

Here is my review. I haven't looked at it in super detail. Hopefully I will find time soon. Would be interested to hear where others might agree or disagree with me.

So here we go - If Polaris put together an EVO RMK, which of these upgrades would I actually want on there?

- Throttle: This one is a no-brainer. Guys in the mountains want all the power we can get - even on a kid sled. We are already at a disadvantage because of elevation as well as the big lugs on the track that we are going to slap on this thing, not to mention the foot of powder the kid will hopefully be riding through. Unquestionably, the EVO RMK should have the upgraded throttle instead of the standard throttle. I also assume that this means the CDI box should be the one from the upgrade kit.

- Rear Suspension: Again, I think this is a no-brainer as mountain guys need the sled to sit higher, so we would all want this "upgraded" suspension setup that actually just puts it back at the height where the standard indy 121 sled had it.

- Front Suspension: I'm not sure whether I would prefer the wider taller upgraded kit or the skinnier shorter standard kit, but if I have the back upgraded to taller, I guess I don't have the choice anymore, I have to go with the taller wider option. However, more ideally, since the bulkhead is just the bulkhead from a Pro chassis, what would be best is if they would just give me the same front suspension setup from the 2011-2015 RMK Pros so that it would be taller but also be skinnier. If I'm getting really greedy, I would love to see them put the even skinnier react front suspension from the AXYS chassis on there. I'm told it's a matter of a couple bushings to make AXYS A-arms fit on Pro bulkhead. That would be the ultimate.

- Clutching: I'm assuming that the upgraded clutching is just there to match up with the increased power associated with the upgraded throttle and I assume all it does is match it up with the regular indy 121. So I assume the EVO RMK would be best served by the clutching setup in the "upgrade" package.

- Gears: I would want the EVO RMK to have the standard gear package, not the upgraded gear package. I'm assuming the standard package is geared lower and the upgrade is geared higher. Obviously Mountain riders would want it geared lower to make up for our lack of power at elevation as well as the big lug tracks we would be trying to turn with it through deep thick powder.

While they're at it, again, using only parts that they already have in the factory, they may as well just scrap what I mentioned above about the rear suspension and use the tunnel, skid, and track from the indy 144 instead of the indy 121. And then also while they're at it, they may as well just scrap the chaincase gears and just use the belt drive system they already have developed for the Pro RMK sleds.

And there you have it. I've used only parts that already exist in their factory and it's mostly just little bolt on changes, so the engineering associated with this model EVO RMK should total up to about 2 total hours to put it together and have it engineered and done. Now, using only parts they already have and about 2 hours of engineering time, Polaris can offer an EVO to the mountain rider that is head and shoulders above anything else currently being offered by any of the other manufacturers. It still isn't the ultimate and supreme mountain kids sled that we all dream of, but it is a really nice step in the right direction, and they would at least have a lot of mountain riders really considering it seriously instead of looking at it for about 5 minutes and then shrugging it off.

Those of us who are really hard core, would then take this sled, and the first mods we would do to it would be to pull out the heavy indy suspension and instead put in a kmod 144 and we would pull off the garbage indy boards and slap on a pair of skinz pro-tube 144 running boards. Then at that point, with only 2 aftermarket mods, you have a serious kids sled that is quite a ways under 400 pounds that a 12 year old can really do some things on. Make it even more hardcore by replacing the 1.35" cobra track with the same 144x2" track that the 600 144 RMK uses and gearing down the belt drive even a little further. Man, even just dreaming about it I'm getting excited.
 

Escmanaze

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A couple more things

If by chance, they really don't want to upgrade to the 144 tunnel instead of the 121 tunnel, then they can still just cut a PO to camso for this track instead of that .91" shockwave track and make a big improvement.

https://sledtrack.com/product/camso-9140c-back-country-snowmobile-track/

It's not a part you already have in the factory, but how hard is it really to just order a different track (same pitch and everything) and slap it on the RMK version?

And even if you do give us the 144" tunnel, then you also may as well slap this track on it instead of that 1.35" cobra.

https://sledtrack.com/product/camso-9875m-challenger-snowmobile-track/

Again, just order one more track and you will save us all (or most of us) from having to buy one on the sled just to have to buy another one and put it on afterward.
 

Escmanaze

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One more thing

Ok, just one more thing. Does anybody know if it would be easy to just take the pretty good boards from the 600 144 RMK

http://www.polaris.com/en-us/snowmobiles/2018/600-rmk-144

and slap them on the tunnel from the 144 indy?

https://snowmobiles.polaris.com/en-us/indy/550-indy-144-es/specs/

It looks like they ought to just go right on, but having never actually done it in real life myself, I'm wondering if there are challenges I just haven't thought of yet due to a lack of experience.
 

Escmanaze

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Ok, really, just one more thing.

And Also, Polaris, please don't make me buy that KMOD skid after the fact. Please just take your skid you currently use on the 155 RMK sleds and just shorten it up a touch to make it work with the 144 track and tunnel. Please. Please. Pretty Please?
 

