Exp. Sport in 600 vs 900 ACE questions

600 I understand is lower geared, 900 more power overall.

How much worse is the 900 off trail and low speed crawling, towing, etc?


Been mulling a new sled over for years, and while I trap off trail a lots, I also ride longer distances, and run lakes on Georgian Bay a lot, ice fish, etc, and appreciate getting to where I'm going without it taking all day.

How much off trail performance (if any) is lost with the bigger engine?

Will I appreciate the power, given I am currently pretty happy with my 550 fan Voyageur?

The 900 does great off trail and breaking trail unless it is at a crawl. Stop n go.

Would you sacrifice the ability to slow crawl for more power?

I guess thats my question.

Love my 600....lots of power for me

Going from a 550 to either of those engines is going to be a bit of a change. The power band is way different. With that said I have driven one 600 and thought it did pretty good but I did not haul anything with it. I own two expeditions with the 900, one wide track and one super wide track. They are amazing machines that will go just about anywhere. I don't drive at speeds over 45-50 MPH very often so can't say how they do at high speeds or if they even go fast. But they do a great job breaking trail and hauling loads. I LOVE how quiet they are and that I don't smell 2stroke while trapping. The first season of riding one I had to learn all sorts of new noises on sleds I had never heard due to how quiet they are.

I would think the 600 would be more nimble off trail due to the decrease in weight. There is only a few pounds of weight difference between liquid cooled 2strokes and the 4stroke ACE series engines, not what some people say. Your 550 will weigh a good bit less than any of these sleds though.

We run mostly river so breaking trail speed is 20-30mph. Trail wise is 10 mph. If you have much for hills to climb on your line I wouldn’t go with a 600 especially if your pulling a sled.

I have both the 600 and 900, I would go with the 900 you won't regret it. If you have the chance borrow one and take it for a spin. As far as a slow crawl I put it in low and in eco mode and it crawls along just fine.

I have a 550 tundra skandik LT and a 600 ace skandik. I use both often.
The 600 for longer trips-it is amazing on gas compared to the 550.
I like the 550 for breaking some trail also for early trapline work where some water skipping is necessary.
I tried out all kinds of snowmachines before I bought the 600 ace wt.On our fieldtrips for under ice beaver there would be 20 trappers at least all with different snowmachines makes and models,and we all tried each others machines out over the few days setting and checkin the beaver run.
Even though the 900 ace and 600 ace are not much different in weight,the 600 rides way less front end heavy for some reason.
Love the 4 stroke its like a cadillac compared to the 550,but both have their place on the trapline.
Wide ski skins are a must on both machines for various reasons.

Boco, I live and trap on georgian bay where the best ice safety is maintaining 45 mph due to small thin spots and current.

My 550 voyageur can skip 250 yards of open water (don't ask how I know)

While I generally limit it to 10 yards, or small thin ice spots, what is the 600s water jumping ability given I would get it in the 16" track?

Anyone?


We have an old skandic 600 wt two stroke, and when running deep water on ice it gives me zero confidence in its water jumping ability. That wide track seems to drag you down...

I wouldnt try waterskipping with the 4 strokes.
You need the pep for that and they are not made that way.
Made for crawling in deep snow.

I have a 900 ace swt and love it, my dad has the 600 ace wt, both skandics, not expeditions. Both are great for crawling because they have the two speed transmission. Both go as fast as I want to, but I am riding logging roads and atv trails, not wide open lakes and rivers. I think I've had mine up to 50 mph about twice. The sport does not have the low range that the wt and swt do. I've rode a couple Tundra 600 aces quite a bit, and if I owned one I would see about changing out the gears in them, they are too high geared for me and I am always slipping the belt some, especially pulling a sled. They would be okay if you can just open them up and go, but you can't crawl slow enough without engaging and disengaging the clutch constantly. They may be good for want you want though, because it sounds like you are going to be wanting to go fast worse than you want to be able to crawl.

