It boils down to the kind of riding you do. I ride a lot more than a majority of people so one would think I would be more susceptible to hitting stuff. I don't hit stuff though. I ride where I know the terrain if the snow is marginal. I am personal friends with 2 of the dealers here who move a lot of sleds and they have had less than 10% come back with broken bulkheads. It really is rider error. Bulkheads don't break from racing down a whooped out trail, jumping, or riding deep powder. Now I can understand that if you know you are going to hit stuff you want to get a more durable sled. So go buy a tank. However, there are plenty of pure back country riders that ride very technical terrain that shaving weight is much more important than having something that can crash into rocks and stumps. Ski Doo is not hurting in sales. If you add up the knuckleheads on here that say they will never buy one now because the bulkhead sucks; it's such a small number it's not going to change Ski Doo's thoughts on how they build stuff. The forums are a soap box for guys who have wives and children that won't listen to them at home. And for guys like me who are bored waiting for their next ride :face-icon-small-win
This knucklehead would sooner change the spindle or heim joint or A Arms or whatever breaks or gets bent outside of the bulkhead than have to drive my new sled which cost more than $16,000 Canadian to the dealer that is more than a 1.5 hour drive away (because that's the way it is where I live) and then wait for weeks for the sled to be fixed and than drive back the 1.5 hours to pick it up and hope I don't have to repeat this the next time I clip a rock, a tree or a stump.
I'm not a trail rider. Most of my riding is off trail on logging roads that aren't maintained that lead to swamps and small lakes with creeks and rivers in northern Saskatchewan. That is unless I'm in mountains for a few days.
If I was riding a 850 my guess is I'd be replacing the second bulkhead and my insurance cost would be going up.
I'll say it again. All sleds get rode in the same conditions and BRP sleds are the only ones having this problem. I've seen it a lot.
I know a dealer that has 4 sleds in his shop with broken bulkheads and he didn't sell anywhere near 40 2017 sleds. So that's a lot more than a 10% failure rate.
This knuckhead would sooner own a sled that doesn't have a weak bulkhead.
By the way didn't BRP say that this sled would be stronger than past sleds?
I'm out.
I'll let you get on your soap box now!!!