Hello from the Big Horn Basin!

Welcome

Welcome to Wyoming. I have lived here and rode for the past 25+ years. I am currently a mechanic at an major dealership but will not say where. I have spent my years on one brand and been loyal to it, however they all have there positives and there negatives. I don't think you could go wrong with any of them the biggest thing I can say is maintenance is the most important to prolong the life and not have the breakdowns on the mountain. I hope this helps and good rides to come.

I like to buy things, sleds cars atvs or whatever, that are stock becuase i know when i put mods on things its to ride it hard not to say all modded vehicles are junk or anything but stock ones MIGHT not have been ridden quite so hard.

Welcome to the site. Do you go to the north or south horns? Might see you up there if you get a sled!

Well ive ridden the northern bighorns for the past two years pretty hard. Well hard to say since there are so many variables. But if you want to get into mountain riding, (climbing hills, boondocking, sidehilling, powder riding) there are some things that you will want to look for in a sled over trail riding. Most people that ride the horns are mountain riders so i assume you are the same. I would try to find a sled with atleast a 144" track. Depending on what you want to spend, the 2001-2004ish polaris 700 and 800 are pretty good sleds and reliable. I think the skidoo 800's in that year pretty decent as well but not much experience with them. Cats in the 2000-2004 are the 1M chassis and not much experience with them either but i think they are good sleds. The ski doo rev chassis 2005?-2007 are good sleds too see people riding them all the time. If you are wanting to spend more I would upgrade to an IQ chassis for $4000 and up and look for a 600 or 700 in those. As far as stock sleds vs mod sleds depends on the case. You can usually tell by looking at the sled how it was treated if anything is broke on the plastic or if things have been replaced with new parts a lot. 2 stroke engines are kind of a risk as it is but if it is using oil and sounds good, then check compression on both sides and that is about all you can do. On the other hand modding a stock sled can become expensive and you usually save money on those mods when buying them already on the sled.

On your sled choice it might depend if you go to a dealer to buy it and for repairs or if you do that yourself as well. On sleds miles is a good thing to look at. I would say that 2,000 is a decent amount of miles and would try to find a sled with less miles than that. If you decide kind of what you want let me know and I can help you look.

This is a long reply so if you want to chat more PM me on here and i would be glad to help you out the best I can.