1992 Yamaha Vmax-4 --- original first year Yamaha Muscle Sled
Vložit
- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- NOTE: I miss-spoke in this video. Referring to the 1971 Arctic Cat inline 4 cylinder 2-stoke machine, I should have noted KING KAT as the model name, with its 789 cc Kawasaki engine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1992, Yamaha set a tone in sled technology and launched the "Muscle Sled" era... Their new Vmax-4 was the most unique, most powerful, and largest displacement engine in a production trail sled. With 743cc from its four cylinders, the Vmax-4 was the power master for 1992. It was the first production sled with lightweight metal skis and plastic bottoms. It was the first production sled to use digital CDI ignition as well as multiple Mikuni TM flat side carburetors and rack throttle setup which gave an easy pull on the thumb.
Perhaps the most unique aspect was that the engine power was gear transferred from the center of the crankshaft to a separate jackshaft that carried the primary clutch. This reduced the torsional twisting of the crankshaft and kept the engine alive. The jackshaft runs at 90-95% of engine RPMs.
A well-maintained example of a first-year V-Max-4.
still one of the best looking sleds , even 30 years later
I'm gonna have to go with the original Phaser as best looking
Love all the muscle sleds of that 92-2003 era...best looking and sounding sleds by far than anything made after about 2003-4...all those sleds were pure sound porn.
I knew a guy who owned his own sled shop who put turbo's on these and ran 149mph in a 1000 ft with these sleds. Bob Mazoli was his name in upstate NY
For me, this is perhaps the most iconic production sled ever built. It's the Dodge Viper of snowmobiles.
I remember when it was released, what a splash it made. There was nothing else on the trails that even came close to it. Visually and mechanically, it was wildly revolutionary.
Visually? That’s the ugliest sled made so I guess you’re right in a sense
@@skylermummert24 It's kinda crazy how much individual tastes can vary!
I obviously think it was one of the BEST looking sleds ever. Not saying you're wrong. We just have different preferences, obviously.
Just out of curiosity, can you give me an example of what you consider a beautiful sled?
I also think the original Yamaha Phazer was a fantastic looking machine. What's your opinion on that one?
That’s really cool. I had no idea there was a jackshaft that drove the primary clutch on these sleds. Crazy!
I went from a Yamaha Phaser 440 to that same V Max 750.
I smoked all my friends that had modified Polaris 650s with ease. One of the sledding mags claimed that sled to be " The Lexus of Snowmobiles"
Cool and crazy. I have 4 v max 4. Two are stock. The other two are modified
Now you just need a 93 Thundercat and you have all the first muscle sleds, in my humble opinion the T-cat was the king of the muscle sleds for its whole run. Had 160 horsepower right from the factory in 93, the Yamaha had around 130 the Polaris was in the 120-130 range and the skidoo was about 135-140
Mach z was 155. Not 130.lol
Bad info, my bad hoss
You could always tell the vmax with those funky shocks. I never got to ride one so I have no idea how they performed. I went from a 76 250cc Tundra to a mid 80's 440 el tigre. Then I got the privilege of riding a brand new 97 ski doo mxz 583 and once I hit the throttle I was hooked. Sledding is still my favorite powersport. I just live in a place we have to go a long ways to sled. So man I miss it. If that 2 stroke power doesn't get your heart pumping. Your just not alive. It's like no other. I have seadoos and dirtbikes and ATVs and sxs but I still covit sledding as my number 1. I used to live in the Rocky mountain Trench and my whole youth was skis in the air just ripping. We got 24 feet annually of snow and it was 15 mins from town to best terrain imaginable. If u ever get the chance go to Mackenzie BC and check out morfee mountain. Just be sure you go with locals as there's sled triggered avalanches on the daily pretty much and if you go to the back side you'll need a helicopter. But best riding in the world hands down.
Pretty nice sled!! Going to look at a '92 this week just got pulled out of a barn for the first time in 17 yrs a little over 1000 miles can't wait hopefully she'll be in my garage soon
It wasn't a Thundercat in the early 70's it was a " King Cat" that had the 4 cylinder engine. Arctic Cat made 124 of them, it was not a production model. Yamaha's Vmax-4 would have been the first production 4 cylinder 2 stroke. The Thundercat was a production model but didn't come until 1993 and they were not 4 cylinder sleds, they were triples, 900cc for the early ones and 1000cc for the late ones. Unbelievable collection, please show us more.
I recall seeing Pat Hauck at the Wausau, WI fall grass drags with a new 92 V-Max. He did very well as usual being the tuning and clutching wizard he is. We both went to the same high school.
1997 was the best year for the Vmax. Very Very rare to find a survivor . Your sounds like it's tuned perfectly . Love it !