Bushwacker1

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And Also, Polaris, please don't make me buy that KMOD skid after the fact. Please just take your skid you currently use on the 155 RMK sleds and just shorten it up a touch to make it work with the 144 track and tunnel. Please. Please. Pretty Please?


You are not alone with your day dream for a tru pro rmk entry level sled. As I have posted before and agree, they have almost all the parts needed on the shelf, and the tooling and R and D costs for these parts should be well paid for by now. I purchased two of the Indy EVO's, but would have preferred to buy them in a PRO RMK offering to ride out west off trail. I have been looking at the 144 skid that has been offered in some of the 550 fan sleds and it appears that they already make the rails that would work in your fantasy build. This skid has the same front/ rear coil over shock configuration as the pro RMK. The front and rear arm part # are also common to the pro RMK. I have yet to find a used skid for sale though, so there may not be a large volume of these built or they are just not getting crashed and parted out yet. I speak to people at Polaris every chance I can at snow shows to express my interest in a tru entry level pro RMK, and in the last few years the tone has went from discussion on why they cant do it, to a discussion on what I would be willing to pay for the end product if it came to market. They will never tell you they are working on it but they have admitted that they build all kinds of prototypes to show their marketing department all the time. I believe they are working on something but like you, I cant understand what the hold up is with so many options to get this done with existing inventory. My suggestion for price point has been to offer a competitively priced base model that may not be as light as possible and offer snow check options to add shocks, belt drive, and weight savings. This would allow the consumer to decide where their price point would be. Polaris has shown they are capable to offer multiple options with the snow check program and this would not be a stretch by any means. They could also offer light weight options thru the accessory catalog much like they offer the EVO upgrade kit. This model could also be offered as a snow check only model which would decrease their risk of overproducing to speculation, increase demand at the dealerships, and help resale value when it is time to move up to a full size sled. With the recent info on Cat patents for a new 300cc two stroke engine I sure hope Polaris is one step ahead and close to a release before Cat or anyone else beats them to this untapped market. If Cat is willing to EPA a new engine I would think they would want to recover those costs across the trail sled market, as well as the deep snow market. Lets add to the dream and speculate that the real hold up for Polaris is a new 400cc water cooled two stroke single cylinder engine built off the 800 twin with fuel injection in a complete new sled built from the axys platform that is just not finished yet. I will acknowledge that the EVO was built as a trail sled and I believe they have hit the mark on price point and function for what it was designed for and this may be off beat for this post, but I cant resist to continue to share the desire with others here to let Polaris know they need to take this EVO thing to the next level. Mabey someone at Polaris who is reading this can actually get this post printed out and dropped on the desk of someone there who can make it happen.
 

Escmanaze

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Good Call

Good Call Bushwacker1. I think the only thing we disagree on is that I actually hope Cat does beat Polaris to the punch on this ZR300 concept we have seen rumors about. I actually like my Cat dealer the best, so I would love to see them continue their ZR200 momentum and take the next step up as well. I'm only talking Polaris here because the AXYS chassis is just so dang good and Polaris obviously makes the lightest sleds and the #1 most important feature of a kid sled is lightweight. I do also think it would make more sense to start with a single cylinder 300 and only try to move up to 400 once the 300 is perfected and many lessons have been learned.

Now here are some thoughts similar to last night, but I think these are even better and I can throw them out as really concrete and I think, quite exact. Here we go.

First things first, Polaris needs to offer a Pro RMK 144 in the AXYS chassis. A true Pro RMK. It would be exactly like the 155 at 408 pounds, but just 6" shorter (chopped off the back end). If I assume the same reduction in both weight and price going from the 155 to 144 that I get in going from the 163 to 155, then it would be 5 pounds less than the 155 and The MSRP would go down by $400. Additionally my thought is that this sled would probably max out with the challenger 2" lug track that is on the current RMK 144. I think this would save additional weight and cost, but I can't find anything concrete to quantify that by, so I'm going to leave it off the calculations for now. I really think that this sled, at 5 pounds lighter and $400 bucks cheaper than the 155 would quickly become the sled of choice for many many ladies who simply weigh less than us fat dudes and just don't need the same amount of flotation that we do and would instead love to save themselves 5 pounds, 400 bucks, and 5 " of non-agility hanging off the back.

The next step would be a continuation of the first. Now, we take the 600 liquid cooled engine out of the above mentioned sled and we put in the 550 fan cooled in there. There is a precedent in the lineup right now for Polaris to show us what this should do to cost and weight as well. It is the Indy 121. It is available with the 550 and the 600. All other things seem to be equal, and the 550 weighs 25 pounds less than the 600 and carries $1,500 less in MSRP as well. Additionally, with this smaller engine, we would hope to gear down the belt drive, but quickly run into physical limitations and probably not be able to gear it down as much as we would like, so to help the cause, it would probably have the standard track of the backcountry 1.75" lug track that also weighs 5 pounds less than the challenger and is $30 cheaper.

