2021 Skidoo 850 turbo reviews

I had my new 2021 850 Turbo Expert 165 out for the first ride of the season. We were in McBride November 28. Weather was bluebird, around -6 We got up to the cabin, the sled ran flawless on the trail and accelerated great. Lots of snap, clean crisp power. I got to the cabin and put the suspension on long just for fun factor. Went up over the top of small bell mountain to the meadows, the new snow was approximately 4' deep on a good base. The sled ran fairly well most of the time. When under more load found that there some bog issue and backfiring, thought this was due to heavy snow covering the vents. The majority of my day the sled ran flawless. I was already getting down on fuel so I dumped my fuel in, and thought lets try adjusting the clickers on the primary. So put those to 3, it ran like total crap then, The rev limiter was constantly being hit. So put it back to one. Where the tip of my wrench broke off, with only hand pressure, those are total junk. Buy the tool kit if you can find one, well worth the money, nice kit, high quality. This may have answered a bunch of my questions as I was over revving then letting off and bang, backfire. So I rode rest of the day hitting my throttle by constantly tapping it without a heavy hit, and it appeared to be good. I'm thinking that the clutch weights are a bit light and the motor is hitting rev limiter quite easily. Something probably very easy to fix. This sled was even more nimble than my previous G4 165, even easier to shoot around with the defiantly noticeable extra power at your thumb. It was quite surprising as i started to do a hard carve and just tapped the gas and the sled responded very fast. You will have a smile all day on these machines. Do have the large fuel caddy as they go through fuel, I rode the entire day 77.5 km, used my full fuel tank and 3/4 of the large fuel caddy. Not fun to get the spare belt into the holder. Found the tool kit at a smaller dealer north of Edmonton. I fueled up with 91 at Shell in Spruce Grove, on Century road, will try Petro Canada for next tank.

64% break in left

Rockin Ron.
What was the engine speed full throttle when overrevving? Were you able to look at all?
Joey

Dynamo^Joe said:

Rockin Ron.
What was the engine speed full throttle when overrevving? Were you able to look at all?
Joey

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i talked to him on the phone, he said nope snow was tooooo deep

Dynamo^Joe said:

Rockin Ron.
What was the engine speed full throttle when overrevving? Were you able to look at all?
Joey

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My brothers sled was 8200, with the stock clutching and 42% left on the break in, and was popping when on and off the throttle.

Caper11 said:

My brothers sled was 8200, with the stock clutching and 42% left on the break in, and was popping when on and off the throttle.

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I only got to baby mine due to an injury, but i had the popping as well. Hoping it is just a break in mode thing.

The Kickass One said:

I only got to baby mine due to an injury, but i had the popping as well. Hoping it is just a break in mode thing.

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Mine popped a few times also. Was also deep and couldn’t see gauges

That fuel consumption is crazy, never added fuel to the aftermarkets yet.. they must be set real rich, when your hitting rev limiter, your taking big life out of reeds real quick, hot charge temps coming back is a big no no on turbo sleds

I have heard a few complaints now from overrevving on the 2021's. sounds like doo needs to do some more r and d on the turbo's.

Dynamo^Joe said:

Rockin Ron.
What was the engine speed full throttle when overrevving? Were you able to look at all?
Joey

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Joey, It would overrev some times without being full throttle. The rev limiter was kicking in quite a bit. Lots of snow, cant see the tach.

Hope you guys find a solution there is nothing more frustrating than dropping that much coin and having a machine not work properly. I now refuse to buy first year releases this is the exact reason I bought a 2020 sp instead of a turbo let the kinks get worked out. Is it possible to add some weight to stock flys and still allow for clickers to be used for adjustment? I suppose a set of adjustable daltons are only a couple hundred for a fix too.

Go to your max rpm display on your screens..... easy add some bolt weight til she runs 7900 then pin er

turboetech said:

Go to your max rpm display on your screens..... easy add some bolt weight til she runs 7900 then pin er

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I dont think the 2021 gauge has that.

canuck5 said:

Hope you guys find a solution there is nothing more frustrating than dropping that much coin and having a machine not work properly. I now refuse to buy first year releases this is the exact reason I bought a 2020 sp instead of a turbo let the kinks get worked out. Is it possible to add some weight to stock flys and still allow for clickers to be used for adjustment? I suppose a set of adjustable daltons are only a couple hundred for a fix too.

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There isn’t any kinks To work out, you can add a couple p drive washers for less than 10 bucks problem solved in 36 seconds

Another quick adjustment to help tdoo on over rev in different snow conditions, elevations and temps is a adjustable shockwave helix, I run them on my t850, so I don’t have to touch the pdrive primary.. if you high or low rpm, a quick half turn on shockwave and your back on the nut again, be also surprised how much more helix angle you can pull over the oem.. a turbo loves load, and works best under it, over rev defeats it purpose

shockwave don’t make the helix anymore but they are out there, grabed a half dozen last year for future projects

I haven’t noticed any over rev. I hit 8100-8200 then it settles down to 8k. Never rev limiter, backfires or hesitation. Runs great!

fredw said:

Another quick adjustment to help tdoo on over rev in different snow conditions, elevations and temps is a adjustable shockwave helix, I run them on my t850, so I don’t have to touch the pdrive primary.. if you high or low rpm, a quick half turn on shockwave and your back on the nut again, be also surprised how much more helix angle you can pull over the oem.. a turbo loves load, and works best under it, over rev defeats it purpose

shockwave don’t make the helix anymore but they are out there, grabed a half dozen last year for future projects

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We ran these on the nytros forever worked well to a point but always felt your defiantly better to clutch over rev off a primary with some weight.

maxwell said:

There isn’t any kinks To work out, you can add a couple p drive washers for less than 10 bucks problem solved in 36 seconds

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Lol and the 2017 850’s were also flawless no kinks . I like the turbos doos I think it’s great there getting them out there I’m simply saying buying the first year full release comes with headaches trucks cars sleds whatever. I will have one in my garage once you test pilots have them ironed out.

maxwell said:

There isn’t any kinks To work out, you can add a couple p drive washers for less than 10 bucks problem solved in 36 seconds

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Few engines went boom.
But if it was the turbos fault or not is TBD. The changes that come out in the next couple years will determine if it was dialed or not.

skegpro said:

Few engines went boom.
But if it was the turbos fault or not is TBD. The changes that come out in the next couple years will determine if it was dialed or not.

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considering the extremely minimal changes from 2020.5 to 2021 your not going to see much. BRP had so much data to work with from 2020.5 machines and they are almost identical to the 2021.

Well there is new pistons and colder plugs in the 2021.