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Not referring to anyone in particular, but rather as a reaction to a general observation across every forum and social media group I'm a part of: The one thing that absolutely boggles my mind is how few people have experience working for large corporations. People love to complain about Textron, and I'm not saying the corporate culture there doesn't suck, but work for any similarly-sized organization and you'll see exactly the same environment. There's nothing unique about them. I have serious concerns about the survival of the brand, but I really don't expect that in the short term, I think we're looking at 5 years out for any concern over its survival, probably closer to 10. Textron saved Arctic Cat and made them profitable. However, there's only one thing Textron cares about - same as thousands of other corporations - and that's money. Corporations are generally only loyal to their employees when it makes financial sense. They gladly let people go, even when they're planning to grow and expand, because they need to show a profit. It doesn't matter who they let go, either - often the most experienced people cost the most money and it's easier to show a short term profit even at the expense of quality. That's how it is. IBM learned a long time ago how to avoid the subject of layoffs while simultaneously riffing people on a large scale at fairly regular intervals. They do it three ways: 1-A high percentage of "employees" are contractors and don't count, 2-If you get laid off, you have to promise not to say how you left the company in order to get any benefits, and 3-All official spokespeople deny it ever happened. IBM is publicly held, but do a search for layoffs and the story gets vague and unverifiable. I'm surprised Textron doesn't do that.

Me, too. I'm pretty sure I heard that, as recently as last fall. Maybe the 6-8 wheel contraptions are made in Canada, but I'm pretty sure you're right about the ATV's. What is the TRF facility for, anyway? Is it R&D? It's too bad they have all the snowmobile talent there and using that to their advantage. Someone must "own" Scorpion, don't they? I think Polaris either owns it or I'm thinking of John Deere. Last winter, I found an article on Scorpion history, about how back in the late-60's/early-70's, the next year's model would be designed over the summer, and then put into production in the fall. No wonder, quality was so bad in those years if the entire development cycle spanned a couple of months, engines were basically 2-smoke lawn mower engines and consumers were the first "test riders".

One of the disqualifying factors is a clutch kit. My serial number is "MT", not "NT", so it appears the Riots don't count? Weird.... Even if they did, I'd probably pass on it. When I sell or trade, I'll put the old Team clutch back on, and will worry about it then.

All corporations take the fun out of every job eventually, in my opinion. They'd replace us all with robots if they could (and eventually will). Just give me a good severance package and they can have my job.

Is there like a highlights version of their 3-hour podcasts? I'm a big fan of Gunner's videos, but I wonder what the average podcast watch time is.

I let both Cats out to play this week in the Chippewa National Forest. The Catalyst now has about 4-1/2 hours total time and the Riot has about an hour for the season.

You had one, too? I'm a retired Chief, and one of my predecessors was able to get out from under a business that was losing money when a fire conveniently gutted it. One of my regional fire school seminars was taught by Jamie Novak, a very respected fire investigator. I think that was the most interesting class I ever had as a firefighter. One day of the class was all classroom. As we were in class, the local fire department was at an old farmhouse, setting each room on fire using a different method. The next day, we had to go to the house and figure out how each room started. In my assigned room, it was just charred remains. Jamie suggested that we wash down the room with water from a fire truck conveniently located just outside. Once we did that, the pattern of a liquid accelerator was clearly visible on the floor, and we were able to piece together what happened without any further assistance. After we'd covered all of the rooms, we went back to the classroom where he showed us video of each fire. I learned so much from Jamie, that was a great experience. After that, I've been to several fires that made me suspicious and where we called the state to investigate. Arson is a lot more common than people realize, especially when money is somehow involved.

I left the group. Instead of being a place to help others find ridable snow, it has turned into a place where people tell each other not to go snowmobiling. I couldn't take it anymore. Most of our trails up here in nordern minneesoda go through public land, with only a few sections of private land (by me, anyway). I was able to get in a couple of shorter rides after work this week, some ditch riding but mostly open trails.

I don't think they were ever completely sold out. However, there were a lot of people who walked away from a spring order. The public will never know how many, so maybe it was just one guy who lost his job at Walmart. But, we shouldn't assume there wasn't any. I think there were more than we realize.

We have enough for some good ditch riding, and I still have a sled with LAST year's gas in it, so I think I gotta get rid of it somehow.

AC5S video with Ben Langaas:

That's a great testimonial. The way he posted on Facebook, it sounded too good to be true. And, I keep looking at other clutch people, like BDX and Speedwerx, and they've got nothing about belt size. I just wasn't sure what to believe. However, the way you've explained it, I think there's definitely merit the belt. Since I don't have a spare for my Catalyst, I'd be willing to give it a try next season.

The claim from Thunder Products on social media about the stock belt being too short has come up again (Snow Tech infomericial). Has anyone tried that to see if TP might actually be right?

Yeah, but does it bridge the bumps better?

Your quote looks fishy. There's no charge for the standard stuff - running boards, bumpers, etc. I wonder if the dealer accidentally added accessories to your quote. The way it is, it's not right.