''WEAR A HELMET''
I have one I bought new. Still sitting in my garage with 12,000 miles on it.
Love this vintage of sled, this is when I first got heavy into sledding. Glad to see some people keeping these old girls alive, original condition or not. Beautiful!
man that brings back a lot of memories. lost a lot of races to these sleds at the time I had a indy 650 which was an awesome sled
Those things got smoked by Polaris Indy 650s and arctic cat wildcat 650s twins and triples because it was so heavy. I never even seen one with racing pipes in it because everybody who bought one ended up selling it back to the dealership.
Awesome sounding idle on that sled 👍
I remember when they came out, everyone was talking about them, they were almost mythical. A couple guys bought some in my area, later that winter we had a radar run, and both ran their v4s. I was expecting them to take the show, many 650 polaris indys beat them , wild cat 700s my old 650 wild cat did even did better, the v4s were running with the mach1 617s.
They weren't huge performers out of the box.
My back is killing me just looking at that suspension. Great condition sled!
i dont think so . if you think that suspension is bad what you think of 70"s and 80"s sleds suspension cuz i didnt think early or mid 90"s suspension was that bad . yes it nothing like what sleds have today but for the era 90"s have pretty decent suspension and i take a older sled over junk shit is out now . look all garbage 4 stroke sleds are out now
Don't worry about your back... The fourteen inches of seat foam will take care of that 👍😂
Thanks for sharing your sled with us
I had the same sled and my ski's were aluminum with plastic skins man I miss it
This could very well be the best looking snowmobile ever built and I’m a Polaris guy.
Definitely a great machine, I had a '95 Vmax-4 and man that thing would fly. Regret ever selling it.
I loved my 1994 VMax 600. It had a bunch of go fast parts on it when I got it. Only ran good wide open. Got a wrecked one and took off all the stock parts and made one real decent sled. The rear M-10 suspension left some to be desired compared to the rash of XC SP Polaris' I had after that, but it always held a spot in my heart. It was my first "modern" sled. Had a couple old Enticers and Exciters a Scorpion Whip 800 and a few Massy Storms prior to my VMax.
I had one when it ran right it was a beast. Burned hole it a piston was still running just a little bogged down. They were not fun when you got stuck either
Cool video. I was riding a Exciter at the time the VMax was released. Good memories. It’s funny how little travel the rear skids had at the time with the snow flap dragging in the snow. ✌️😀
Very nice sled! Thanks for showing it and ripping it around!
It was the Arctic Cat King Kat 800 not Thunder Cat which had the 4 cylinder Kawasaki. Simple misspeak Valdi. 😉
My buddy had one, with the suspension knob up by the handle bar's..from Wyoming USA 🇺🇸 🤠
They had king cat 880 also a 1200
Exactly what I was thinking, Definitely the King Cat.
Name nazi
WOW wish I had a flux capacitor so I could go buy one....man what a sound!!!!
Wow that Vmax is CLEAN! I’m SO envious!
4:20 The extra tooth belt tells me all I need to know... LOL
when the v-max first came out, it was considered the "big" sled of the yamaha line but the SRV was faster than the v-max.
SRV 540 faster than t vmax 540 when modyfied, had both stock and heavy modyfied srv 540, the heavy mod srv did smoke my friend 86 vmax 540 also modyfied, but srv 540 cant tuch a vmax 4
I would say 2006 is beginning of the modern era of sleds.
I had the matching helmet..lol
Seen one longtrack in a showroom.
It's a pity really, this thing had so much potential considering it was based off a TZ750 engine, didn't perform like I thought it would.
Greetings from Bemidji! Thanks for sharing about your great sled! My favorites are any Arctic Cat and Yamaha 😎
My first sled was a 96 Vmaxx 600. Great sled but rear suspension was a bit weak. Great video!
Yeah the King cab that was a badass sled remember seeing one when I was a kid can't remember when you first come out but my brother had a SRX with a pop-up headlight on the next year they called it the VMAX but the SRX to be next to the pop-up headlight the early ones still say the best-looking Yamaha they ever made fer some muscle sled evening a woman already cat guy cuz my mom used to race rupp's when they quit making rupp's we switch to cat also I had a 1971 Yamaha ss440 dual carbs do expansion chamber's I think was a fast for what it was and 71
Insane how this sled sound exactly like one today with a custom can XD but it is original
I have the 92 and it's number 652 in the production run
I got rid of my 1997 V-max 800, in great shape. Sold it for 17 hundred Canadian, too heavy, way too hard on gasoline.
That is a very nice looking sled! Great video, my 94' Mach ans my Indy lite both had pink in their paint schemes as well!
