550 sleds

[SkunkedAgain]

I'm looking to get Mrs SkunkedAgain a 2-up. Generally she will be fine with the low end of the power range. However, I will use it sometimes too. To get to our place, we need to go through a shallow bay that can have slush depending on the winter. Do these sleds have enough power to get two ladies through slush or me through slush pulling an ice house or medium gear sled?

 

I don't mind stepping up to a bigger 2-up with EFI, but its generally an increase from $9k to $15k!

[Chill62]

Sleds have come a long ways since I was running them everywhere pulling my gear.  We used to use a Trail (488 cc Fan Cooled) and never had an issue.  Looking at features a wide track would be beneficial to help spread load out for pulling gear/house.  If you are concerned about slush I would put some studs into the track if it's an option for you to help incase you get into a pickle.  550 has plenty of power and honestly if you are traveling 30/35 mph it's going to take a lot of deep slush to get stuck and if you are flying across the ice all you will do is start busting up your equipment...things I learned the expensive and hard way growing up.  I see a lot of guys using Long tracks for the feature of adding a rack and installing a sled onto the rack for storing gear.  Not supporting/bashing but Clam pro staff team uses a lot of the Bear Cats and I saw two grown adults 40+ age old mount up and go across with their gear on the sled.  I don't know what they have for power but the issue we saw is he doesn't have studs and he was having a hard time going across the bare ice this weekend. 

 

After using a side by side this season I will never go back to a sled.  Personal reasons but I can fit 3 adults tightly in my cab with a heater running going across the ice.  Yes I broke down and got tracks but I also have a tool I can use during the summer.  I also push our own snow.

[SkunkedAgain]

I appreciate your thoughts about them. This sled wouldn't be driven fast. From what I've read, the 550s have good low end torque but won't go very fast. That's probably perfect for my purposes except at this point I would prefer not to have a carburetor to adjust on cold days. I'm starting to think about a Polaris Voyaguer 600 because I can get that in an EFI for not that much more and then add a 2-up seat.