Just bought the Cat.

The local Can-Am dealer is terrible. The staff is arrogant and very hard to deal with, enough so that I am purchasing my 2010 Renegade from another dealer 107 miles away. The local Arctic Cat dealer on the other hand, is great. I went down to the Arctic Cat place this morning at 9, and they have a demo Thundercat that the owner of the dealership has been riding. It has 164 miles on it, and the owner told me to load it in my truck and take it to the place I wanted to ride it at, and to be back by early afternoon. You CAN'T beat that for customer service.

I rode the first five miles of the trail that the pictures above are from, and the Cat feels fine. It is a bit more sidehill stable than the Grizzly, but not as good as the Renegade. With its longer wheelbase the Cat climbs exceptionally well. The suspension is super plush, and really has that long travel trophy truck feel to it. When you get on the gas the front end lifts and the rear end squats. When you get on the brakes the front end drops and the rear end lifts. There is a fair amount of body roll in turns, enough to let you know you're on an ATV with a lot of suspension under it. Power is "fair" in my opinion. It has more "grunt" than my Renegade 800, but less "hit" in the middle of the powerband. The Renegade feels faster, which is fine, I'm not buying a race quad with this ATV.

Bottom line, I really like the suspension and handling. The Thundercat really feels like it could eat up nasty terrain in a big hurry.

And most importantly, I bought from the best dealer, which will make even more of a difference after the sale. I paid $10K even, and that includes a Warn winch. I told the dealer I would pick it up on Friday, because its still in the crate now.

DV

 

Now that is truly customer service.

Congrats on the new ride. And on finding a dealer who knows it who's buying the quad that makes his business and not who's selling it.

 

Is the width of the Arctic Cat 50" like I thought it was? Also, is it the 2up Thundercat or the 1up? I'm curious. I just saw one at Bass Pro Shops and it looked wider than the others. Let us know how it does after you've had a chance at putting a few miles on it.

 

47.5" wide according to the specs sheet. It is a one up Thundercat

 

Sweet man, congrats!

Be sure to post up some pics lol. And some of the 2010 Renegade later!

You have two awesome quads!

 

Not trying to put you down canadian144. so dont get upset,but according to ATV Action magazine,and im not say they are always right, Thundercats top speed is 81.9mph.
The outlander 800 is 79.3mph
Sportsman XP 78.6 mph
Raptor 700 74.6 mph
And the brute force 750 at 68.5 mph
Peek HP at rear wheels: out lander 800 50.59hp @6750 rpm
cat:48.78hp @ 6550
sportsman xp: 44.64@7000 rpm
brute 750: 39.87 @ 6800rpm
Bottom line...most horsepower doesn't always mean faster. Gearing is a factor also as well as torque.
Oh, cat is the slowest in low range at 40.1 mph while the outlander is the fastest at 45.4 mph(in low gear)

 

When I took the demo model Thundercat back to the dealer I told the dealer I thought my Renegade 800 was faster to top speed, which is 75 mph on the speedometer for that ATV. The dealer told me "well bring that Renegade over here and we'll run them through the gears and see, because I gaurantee the Thundercat is faster". I almost laughed because at that point I had already decided to buy the Thundercat, and I planned on running them through the gears anyway, once the T-cat is broke in.

The Renegade does feel faster, because it has more of a hit in the mid-range. The T-cat has an ungodly amount of torque though, and an 81 mph top speed on the T-cat is just nuts. I'll need to make sure I've got a long drag strip to try them out, LOL.

DV

 

Yeah it always changes according to different tests it seems...I guess there are quite a few factors that can come into play, ex temperature, tire pressure, type of engine oil, last oil change, coolant, etc etc.

Bottom line is that they are all fast though LOL

Seems like you've found a pretty good dealer! lol.

And I've been meaning to find a good drag strip area to test out my LTR450! I can never get close to the top end of it it seems. Plus I need to race it against my dad's Outlander 800, and my friends' Yamaha YZ250 and KTM 250 SX-F. haha.

 

Thats true. They are all fast enough. I will say my cat 700 runs about 60ish i guess(large tires,not accurate) but i also have an outlander 500. The 500 runs strong and pulls hard all the way to top speed,which was about 55mph.

 

Anyone know if the tires on these ATVs are rated for 85 mph? Makes you wonder, doesn't it. I'd hate to be going 85 mph on a tall softly sprung 4x4 ATV and have a tire come apart on me.