Had the same sled with a set of Hauck cylinders and that thing absolutely flew. I miss that beast. Oh and the 4 banger noise was music. Great video!
I had a 800cc V-max4 with a custom engine built by Tim Bender himself custom clutching and his pipes and stingers, a 🚀 rocket in a straight line!..from Wyoming USA 🇺🇸 🤠
Thank you sir 👍
I had one! Awesome
Corrections:
ARTIC CAT KING CAT
JACK SHAFT GEAR REDUCTION WAS ABOUT 5%
3:23 no kidding that’s what the 4 stands for in V-Max 4
Beautiful machine
My friend has one that he bought brand new and put a turbocharger on it and ran it 8,000 miles on the trail with the turbo it was extremely fast but would not stop with that cable brake
True classic. Very nice.
Everyone wanted that sled when it came out lol
Skis may have e been coated? But they were aluminium for weight savings thus the stock ski skins, informative
I’m curious to know how much those way because the general consensus was that they were extremely heavy snow mobiles because they were supposed to be the fastest snowmobile’s made in 1992, but they got smoked by all the triples made by Polaris and ski-doo and arctic cat
Happy new year ! I like Yamaha sleds because i think they re reliable machines and that s what i need because i ride alone at night ! but i won t go if it s very cold ! so if i brake down i can wait till morning or till the grooming machine comes by ! in Quebec we have # 1 trails in Canada ! i ll send you a short vid of my sled ! 1998 V-Max XTC 700 tripple ! it s in my storage unit in Alberta ! will bring it back here in spring 2023 ! can t wait ! LoL🥸
back in the day when Sleds looked fast.......
Wow what a beast haha…how does this compare to new sleds ? Can anyone list newer age sled features that these didn’t have ?
omg that is GORGOUS!!!!!!!
They were fast but they were super heavy. I like your videos bud.
So does the motor run backwards? Looking at that photo of the center crank gear drive, the crank must turn backwards so the clutch shaft turns forward.
Yes it does
Pretty sweet looking sled I had a Yamaha SSX Viper as a pretty damn good machine too
Love the rack... I assume that this came from bikes (With all those inline 4's) I'd think it keeps carb. slides identical
heights / balance, much longer (once set properly). Cool Video sir...Wow -- over 130H.P. back then!! Thanks
So what where these musle sleds rated at for horse power? I have Arctic cat 2008 F8 800 cc Suzuki motor never fully opened it up but I had it up 67 mph I was too scared to try max it out I can only imagine what this Yamaha would do 4 cylinder
Love it and thanks that was a great explanation!
I think the 2004 Viper was their best one yet. ...for that era of machine
I'm not into sleds, but I know cool!👍
True classic
They sure make smooth power and a heavenly sound. The 92 had some issues with factory clutching and jetting but with your aftermarket pipes I'd figure whoever did that dialed in with the clutching and jetting. My 93 Vmax-4 was rated at 140 hp after Yamaha worked the kinks out. There was also a minor change in the crank after the first year to help high rpm reliability. Even my 93 needed a bit of clutch and jetting work but after that it's quite a monster on the top end. I also own a 96 MachZ 780 power valve triple rated at 156 hp which would kill the Vmax off the line with better traction and low end but I'm pretty sure the Vmax would take it on the top end.
Pretty sure the indy 650 had triple cylinder before 1992 and weren't the yamaha srx 440 and also the 570 exciter suppose to be performance machines? Didnt they even have a vmax yamaha in the 80s
This is such a great channel! Valdi, please indulge us for a moment.. You seem to be a healthy, fit and clear-minded individual. How have you maintained this throughout the years? I'm guessing a decent diet, and staying active. I am curious though. I'd love to be as healthy as you when I'm your age. Thanks for the videos!!
I love this sled but hate rack carbs
Friend bought one, was an anchor!
Mercury had a 6 cylinder in 74 it was called the merczilla
Thanks a lot good video!!
Beautiful. The 90s were a neat era, muscle sleds and wild graphics. They all look like insects now according to my Wife 🤣🤣
King cat was the 4 cylinder arctic cat
I don’t know what you mean by it’s credited for starting an era when Polaris had been making muscle sleds since 1985, when the Indy 600 was the first triple that Polaris had ever made to my knowledge the first triple that any of the big three or a big four, if you include Yamaha made. I don’t remember arctic cat skidoo or Yamaha, making a three cylinder snowmobile before the 1985 Polaris Indy 600 which was probably faster than a 1992 Yamaha Vmax 4 the 1989 Polaris Indy 650 triple was much faster than the 1992 Yamaha Vmax 4 I’m pretty sure the 1989 and 1990 arctic cat wildcat 600 twin was faster than the 1992 Yamaha Vmax 4 with a curb weight of 624 pounds while the arctic cat wildcat 700 twin only weighed 498lbs and the 493 lbs all those extra cylinders, whether it be two or one only added weight
Great vid! However the stock skis were aluminum,,,, and those look stock
This machine was psycho some what dangerous, I had a chance to use one in 93 and I scared myself so many time I use to buy my underwear in packs but the ride was like driving a Cadillac.