I’d go with the 900.

I've had both, I skip water a lot on the Yukon, go with the 900, definitely. The 600 is nail bitingly slow when skipping water without a towing a sled, would never attempt it with one.

Get a Yamaha SRX 1000 with Turbo boost before they are gone..Get you to them fishing spots in no time flat. Don't even need ice skip the whole lake.

Get a Yamaha SRX 1000 with Turbo boost before they are gone..Get you to them fishing spots in no time flat. Don't even need ice skip the whole lake.

That sounds like a sound review,hate to see Yamaha leaving the snow machine business, don't care to go with Arctic Cat,

I'm actually considering the 600, and then adding a $300 performance chip which adds 15%, getting it to 69 horsepower. Apparently it increases fuel economy 5% also

15% isn't enough to decrease reliability either. Heck, there's a turbo kit for it that almost doubles the horsepower to 110 lol

Huchy don't get carried away with the chip thing. I see nothing but trouble with people who have done it. I am looking at the 600 also some friends here have some and like them in our conditions. We have about the same conditions as you have but alot bigger hills inland from superior.

Water as in open holes? Or mostly overflow?

Sweet William, if you swap out the driver for a 7 tooth Avid it will give you the lower gear a 600 should have. Pretty much eliminates belt slip. They are geared to high for a utility sled I my opinion.

Only speaking for myself, I am referring to open holes.

I skip open holes, leads, and overflow. I did not care for the 600 ACE, it seemed entirely too weak. Was reliable though. My 900 ACE is good for skipping water, never feel inadequate.

I water-skip my Expo Sport w/600 ACE all the time, even when I don't have to, just to keep people from following my trail,... it does just fine, better than a SWT, which wants to twist around sideways alot more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXibuC2wB3U

I have tried to water cross with an older wt skandic 600 two stroke and it is awful. Like you say, the wide track bogs instantly

Welcome back Dave! Nice shot of you skipping your Expedition in the intro.

Hutchy I would post this question on the CNTA forum FRT trapper is a snowmachine guru, his feedback is solid gold.

Ive owned both the 600 expedition and currently own a 900expedition both in sport model
So 16” track I certainly wouldn’t want the 600 if I was going to be doing any extensive water skipping love the 900 has plenty of power but sometimes wonder how I would like the wide track plan to test drive a buddies this winter and see what differences are may try to find a skandik wide to try as well
I quite often have a lot of water on top of ice and snow to run on when it gets warm and the 900 does fine the 600 often had the pucker factor going As previously mentioned the 900 do seem a bit more top heavy at least the 16” one is compared to the 600

Remember there was a guy on here trapped interior Alaska. He used a 1M Arctic Cat 1000 said it was the only machine with the power to get through all the overflow he had on his line. He had a really deadly Youtube channel also. He got a lot of fur and only got stuck once when some hanging ice collapse under him.

Aybody try the 1200.
A trapper here had one a few years ago,on one of our fieldtrips,real beast but heavy.

Boco, that the 1200 4-tec? There is a used Expedition WT for sale about four hours from me with one. I was wondering about it, but thinking to steer clear off it since it is discontinued, the way things go these days that may mean they quit making parts for it. I have never known anybody who had one, according to some of the guys on dootalk with the hotrod sleds it is supposed to be a good motor. But I'd never even heard of it until this one popped up for sale.

Its not like I go searching for water to jump, but sometimes stuff happens. One day of wind and where there was a foot and a half of ice here is suddenly open water, or lots of holes.

I feel like the 900 with lower gearing might be the way to fly.

Yea, welcome back. Miss seeing you in church in KL. Hi from Mike and Sherri.

600 will do you just fine even with a 600 you don't even have to hit the throttle and the thing does 90. I think a 900 would be WAY to much power. If you don't need a insane amount of power a 600 should do you plenty good!

