# Help buying used sled



## ezcaller (Feb 21, 2009)

Looking to buy used sled- most info says the mid 90s Polaris fan cooled are the bes tfor ice fishing. What point does age of a sled become a liability and what sleds in the 1999-02 range would replace those mid nighties. Also how many miles should a rebuilt be good for, it looks like a lot of the sleds give out around 5000 miles. Thanks.


----------



## bigcountrysg (Oct 9, 2006)

My 92 trail deluxe 500 fan cooled, runs awesome and starts right up. 

Age has nothing to do with liability. Up keep and regular maintanence keeps the snowmobile reliable.


----------



## bigcountrysg (Oct 9, 2006)

My trail deluxe has over 6000 miles and the engine has never been opened up


----------



## bigcountrysg (Oct 9, 2006)

If you want u can swing by and we can chat in person about snowmobiles


----------



## Jimbo 09 (Jan 28, 2013)

A 2000's Polaris 550 fan cooled would be ideal for ice fishing. As far as miles, I would rather have a 15 year old sled with 5000miles than one that has barely any miles and sat for years on end. As far as a rebuild that depends on many factors of how it was maintained and what quality of oil was used. It could need it at 1000 miles or ten thousand miles. Just check the compression before you buy. My 2001 Polaris 600 has 9700 miles on the original motor and still runs strong.


----------



## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

I bought a 97 trail touring a few weeks ago. Long track, reverse, electric start. Perfect.

I have a neighbor with an immaculate Indy trail pushing 12,000 miles, think it's a 89 or 90. It is immaculate. As nice as his newer machines.


----------



## hawgeye (Mar 3, 2011)

Watch out for the early polaris 550. They are known to blow up. They had a bad design on where the air enters the motor. They upgraded to coated cylinders in the later years. I would make sure if you buy a 550 that its after they changed the cylinders. Look for something garage kept. Sleds that are stored outside are usually junk. Do a compression check before buying anything. If you buy something that runs rough, clean the carbs, don't just put seafoam in it to clean it out, many people blow them up this way. Good luck.


----------



## MossyHorns (Apr 14, 2011)

hawgeye said:


> Watch out for the early polaris 550. They are known to blow up. They had a bad design on where the air enters the motor. They upgraded to coated cylinders in the later years. I would make sure if you buy a 550 that its after they changed the cylinders. Look for something garage kept. Sleds that are stored outside are usually junk. Do a compression check before buying anything. If you buy something that runs rough, clean the carbs, don't just put seafoam in it to clean it out, many people blow them up this way. Good luck.


The Polaris 550's were great prior to 2003. That's when they changed the exhaust to a 2 piece system (pipe and can). That can sits less than 2" from the fan intake and sucks a lot of heat through the motor. My dad has a 2002 Super Sport that had the single exhaust, which I just put a top end on it last year at 7,300 miles. My spare sled is a 2005 Trail Touring that has 8000 miles on the rebuild, but I added the fan duct kit, which draws air through the top of the hood and it came with a oil pump bleed kit. My wife has a 2006 Trail Touring and it has 3200 miles on it with the updates. A lot of people including myself believe that the engine will get hot enough to get an air bubble in the oil pump causing it to stop pumping oil. I would not own a 550 in the edge chassis that has the 2 piece exhaust unless it had the updates I did. 

The Nikasil cylinders were an improvement, but did not solve the heat problem. 

The 550 is a great motor, but it needs fresh air to keep them cool.


----------



## hawgeye (Mar 3, 2011)

.


MossyHorns said:


> The Polaris 550's were great prior to 2003. That's when they changed the exhaust to a 2 piece system (pipe and can). That can sits less than 2" from the fan intake and sucks a lot of heat through the motor. My dad has a 2002 Super Sport that had the single exhaust, which I just put a top end on it last year at 7,300 miles. My spare sled is a 2005 Trail Touring that has 8000 miles on the rebuild, but I added the fan duct kit, which draws air through the top of the hood and it came with a oil pump bleed kit. My wife has a 2006 Trail Touring and it has 3200 miles on it with the updates. A lot of people including myself believe that the engine will get hot enough to get an air bubble in the oil pump causing it to stop pumping oil. I would not own a 550 in the edge chassis that has the 2 piece exhaust unless it had the updates I did.
> 
> The Nikasil cylinders were an improvement, but did not solve the heat problem.
> 
> The 550 is a great motor, but it needs fresh air to keep them cool.


I would just warn anyone without snowmobile knowledge to stay away from the early 550s. I have a 2014 550 voyager now and love it. Great machine for the money. OP good luck in your search. The ski-doo 500 fans are a good reliable sled also. I ran a 500 SL on the bay for 10 years.


----------



## ezcaller (Feb 21, 2009)

hawgeye said:


> .
> I would just warn anyone without snowmobile knowledge to stay away from the early 550s. I have a 2014 550 voyager now and love it. Great machine for the money. OP good luck in your search. The ski-doo 500 fans are a good reliable sled also. I ran a 500 SL on the bay for 10 years.


Thanks to all that's is some of the info I was hoping for. Definitely will help with my search.


----------

