Opinions on types of snowmobiles

[djm]

I am thinking about getting a snowmobile to bobcat hunt off of. I am looking for everyone's opinion on what make and models do the best for bobcat hunting. I don't know much about them so any information would help. Thanks, Dj

[Kevin D]

The type of terrain you are hunting and how you hunt it is going to determine the type of sled that's best for you. I do think utility sleds like the Ski Doo Tundra and Skandic or the Actic Cat Bearcat are good hound sleds if you are confined to driving existing roads or the country is relatively flat. But in the steep and deep terrain where I hunt, only powder sleds like Polaris RMK's or Ski Doo Summits are going to get you and your dogs into country where the roads and the other snowmobilers don't go.

There are going to be pluses and minuses in whatever sled you choose, and an ideal sled for one area may be only second rate in another. Perhaps the best thing to do to help you decide is to look at what some of the other experienced hound doggers in your area are using for sleds, then decide from there.

[djm]

Thanks for the info. Kevin. I have hunted off of a snowmobile once but it was years ago. The guy I hunted with had both of them and does not hunt anymore. The problem I have is nobody I know uses sleds to hunt with anymore around here. I want to be able to hunt the deep snow where i can't get in my pickup which is the purpose of getting a sled. I have talked to a few guy's that used them year's ago and said they spent more time stuck then they did hunting but I have also heard that sled's have come along ways since then. As for the terrain I hunt some of it is mountain's and some semi flat but the terrain I want to be hunting is the terrain that I get snowed out of half way through the season with my pickup. Can you guy's tell me with your experience's what the pro's and con's are with the utility sled and the mountain sleds? How deep of snow are each capable of hunting through with a couple dogs, how steep of terrain ect. Thanks Dj

[catdogs]

Nothing pulls a dogbox like a utility sled, they are geared to pull and clutched to pull with less track spin. A super wide track sled (20+") like a Skandic or a Bearcat WITH A DOGBOX, will put the powder sleds WITH A DOGBOX to shame. I have had both. JMO.

[culverz]

Just get a good sled with power and traction and the key with sleds is having one pulling the dogs and one breaking trail. otherwise it can be extremly hard on the sled. with a trail breaker it makes the other sled with the weight go much better. We use some older yamaha mountain max's and a big four stroke. All with long tracks and two inch paddles. We can go just about anywhere. Most of the time we can even get within a few hundred yards if not right to the tree with them.

We figured out the easiest way to get the hounds around was to use a sled behind the sleds and my dad designed a very nice set up. It works awesome. it has storage and enough room to haul five dogs.


Zach

[bwhntr13]

what size engine would you all recomend for pulling a dog sled

[George Streepy]

I have a couple older yamahas and a couple polaris sleds. I picked up a Ski Doo Summit last year. All have long tracks and are capable of towing the dog sled just fine. Culverz gave some good advice about breaking trail with one sled and pulling a dog box trailer with the other. I prefer a 600 or bigger for pulling the dog box trailer. It isn't very expensive to gear down a snowmobile if you plan on hunting with it a lot. My dog box trailer is made all of aluminum including the skis, it works good but can freeze to the snow. I try to remember to give it a kick before taking off and sinking the snowmobile. Towing a trailer works good until you get into areas that are patchy snow, I don't know about everyone elses but mine sucks on dirt.

I do not have much experience with the utility type sleds, but any decent sled will work.

[culverz]

i would recommend using a sled that is a 600 or larger also.

We had the same problem with metal skis freezing to the snow so we use plastic ski skins that you used to have to put on the old sleds. another key part of pulling a sled is designing it so that the ski's from the dog sled are pulling in the ski tracks from the machine pulling it. helps reduce friction/drag. some day when I learn how to upload pictures maybe I could post some of our dog sled. we continue to add things to make it better.

Zach

[djm]

Thanks for all the helpful information guy's I appreciate it!!

