Hot take: electric start on snowmobiles seemed like a gimmick until I got stuck on a frozen lake in Minnesota last February

I always thought kick-starting was part of the experience, you know? But after my buddy's 2018 Ski-Doo Renegade refused to start at -15 degrees for 20 minutes while my Arctic Cat just fired right up with the push of a button, I changed my mind. It was near Mille Lacs Lake and we were losing daylight fast. Has anyone else gone from hating electric start to loving it after a cold-weather breakdown?

2 comments

2 Comments

benflores29d ago

Hold on, the Renegade wasn't the one with the issues, it was the older Ski-Doo models that had those cold-start problems. The 2018 Renegade actually had electric start and heated grips from the factory. Still, your point stands about how a dead battery in the middle of a lake makes you appreciate not having to pull a cord 50 times.

the_john29d ago

Fair point, I forgot those older models were pull-start nightmares in deep winter.