nic -
With you being in McHenry, you need to slide down to Countryside and talk to Dan at Highlands Yamaha. Expert advice on all Yamaha sleds. When you're ready to buy, I truly do not think you can beat any of their prices or their service from anywhere either.
If I was going to buy either a Vector or Apex both machines would have to be LTX for the Vector and XTX for the Apex.
In my experience, once you have owned a longer tracked machine, you tend to believe that you would never own another short track just for traction and bump bridging capabilities alone.
On the 2011 models, rider ergos are tremendously improved. I purchased an '11 Venture GT this year and also own an '04 Warrior amongst others. The rider position is bar none from the Venture to the Warrior. Hard to get me away from the Venture to ride the Warrior.
As far as power goes, Obviously the 150 hp class rated Fuel Injected Apex will out gun the 120 horse Fuel Injected Vector. The Apex is 4 cylinders at 998 cc's. The Vector is a three cylinder powerplant at 1049 cc's.
Another nice new feature on the Apex this year is the EXUP exhaust, and don't forget about EPS. The Vector does not have either of these features.
Now on to the RIDE. The obvious differencces between the two.....
The Apex has 14.5 inches of rear travel with the Comfort King Dual Shock 144 inch rear skid. The Vector on the other hand has the 136" Mono Shock II Remote Adjust. Rear Travel on this skid is only 11.7 inches.
The Apex has just a bump smaller gas tank too.
To me, the glaring differences are: powerplants, skid, track length, rear travel, exhaust and the new EPS, (Electronic Power Steering).
Finally, the biggest difference, the PRICE. On average between these two models you are looking at an average of about somewhere in the ballpark of around $3500.
As far as oil changes go, the Vector will be the more maintenance friendly machine. I have done oil chqanges on both models. The Apex in my opinion has not improved from previous models. It is still worth it to do this maintennance on your own though. Not difficult, just a pain in the rear.
As far as track/wheel/hyfax maintenance goes....... The MonoShock skid is awesome to do any of the above mentioned maintenance on. VERY EASY to remove skid and track to work on wheels/hyfax/shocks.
Just some extra added experience.
If and when you decide to do the Gemba Walk, goto Highlands Yamaha in Countryside,IL. They WILL treat you right and make you a very satisfied customer. My entire riding group continues to do business with them. We are all from Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.
