I know some of you have gotten your FST's and ridden them. Others, like myself, are still waiting. How are they working? Mileage? Engine Heat?

Just curious as i wait for delivery....

TTT

Anybody actually riding these things?

I've rode mine three times. Very nice sled. Alittle heavy but overall very nice.

Great, 200 miles. Any comments on ride, fuel economy, handling, performance, etc. We need more than nice!! thanks.

I've only ridden mine around the field. I took it pretty easy because my 3 yr old was on it with me. We did about 5 miles. I noticed the gas guage is already below 3/4, must be hugely inacurate. Anyone else notice their turbo and exhaust manifold is glowing bright red after a ride?? I let it cool down at an idle for several minutes before I shut it off. The engine temp got up in the normal range, so it wasn't on a super rich warm-up program. I'm just wondering if anyone else noticed??

You hear alot of weird noises from stuff that you normally can't hear. Sounds like a rattle but i think it gearcase noises.. I never got over 20 mph so maybe it goes away.

it takes longer to get used to the different sounds on a 4 stroke than anything
everyone complains about the power or engine braking or turbo lag in cats 660 my biggest problem was the noises and wondering if something was wrong or if i should bring it to the dealer to have it checked out

Blue toy, congrats on your sled, I have about 66 miles and now that we have a shit load more snow going out with the boys for a longer ride Saturday, haven't got the starter thing fixed yet so I will bring Rope, the exhaust is hot but not out of the norm to my past 700 2 stroke, also the noise you hear is the floating brake pad, pop the hood and take a look, you can actually move the shoe pad around, this is normal and as soon as you do this you will instantly reconize the noise, I thought it was the Gear case / Chain, but no it is the Brake. Hope that helped . :beerchug: :div20:

Mine's not fixed yet either. Still waiting fo parts to arrive despite the promises made to me by Pat Bourgeois (bogboypb). I'm not losing anymore riding time, waiting for this blatant lie to come true.

I'm sure it goes without saying but whatever you do "Keep the letter". I was told last weekend that my sled was enroute but 1 week later, no sled, and i'm going out today on my wife's 500 classic. Just about told the dealer last night to get the paperwork on the 600HO ready for signature but didn't want to waste anymore of my time this weekend. I'll see where we are at on Monday but one thing i know for sure is that i'll have a new sled, one way or another, before next Friday. Expecting it to be a Polaris but who knows at this point.

I can't believe it takes 2 1/2 weeks for motors to be shipped unless they are drop shipping them from freakin Germany! :augen41:
I'd make em give you 2 new sleds and i'd settle for nothing less. Period. Afterall the production FST's are expected to arrive within the week as well so you gain nothing by waiting on the motors.

I sure hope i'm not making a mistake with Polaris.

Good luck.

The thing is the motors were never shipped. The whole e-mail is a lie. My dealer got a call from Poo last week asking when he was gonna order the motors. He said they were supposedly shipped. They said no, he said send me two, they said no. we send 1 for the blown up sled and gear for the sled not blown up. So here I wait. The one motor was shipped Fedex and was in the sled on Tuesday night. We picked it up anticipating that I could drop mine off... No parts. Poo is a bunch of Liars. We have been trying to get new sleds but they don't return phone calls, e-mails and PM's. I'll just get mine fixed and be a constant reminder to everyone not to believe ANYTHING Polaris tells you. Even if it comes from BogboyPB
Pat Bourgeois Snowmobile Marketing/Communications Manager

Talked to one local guy who rode the Keweenaw week before last. He owns a 700 Fusion and his bud a FST. They logged over 1000 miles. Both sleds were flawless. The FST out pulled the 2S and got better mileage. Only complaint was the 700's vibration.

You'll never get new sleds. No way. There's not one sled company that would agree to that. I'd like to hear Poo's side of the story.

Gizz, do you know the date the dealer web site said "Shipped". It should only take 5 business days, unless the truck had a lot of stops on its way.

This was posted under first dead FST, so I guess it's who you are if you get a new one or not.
SECOND DEAD FST

PICKED UP MY NEW SWITCHBACK FST TUESDAY. UNLOADED OFF THE TRAILER AND PUT IN SHOP. WENT BACK OUT LATER AND WOULDNT START. TOOK IT BACK TO DEALER AND THEY DETERMINED THE STARTER WAS JUNK. 0.2 MILES

I HAVE TO HAND IT TO MY DEALER RECKER MOTOR SPORTS IN MT. PLEASANT MI. THEY WENT TO BAT FOR ME AND THE POLARIS REP. TOLD THEM TO GIVE ME ANOTHER SLED. THEY DID, AND SO FAR 3.0 MILES THE STARTER HAS HELD UP.


Then again if all fs's and fst's have a starter gear problem what's the point of getting a new one... I think the point bluetoy is trying to put across is not so much of getting a new sled but that poo lied, for what reason who knows but lieing never solves anything, just takes ALL the credibility away from poo. You know the old saying " believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see" and even question that coming from poo.

Just got back from riding on the wife's 500 classic (hey, it needs broken in too). I thought for this early in the season the trails and access roads were awesome. The usual bumps on the heavily traveled trails but lots of smooth stuff if you know were to find it.

My dealer told me it "officially" shipped on the 14th (Wed). I should see it Monday or Tuesday. It was allocated on the previous Friday but he had no VIN until Wednesday so they probably sit around on the dock waiting until a truck that's going my way has a full load. Anyways, it should be here next week and today's riding, along with tomorrow's riding, will hold me over for another couple days.

I've waited too long to bail now but i'm not sure i'll ever snowcheck again. Really wasn't any benefit to it in this case but live and learn i guess.

