At what age is a sled considered "Vintage"?

A

alswagg

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As I posted, at what age is a snowmobile considered Vintage? I mean, I have a 10 year old sled our newest sled in the fleet is 8 years old, only 1,200 miles but still 8 years old. The SRX's are between 9 to 12 years old. Back when I was younger we would have never ran a 10 year old sled as we do now. Example, I grew up on Mercury sleds and Yamaha sleds. In 1984 we had switched to Yamaha and the 74 Mercs were put on the junk pile at that time I never saw them again. I still like riding the ol Phazer we have which is a 93. Again the temps are cold out and minimal snow. bored this morning. Al
 
That could be, locally there is a Vintage sled show this weekend. I was not sure at what age that constitutes. I am guessing, John Deere's Mercs, evinrudes, rupps, ect. will be shown. Al
 
I know in Ontario you can buy a " classic " trail permit for any sled 15 yrs or older, it cuts the price in half.
 
in my opinion 15 years would be a vintage sled. my sxr is 10 years old now but seems to do the job just fine against other newer sleds, it is yamaha though. were as my 94 mxz 470 looks vintage and if you had to ride it on ruff trails you would say for sure its vintage!!
 
Ask 10 different sources, get 10 different answers.... One has to remember we are not talking about wine or furniture in which both have been made since the beginning of time and the fact production snowmobiles in large quantities are only around ~50 years.

I.M.O. Time does not stand still so, the cut off of classes should move 1 year for every calendar year ?
Classic 15 years or older than 1995
Vintage 25 years or older than 1985
Antique anything older than 1970 ?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title&ved=0CAcQkAE
Vintage Snowmobiles are generally defined as snowmobiles made from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. ...

Amsoil says 25 years ?
http://www.amsoil.com/AmsoilLookups/vintagefilterlookup.aspx
 
Give whatever time period you want but 99% of the vintage sled hobby does not recognize age. Its pretty much if the sled has leaf springs its considered vintage. Even if its a late 80's early 90's leafer .... The older TSS yamis really aren't recognized as vintage (with the exception of the 81 SRX).
 
stinger440 said:
Give whatever time period you want but 99% of the vintage sled hobby does not recognize age. Its pretty much if the sled has leaf springs its considered vintage. Even if its a late 80's early 90's leafer .... The older TSS yamis really aren't recognized as vintage (with the exception of the 81 SRX).
Click to expand...

So, in 2035 a 50 year old 1985 sled shound not be considered Vintage ?
 
Vmax540, thats not what I meant. I meant currently that seems to be the opinion of the masses. Right now I feel anything that is not "rider fwd" should be considered vintage. Like was posted earlier, 10 people asked, get 10 different answers.
 
Stinger I am not being critical just, trying to get a good clean debate going for an old question. If you seperate sleds by leaf springs instead of age then how do you determine Vintage vs. Antique ? PS. the Topic was "At what age is a sled considered "Vintage"?
 
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Here is my take on it:
10 years or older= Classic
20 years or older= Vintage
30 years or older= Antique

In some areas of the country, a sled can have very little amounts of miles due to poor snow fall. Vertually looking like new. On the other hand it also depends on the owner, I know we never traveled as far on our old Mercs and early yamy's as we do now. Would I travel further per day on a new 4 stroke yamy than I do now, dought it, but possible. 150 to 200 miles a day of riding is usually enough for us. Al
 
any sled made could be deemed "vintage". It has nothing to do with age, It merely represents a time in which it was made,However "Antique ", is considererd old fashioned in design from a preiod of long ago. .....My vintage 1968 yamaha is an antique. My vintage 2008 nytro is not .
 
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I gotcha Vmax540 no worries. You are correct the question was age. I believe it should be 25 years and older is vintage. In MI thats when you can register a car as a collector car.
 
I would still like to take another look at this. In 1980 the sleds still had leaf spring suspension but were way ahead of the earlier sleds in chassie design, motor design, and skid suspension. In 1980 a 1965 or 1970 sled would have been called a vintage or "antiquated" sled. Just due to the advancements of the day. At what point do we call the SRX or SXR antiquated? Yes they can run with the new sleds, but are not the same technology as the new chassie designs. Al
 
What alot of people fail to see is that if you are talking about evolution of design for instance, Motorcycles or Cars one has to consider they have been mass produced for 100+ years which is one thing and then there are snowmobiles which only since, ~ the mid 60's have they been produced in any kind of large quanity which leads to advancement in design. So even sleds from the later 70's to the early 80's may be considered an infancy stage compared to todays technology ?

"At what point do we call the SRX or SXR antiquated?" = now..... I'll stop by soon and pick up your antiquated 2000 SRX, As a favor of course.....
:)
 
Maybe it is just me getting older, but when I graduated from High school, 1986. I was driving and bought my own 1977 GMC 4X4 truck. I actually bought the truck in 85, But this vehicle was only 8 to 9 years old, and it was concidered an older vehicle, as I believe. But now I drive a 1996 Suburban which is 14 years old. Yes it is older than the GMC but I really don't concider is as "old". I just bought my son a 1989 Bronco II, we thought this would be safer than the 1986 CJ 7. This vehicle is over 20 years old, and is in very good condition. What I am getting at is in 1986 I would have not to even think about buying a 1966 vehicle. I do believe the vehicles built today or even 20 years ago was much better than the vehicles built 40 years ago. A 1968 vehicle really did not last much past 10 years, but a 1988 vehicle usually will last over 20 years. Guys, I am sorry for the rambling but it has been a slow day. lol Al
 
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