[Kevin D]

Nothing pulls a dogbox like a utility sled, they are geared to pull and clutched to pull with less track spin. A super wide track sled (20+") like a Skandic or a Bearcat WITH A DOGBOX, will put the powder sleds WITH A DOGBOX to shame. I have had both. JMO.

Again, every type of sled has it's trade offs. I don't disagree with catdogs that utility sleds are better built to handle heavy loads like a dog sled. I would say if your combined weight of dogs and dogsled exceeds 200 lbs, then you are probably better of going with a utility sled. But they are also heavier and less agile than the powder sleds whose focus is on power to weight ratios. This is where you have to factor in your hunting methods and how you are going to use the sled. Are you willing to give up raw pulling power for powder busting capabilities?? For me the answer is yes.

I set my sleds up like the hillclimbers with handlebar risers and a high profile seat. I also prefer running stock gears, though I normally only pull 2 dogs behind me in a dog sled that weighs less than 40 lbs. Rarely does my dog/dog sled weight exceed 150 lbs. If I need to sidehill around a powder slope, I just roll my sled to the uphill ski and accellerate my way across. Much tougher to do that on a heavier utility sled.

Most times I also pull dogs to a jumping off spot, unhook my dog sled, then cut around looking for tracks. Then once I dump, I again quite often drop my dogbox and stay with the race on just my sled. On an average hunt, I probably put more miles on my sled without my dog sled than I do with them in tow. This is why the 'get me anywhere I need to be' capabilities of a powder sled makes more sense for the way I hunt.

BTW djm, what is your budget for a new sled?? There are a couple of models and engine sizes that I think I'd avoid. For instance, Polaris's 700 cc Liberty engine is as good an engine as you can get, but the 800 cc Liberty engines have a long history of crank bearing failures. That may be one you'd want to stay away from.

[djm]

It sounds like the best for me would probably be the mountain sled (powder sled) rather than the utility sled for the type of hunting I am going to be doing. I plan on only taking a couple dogs at a time and like Kevin had mentioned I probably will not be pulling the trailer sled that much while I am hunting probably just to get to an area I am going to hunt, then drop the trailer and look for track's. Correct me if I'm wrong but it sound's like the mountain sled will work better off the main road's and in the deeper powder snow. I definitely want a sled that will go better in the deep powder snow and up the mountain. I am probably going to buy a sled that is approximately five year's old give or take a few year's. So what brand of sled's should I stay away from and what brand would you guy's recommend?

[horshur]

correct me if I am wrong but the mountain sleds are not very good when there is little snow..spring conditions with ice and bare spots. Locals here won't even run them in poor snow...

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Your right Horshur, you need a fan cooled engine for running those conditions. From what i have seen the newer Skidoo Tundra 550f with the 153"x16" is the ultimate setup. A nice light sled with awesome flotation in the powder and low enough geared to pull 6 dogs if needed. Easy to sidehill and easy to get unstuck. I believe the dry weight is around 450lbs and compared to my bearcat that has a 154"x15" track it's dry weight is 720lbs. The Tundra will be my next sled.

[FullCryHounds]

If your hunting at altitude (8000+) then you need the most HP you can get. We loose about 20% of hp right out of the box when we are above 10k feet or so. I'm currently running a King Cat 900 with Nitrous. You probably won't need nitrous but I'm a speed freak! The latest craze here is turbos but you probably won't need those either!
The type of track your running is probably more important then the length. I'm running an Attack 20 track which is one of the best tracks for powder. One big negative is that it doesn't stop on a packed trail, just keeps right on sliding. But they are almost impossible to get stuck in powder. The only plus for hunting with a trail sled would be revearse. But the big negative would be the wieght. Each sled company has had lemons and it seems that they all have one just about every year. I would post the sled your looking at and see what everyone says about it. Just about all of our older RMKs has main bearing problems that could be corrected but if you didn't know about it, they would eventually fail and you'd loose the motor. I've got a buddy of mine that knows all the problems with just about every sled built, just post what your looking at and we'll see if we can help.

[horshur]

8000ft here in BC is 2000 feet above timber.....have a hard time wrapping my head around that.