This does not look good for polaris. If they want more market share lost to other companies, then they better not do this anymore. You can make excuses, but this letter says it all. No engines means they will tell you anything to get you to "feel" better.

Not lookin good here.

[actionfigurejoe,Dec 17 2005, 11:38 AM]
Talked to one local guy who rode the Keweenaw week before last. He owns a 700 Fusion and his bud a FST. They logged over 1000 miles. Both sleds were flawless. The FST out pulled the 2S and got better mileage. Only complaint was the 700's vibration.

The FST outpulled the 2S and got better mileage. What is 2S? And what did your buddie get for mileage? Thanks

2s = 2 stroke (The 700 fusion)

I put 32 miles on today. Conditions were bad, only 1 snowfall, 1 pass with the groomer and hundreds of sleds on the trail since they were groomed. Also it was only -3c today. Gas consumption was very high, but I am not worried because we have tooled around the field and did not make sure to top off before the ride. Both sleds performed flawlessly. they are certainley no XCR800 but they run pretty darn good. There's plenty of power on tap at any speed. There's also no turbo lag. The sled doesn't feel heavy at all (FST Touring) which surprised me. I did notice the engine braking at speeds less than 40 mph but once you get up around 90 there is not much engine braking. I have to say the AC 660T has alot more engine braking. I also noticed that this thing seems quiet but really it is quite loud after a while. The engine note is very low pitched. Maybe I just need to jump on a 2 stroker to remind me but I found it loud after a few minutes of driving. Again the AC 660T is WAY quieter. The brake pads do rattle around in there and I'll be working on a fix for that. Should be a simple fix. The last thing I noticed is that the brakes are silent when applied. Unlike the usual polaris brake scream from my other sleds.

Overall I give it a big thumbs up. We did not bring a rope, plugs, spare belts, battery booster or anything. We have never needed anything like that in the past. Well except for belts (XCR800) We have lots of space to carry spare belts in the Touring, which we will.

I did notice the temperature of the engine was always between 152 and 161. Not sure if that's high enough. We'll see once we put 2 people on them.The chaincase was not even noticeable on my right foot. There is a fair amount of warm air that blows on your left shin as well. The mirrors while small and woobly are effective enough to see a sled behind you. Note to Polaris:: there is not enough adjustment on them. Looking behind me to check the progress of the other FST at a road crossing I got to see the rad and intercooler plainly visible through the hood/bellypan. Looks excellent!


Finally: the rubber slide that goes on the side of the handlebar cover fell off. Crap! When looking for it on the way back I found a nice $20 bill on the trail. I guess I'll use it to buy a new piece.

So far I'm happy with the sled. Just wish I could get the damn starter gear fixed before it blows up...

I noticed this as well and wondered if it was normal. Anyone else take a look before shutting the sled down? Think this is normal?

No, BLACK as Black can be after 4 hours of riding :beerchug:

Mine is bright red all the way to the silencer. Even the turbo. The screws that hold the heat shield above the exhaust manifold came loose

Never saw mine red right after shutdown, It was hot but black.

Actually, it only glows at night or in the dark. I am sure its that hot in the day, just doesnt look it in the light. Please check while riding at night.
Thanks

Yea, forgot to mention that. I checked mine at night BEFORE shutting down the sled. I doubt it would be noticeable at all during the daylight.

I am still curious if that is supposed to glow all the way to and including the silencer

Ans. Polaris says this is normal.

Let me get this straight, something under the hood is glowing bright red, daylight or dark, and nothing has caught fire on these things? Something that hot anywhere near a fuel source is a reciepe for disaster.

At least there should be a shield or something to protect anything from bumping into it, or anyone touching it accidently.

I have never seen a turbo design that doesnot have this under heat protection.

Somebody tell me this isn't happening, and is an abnormality???

Everything is shielded but stuff still gets hot. You can see the glow after shutting the sled down on the snow underneath the sled and through all the venting holes in the hood. I think it is fine and things that need shielding are shielded. If i wouldve had my digital camera with me i couldve taken a picture that clearly would've shown the glow of the turbo, manifold, exhuast, etc. We rode to a vista at a pace of about 45 to 50 MPH and then shutoff the sleds. It was very dark and the first thing you could see from my sled was the red glow like i mentioned above. After about 5 minutes some things were still glowing. I will be keeping an eye on it. Engine temp was only around 175 though. This is NOT the engine getting hot but rather the exhuast after being spun at about 200,000 RPM. In thinking about it i wonder if that's why Arctic Cat has a lag in their turbo? Afterall you don't really need the turbo until you get up in the 60MPH range. The naturally aspirated 80HP that this engine puts out without the turbo would be fine for the "normal" trail riding and then, when you want to play a little just punch it little and spool it up. I'm sure that without the turbo their would be little to no heat affect. Thoughts?

I intend to always let the engine idle for at least 20 to 30 seconds before shutoff, longer if it has been working hard. I do the same thing with the turbo diesel in my truck.

Shutting off a very hot turbo can cause the oil in the bearings to carbonize and affect the life of the turbo.

I agree totally. Even though I did not see anything in the manual, it is good practice to always let a turbocharged engine idle for a period before shutdown. The new synthetic oils resist coking but it's still good to allow things to cool off a little before stopping the engine. If I know I'm going to stop soon I slow down the last stretch to help cool the turbo down.

This is a very good thing to do. Although you wouldnt think that they are related, the same principle still applies... The manufacturers of turboed diesel tractors also recommend that you do this, although for much longer (2-3 minutes). Like previously said, not doing so can damage the turbo and the oil.