The Repair $’s Add Up
What I learned this Spring is that costly repairs hit a new snowmobiler hard.
We got into snowmobiling at a budget price, buying a low mileage used snowmobile. It was a great price as I shopped around online for a few months prior to making my purchase. The test drive was excellent. Everything was in great shape, a couple of scrapes. Machine ran extremely well.
The first few rides were 100%. We parked it at the cabin and took some runs out on the lake and in the ditches and across some fields. Had a great time. Burned through a few tanks of gas. Enough to know this machine was a keeper. If we did not like it, we would have no trouble getting our money back out and we would have satisfied our curiosity. We definitely plan to go the other, to buy another machine for my wife and spend more winter time at the cabin. I even have plans to build another storage shed under the main deck to park the snowmobiles when we are away and through the off-season. Seems there never enough storage, anywhere, so we will build more.
Now back to the machine. After a few weeks of riding, my son met me out at the cabin to go for a few rides. But the snowmobile was not 100%. We started it and let it warm up like we always have done, but it seemed under powered. We shut it off and restarted, and then it ran great. Full power, full fun. His dogs soon learned that chasing him out in the open was just not going to work so they hung around with me and we watched him ride around and get familiar with the machine. We traded off and I took a few runs around on the lake and through some ditches.
The next time out, it was again under powered and it took a few more cycles of shutting down and restarting to get back to full power. The issue? Maybe bad plugs? I changed them. No better. So I parked it. Next time, it was worse. Really poor idle, 1/2 power, stalled a number of times.
The good news, is my neighbour, super helpful guy, is from the area, knows everybody, and his brother in law is a mechanic who used to race Polaris snowmobiles. I have a Polaris. He has diagnosed the problem and estimates the repairs at $2200. Judging by the work and parts required, that’s likely a huge savings off a dealer repair. He’s local, and I know I can trust him simply through knowing I can trust my neighbour. The saddest part is that for the past month here in central Saskatchewan, we have had plenty of snow and decent riding conditions, while areas to the south are melted away. I could have been riding another 4 or 5 times.
So it’s off to the mechanic. The budget price entry into snowmobile ownership has gotten more expensive, but I am still approximately at 1/3 the cost of a new snowmobile and this one should be 100% ready for when the snow falls again in the winter, only 7 months away.