I personally own the Skandic WT with 600Ace and did really well water skipping if you were up to speed when you hit the water. Never once thought the 600 Ace was under powered until getting on it after riding my 900 Aces. That being said the 600 did all I asked it to do. I also own an Expedition sport with 900 Ace and Expedition LE with 900 Ace. The sport, I geared down as it doesn’t have low range. Does really well towing big loads and very comfortable to drive. IMO the 16” wide track on the Sport is much easier to handle than the 20” or 24” tracks on the WT and SWT for someone without much experience or not ridiculously deep snow. My 900 Aces start much easier in the cold than the 600 Ace does but none of mine start at -30 F. I believe my 600 gets a little better fuel economy than the 900’s. A lot depends upon what you’re asking your machines to do and i ask a lot of mine.

Both are very good machines tho.

I have the expo sport with the 600 ace, next time I’d go with the 900. 600 is fine for low snow or packed trails but once you get into deeper snow on long exploration trips it feels like a dog, and the good gas mileage goes out the window too.
Having said that, I still like this machine , most reliable unit I’ve owned by a long shot.

I have been following along with this thread. I have very little snow machine experience. I recently purchased property in remote Alaska. Although I spent tons of time in the area very little has been in winter until now. I have a Skandic and a tundra probably around 2015 models. I would like to buy a new one I have decided on a 900 from reading this thread. However I don't know whether an expedition or Skandic would be best. Mostly just general use trapping,pulling in sleds of firewood and such. But I do like to have a little fun once in a while so I'm considering one with a turbo. Is this a bad move and just more moving parts to break? If a turbo machine is a good option,then which one turbo R or regular turbo? I want something I can break trail with and get unstuck when I need to. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have the 900 ace skandic widetrack, it's been a good sled so far. I just use it for trapping/ utility and never felt like I needed anything more power wise. Not sure where your at, what kind of conditions you have, or what your idea of " fun " is so hard to answer some of your questions. With these big machines once your stuck having a turbo isn't going to help you, a shovel and rope-a-long will though. For general utility I prefer the pogo's................................

I have a skandic SWT 900 ACE. And really like it. The SWT isn't for everyone, they are not a good sidehill machine, but when you need to break trail in really deep, nasty stuff they can't be beat. In my opinion there is no need for a turbo, I pull a sled with mine all the time and it will spin out that big track before it bogs down every time. The skandic is narrower, fits between trees better and not nearly as many places for tag alders and brush to hang up in on the Pogo's versus the a arm and coilspring front end of the Expeditions. On the flip side the Expedition is more stable (not as tippy) and supposedly (I haven't rode one on a log trip) more comfortable to ride on long trips with their front end.

I just thought a turbo machine might be fun if I felt like ripping around the lakes playing or something,which would be rare. As far as getting stuck part I realize a turbo won't help that,I was just wondering if these machines are too heavy for just a general trapping and work machine. The problem is I really don't know anything about snowmachines.I grew up racing motorcycles and like power, thought if you could buy a turbo machine and it doesn't affect the reliability why not get it. Exploring trips with no trail is something that will be happening a lot as well.I like the skandic I have now better than the tundra if there is no trail. But again I can't stress enough that I really have very limited experience with snowmachines. I just don't want to buy something and pay all the money to get it out there, then figure out I should have bought something different.

Thanks for the reply I seem to be leaning towards the skandic. The tundra I have is pretty tippy compared to the skandic we have. But the more I ride them the better, I just need a little more experience. And I don't want to waste money on something that I don't need.

I just bought a Expedition 900 Turbo swt and love it went from a Expedition 20-in wide with a 600 E-Tec the 600 seemed a little bit snappier but the 900 has all kinds of Power. The 900 has the Eco Mode and if you put it in that it seems like it would crawl out of anything or if you want to put it in sport mode it takes right off. And so far I am loving the 4-stroke I did get the block heater on it and have plugged it into the generator for approximately a half an hour before I ride gets the engine oil temp up so starting has been easy.