AFTER RIDING THE T3, 174" AND 163" I POSTED MY PERSONAL FINDINGS ON ANOTHER THREAD.... I COMPARE ALL MY FINDINGS TO RIDING MY RT1000, REV800 AND XP800 AND XM800 .... I DON'T TRY TO COMPARE TO OTHER MANUFACTURERS
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There was a couple of arctic cat diehards riding with us as guest of 2 of the other riders.... They are switching to the t3, they are that impressed.
The 174 surprisingly had as good, if not better track speed than the 163 t3 .... Doubters no more about track speed.. After all the 174 is a lighter track than the 2014 163 summit.. Gearing and clutching are bang on... And love how you don't need a big run at a steep hill to poke at... They just dig and work.... With the extended chain case a better angle of attack is achieved and these things get up on top quickly.
The very deep keel on the ski works... And along with the better steering grometry, they really work. I'd have thought they would would've push steered badly, but not true. The tilted up rear skid section also helps,,,, they actually back up better than a regular summit in deep snow as well... The skiis worked flawless on slush, icey and packed trail, with much less darting than the summit x... Over the stutter bumps and mogul sized bumps the steering was good.
I was amazed at how the kyb shocks worked in the big bumps on the trails.... Trust me the trail down was rough, but the big174 definitely sucked up the bumps better than any sled I've ridden... And I've ridden a lot of different sleds... I have thought about the raptor upgrade, but might just go with the factory kyb for now, as they worked well... In general even with the biggest track available from any manufacturer, the ride was surprisingly light... The front end was almost "tippy", and really helped with the flick ability factor... The machine handles and maneuvers like it is a much smaller and lighter sled-- even though it's not a heavy sled to begin with. the tilted up rear rails worked well.
I rode the first half of the trail down on a 2014 with raptors on it and then the lower half of the trail on the 174 and I could see the 2014 sleds ahead were doin okay but the big 174 just soaked the bumps much better. I rode the raptor 2014 and the t3 with kyb's.... both worked good, but I think I'd give the nod to the raptor(slight). I'm a big guy and the suspensions were set up soft, and i pushed the 174 down the trail hard and fast and very bumpy, and i'm sure everyone that has driven these sleds are pushing them.... So far so good on them
Cooling wasn't an issue, and don't think it will be, because they put the coolers in the best possible positions for track spray. the tracks do have small windows to help disperse snow. scratchers worked awesome and were placed in best possible location from factory.
