Truly, some of the most fun rides we annually conducted “back in the day” at Rode Reports was our test of the next year’s fan-cooled snowmobiles. Yes, musclesleds were amazing and sounded awesome, and the high-output ditchbangers were thrilling to ride. But there was something special about truly wringing out every available horsepower and dicing with friends and co-workers when we were all on roughly equal-powered entry-level sleds.
Of course, entertaining us veteran riders wasn’t necessarily the target of the folks who designed the machines. Instead, fan-cooled sleds often most appealed to price-conscience snowmobilers, entry-level or women riders, or people who couldn’t always count on snow spray to cool the heat exchangers and thus the engine.
Enjoy with us this flashback to the 1998 fanners, as presented in the old Snow Goer TV show (pasted below and also available through this link).
One caveat, though: We know some people are going to say, “Why can’t the sled makers build $5,000 sleds today?” Remember, those prices are in 1997 dollars (when the 1998 sleds were actually built). A 1998 Ford F-150 4WD XL Super Cab that same year had an MSRP of $19,140, the average price of a new home in the U.S. was $146,000 and the median household income in the U.S. was $37,005. In other words, remember to recalibrate your expectations to today’s dollars. Here’s a link to an interesting Federal Reserve inflation price calculator that you might enjoy when comparing different eras.
If you want more video content from us – both current interviews and classic throwbacks – let us know by subscribing to our YouTube channel. It won’t cost you a dime, but it will reinforce your interest in the topics. Here’s another video from that same season from Snow Goer TV.
It’s to bad that getting a “ low power “ liquid cooled sled for just easy trail riding it comes with 135+ horsepower. What ever happened to the 440-500 cc trail sleds ? This horsepower craziness along with expensive shocks and crazy electronic gadgets is killing the sport along with people ! When you see a video of the media test riding a sled it is always being riding aggressively! That’s the way everyone is riding the trails these days. I quit riding years ago because of this but I missed the sport so I got back in to it. It’s dangerous out there thanks to the manufactures and the media. $ 15,000+ for something that can only be used during a questionable short season is not high on a priority list for most folks these days.