Now what we would have is called the Pro-RMK-Lite. It has a total dry weight of conservatively 377 pounds. That is 11 pounds lighter than the original Phazer 1 and is only 7 pounds heavier than the tiny freestyle 300. If that track difference mentioned above is even a few pounds, then it is practically dead even with the freestyle. This is by quite a bit the lightest sled made and the reasons go on and on why this should be a super popular sled. The MSRP has gone down by $1,930 compared to the 600 RMK 155, which is already $600 lower than the 800 RMK 155 so if you think about what folks are paying for the 800 RMK 155, this should come in at about $2,500 less.

Then if they want to make an EVO version as a third step where they take the Lite and slap the kids gas tank, kids seat, and the kids handlebars on there, that's fine too, who cares really. The normal gas tank and seat are fine and the lite would probably come standard with the low pro-tapers anyway, so it seems kind of pointless to create the Pro RMK Lite EVO, but if they want, go ahead, it isn't much different.

I understand that this still isn't the ultimate dream of a true 2/3 or 3/4 size kids sled, but it does right now seem much more realistic as is it primarily based off of all parts that Polaris either has on the shelf, or could come up with SUPER easy, and I think it would still be a really significant upgrade for less experienced and/or less aggressive riders especially in the 80-120 pound range and in the 4'6" - 5'6" range. Even for many large adults, I think it could take on much the same appeal as the Phazer had where everybody says "I just love tooling around and having fun on it because it's just so darn light and nimble and agile".

Now let's address cost because undoubtedly some clown is going to say "MSRP at $10,369 for a fan cooled 550 kids toy? You're out of your mind!!" To this, the most simple reply would just be "ok, if you can't afford it, then take the indy version of the 550 144 at MSRP of $7,999. You'll also be taking 75 extra pounds with you out the door, and you'll be riding the old pro chassis instead of the new AXYS chassis, but you will save 2 grand doing it." Just like anybody can choose to buy the indy value sled or the Pro high performance sled, the 550 144 is no different. There is the value version in the indy lineup, and the high performance (read lightweight) version in the Pro lineup. Shoot, if somebody really has cash, let them buy a snowcheck version just like all the other models in the Pro-RMK lineup where they get the sweet shocks, better display, and cooler color choices. Why not? This thing is a true Pro RMK and stays true to the heritage both in performance and cost.

Can you imagine what a 377 pound AXYS would do for the confidence and fun factor of the small people and beginners and newcomers to our sport?

Polaris - Please, Please, Please Pretty Please!!!!!!!!!!! The time has come for the Pro-RMK Lite!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Escmanaze

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EVO vs. 121

Does anybody know what Polaris is doing to shave 20 pounds off the EVO compared to the Indy 121 550?

Electric Start is standard on the Indy and it says it weighs 452. If I pull up the EVO ES, then it says 432. What is different on the EVO to make it 20 pound lighter?
 

zecow224

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Does anybody know what Polaris is doing to shave 20 pounds off the EVO compared to the Indy 121 550?

Electric Start is standard on the Indy and it says it weighs 452. If I pull up the EVO ES, then it says 432. What is different on the EVO to make it 20 pound lighter?

I believe it is in the smaller shocks, kids gastank and seat, and track?!?
 

Escmanaze

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same track

Actually the EVO ES and the 550 Indy 121 are both listed with the 15 X 121 X .91 Shockwave so the tracks should be the same weight. That leaves 20 pounds to be made up by just the shocks, A arms, gas tank, and seat. 20 pounds seems like a LOT for just those components. I like your idea, but it just seems to me that there must be something more as well.

I guess I'm also noticing handlebars that might save a pound max, windshield that might save a half pound max, and the guy at the show did say that the EVO has it's own specific skis, so maybe there is another pound or two?

It's just really tough for me to get this math to add up in my head, but maybe that really is all there is to it.
 

Escmanaze

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Both

Come to think of it, I don't think my two thought methods are really mutually exclusive. On the high end, you could have the Pro RMK Lite Evo at the roughly 5 digit MSRP mentioned above. On the low end, you could have the Indy Evo RMK closer to the $5,299 MSRP of the Evo or closer to the $7,499 MSRP of the Indy 121. For the life of me, I can't understand why the MSRP numbers of those two sleds are so drastically different when the sleds appear to be so similar, but that's a different topic altogether.
 

Escmanaze

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So maybe somebody out there can help me understand something. @indy440 posted the list of parts and it says that the upgraded CDI is part # 3090428. But when I look up the parts fiche for a standard 550 indy I get the part number as being 2415536 and it says that this part number replaced the old part number that was 3090428.

Does anybody know the difference and/or which one I should buy? Does anybody know what in the world this CDI is doing different than the original one? It looks like the original part number for the one that comes on the evo as standard is 4017697. I wonder what makes 4017697 different from 3090428 or even 2415536. Anybody got a clue?
 
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