10 Best Sleds of Their Time

gary_in_neenah

gary_in_neenah

Super Moderator
Staff member
I found an old Snogoer Article from a couple of years ago of when they compiled a list of the 10 Best Sleds of Their Time. These were machines that were ground-breaking for their time, innovative and featured major improvements of that era.

Of course, anytime you have a list of "10 Best of Anything" it is debatable, I found it of interest that there was no mention of the first Liquid Cooled engines (John Deere or Mercury)? But if you're a fan of the Old Iron you might enjoy the following link;

http://www.snowgoer.com/output.cfm?id=2232955
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
This is a great article and just plain fun to read!!! It's funny that it starts out with the following: "If you want to start an argument with a diehard snowmobiler, just open the discussion by listing THE 10 best sleds ever built."

I was all set to find fault with their list but I couldn't argue with any of their choices. Of course there could have been more added but I wouldn't have removed any. It's tough to pick a best 10 for a time period.

I was pleasantly surprised to find I owned one of their 10 best - a 1972 Skiroule RTX. Everything in the article reflected my opinion of the sled.

I'm betting that a significant percentage of the members either owned one of these machines or knew someone who did.

Thanks for posting...
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
P.S There was no mention of John Deere or Mercury liquids (or even Brute) but if I'm not mistaken, the TX-L was liquid cooled. I think it was also fuel injected. Correct me if I'm wrong folks.
 
H

harvest1121

Well-known member
The txl was liquid cooled but it was not an efi you might be thinking of the rxl that is what Polaris made for fuel injection the got sued because they stole the technology.
 
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ezra

Well-known member
I can still remember standing in my uncle's shop as a very young kid and seeing the new skiroule RTX come off the trailer in to the showroom. that thing was like no other sled I had seen space ship like back in the day.
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
harvest1121 - You just jogged my memory. It was the RXL. My brother's buddy had one. very fast as I recall.

Ezra - I'm with you on the RTX. It was years ahead on styling - loved the big coil-over shock rear suspension and with a high performance 440 Sachs in a 300 lb. machine, it was no slouch.

fun indeed!
 
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ezra

Well-known member
my first new sled was the enticer it was blue with the blue seat it was like a dream compared to the old sleds. 1st was a kitty cat/ then 72 292 puma/ then a 74 440 lynx then the shiny new 79 or 80 cant remember enticer. the soft cushy seat was like a dream' and no more musterd bottel full of gas to get em started after long breaks no more cleated tracks spining on the street going no place.but I do have to say the 72 292 is still running and been abused buy many a kid graduating from the old kitty cat that is also still running
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
The Raider was cool - never rode "in" one but always wanted to.

Never knew what happened to JLO. They were dominant in the market at one time.

It's always fun to hear about the machines people had a few years back. There were probably a couple of hundred snowmobile brands at one time and it made for some interesting stories. In a way, it was like the early days of the automobile - some good ideas, some not so good.

I remember one guy's hood flying off at speed and he actually ran over it (I don't remember the brand). Another time, the track on a guy's Ski-Daddler separated and he ran it right out the back - there it sat on the bogie wheels. Needless to say, these didn't make the best 10 list.

Ski spreaders were also real popular at one time and some weren't very well thought through. I remember a guy in my hometown putting on a set that had no stops for the ski rotation (probably home made). He launched off a drift and came down with both skis upside down and backwards. Of course it wasn't true but the joke was that he rode it like that for 10 miles before he noticed it.
 
bearrassler

bearrassler

Well-known member
It is a good list, I rode with lots of sleds on the list but didn't have any of the actual ones. The article must be fairly old because the newest sled is a 1984 model. I remember seeing a list a few years ago (maybe Supertrax?) that had some of the newer sleds in it. Although the riding was a little different that today with the trail network, grooming, better clothing, and more dependable sleds, I think we had as much or even more fun in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.
 
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doomsman

New member
I think we had as much or even more fun in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

Glory days, when we all were a lot younger and dumber than now.
 
gary_in_neenah

gary_in_neenah

Super Moderator
Staff member
"I think we had as much or even more fun in the 60's, 70's, and 80's"

Well, I know that I did a lot more Wrenching back then. Typically we'd ride on the weekend, visit the dealer for parts on Monday, have it put back together by Friday and then start the process over again.

...and yes it was fun!

Does anyone remember Bosch Plugs or Snobil Oil in quart cans? We went through a lot of both as I recall.
 
S

sledhd1

Member
Ss 440

Yamaha SS440 should be on this list I can remember reading articles on how this was the first sled with decent performance with round trip reliability
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
gary_in_neenah said:
Does anyone remember Bosch Plugs or Snobil Oil in quart cans? We went through a lot of both as I recall.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I remember both. I think the ratio was about 1:1.

We were partial to the original purple Wynn's 2 cycle. It smelled like laundry soap when you burned it. Came in 16 oz "tall boy" cans and was easily mistaken for other "liquid" containers in the dark.
 
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