Wow. Looked at comments. Thunderjunk was garbage! V max 4 was sweet!
I have always been curious about the front suspension on those yamaha's. Was it any good, how did it work, are parts still available etc.
It worked fine on my 94 VMax 600. It looked different, but if you rode normal, it worked fine. Bought one that was wrecked and of course it tore the shock tower away on the side they hit. Had a 1996 Polaris with the trailing arm front suspension and my cousin managed to mangle that all up in a flat farm field, so you know, beat on stuff and everything has its breaking point.
Working great on my 1993 exciter sx, way better suspension then my 1991 mach 1 has-- just crap compared to the yamaha exciter sx and 1992 yamaha exciter.
Thought Arctic cat sleds in the day had Suzuki motors. That’s all I ever seen not a Kawasaki..
Yes they did have Suzuki engines. Had a 96 zrt 600 and was stamped with a Suzuki badge. And I remember my father had a early 90s El Tigre 530 that was suzuki.
@@Kamakaze04 Arctic Cat went to Suzuki engines in 1976
My friend had one back in the late 90's. They were fast but way to heavy. Very nice condition tho!
The 1971 ArcticCat was not the Thunder Cat, it was the King Cat and I believe it was 800cc. I would love to buy that Yamaha if you would sell it.
All of my 1992/1993 first-year muscle sleds are for sale this month. The online auction starts Jan 18th -- Ends Jan 25th. See bid.auctionmasters.com/ui/auctions/93518/10284192. Detailed, high-definition pictures at auction.smugmug.com/
Is that a Denver Broncos jacket you got on?
I had that same sled. Loved it.
The only four-cylinder snowmobile arctic cat ever made, was called the king cat, not the Thundercat the king cat was a monstrosity that came out in 1971 while the Thundercat 900 was built from 93-97 and the Thundercat 1000 arguably the most powerful factory stock snowmobile ever made with the highest factory stock top speed of 135 mph allegedly was made from 1998 to 2002
Hell the older VMAX looked better
Love that old Vmax the wedge
I'd afta disagree with you the best bang for your buck Yamaha made was the 440 and 540 srx from 77 to 86
Yamaha made the SRX in 76 in both 340 and 440 form then to 81 in just 440 form then the vmax was the 540 twin to 1986.
@Dean Urbanek srx had 1 year with the 540 before they went to the vmax I believe it was in 84 0r 85 it was the first year Yamaha came out the independent front suspension the year later they came out with the vmax
@@deanurbanek6577 made a mistake it was 82 they had the 500 1 year only
My family was a Yamaha snowmobile dealer back in those days. In 1976 Yamaha made the ice oval sprinter srx's in 340cc & 440cc, 1977 and on they were 440s through 1981. In 1982 the SRX 500's were built and shipped to the USA but were never released to the dealers or the public. Yamaha would never say exactly why, but we heard there was something majorly wrong with the engines that they for some unknown reason never figured out untill after they were built and shipped, which was very abnormal for Yamaha. So they were said to all be scrapped unfortunately! No more SRXs for awhile after that!
We were able to get one limited build race only 1977 SRX 440 that my brother raced and still has. He won just about every race he ever entered back in the day in our area, untill the IFS snopros showed up! They weren't any faster on the starts or the straights, but the IFS front end machines could corner so much faster than the rigid fronts. He even ran it stock in some modified classes and still won some of those. It was pretty cool and a rocket ship!
@@jasonpaupst9771 yup but it was never released to the dealers or the public.
Artic Cat KING CAT….not Thundercat…..the Thundercat came in to play with their triples in the late 80’s
93 was the first year of the Thundercat
Put me in your will!
My dad still has a 94. Fast, but rides like poop compared to anything newer lol.
Angry yelling old man! Kinda funny 😂
You ever ride it?
Who needs a helmet riding a four cylinder snowmobile anyway😃
No suspension
Muscle sled na my gpx 433 would giver a good run lol
Want to sell it?...
Its too bad that the 92 700 Wildcat was faster than it.
now look all Yamaha sleds are 4 stroke how sad on Yamaha part
I’d subscribe if this dude wasn’t screaming.
that thing has to drink fuel and oil.