for $325 i could get the RCR Stage 1 kit/ topend pipe. will that take away from my bottom end? is it worth the $$ and is it as good as ppl say it is.

 

Sparks9999,

You are sooo wrong about a pipe on a 250. The HPD trail pipe will give you a 8hp gain. That is 40% more hp then stock. The pipe is the biggest gain that you can get for the 2 stroke 250. The Polaris exhaust is very restrictive. I ran a 42hp 250 that smoked 400's and it was well worth the money. A pipe, clutch kit and air filter is a huge gain. Then porting almost doubles the pipes power. There are tons of great mods for the 250. Not sure why you think a pipe will do next to nothing. If it were a 4 stroke then I would say yes it will not do much but the 2 stroke responds best with a pipe.

 

The right pipe on the 250 will make a world of differnacne there are 3 pipes customers like and they will tell you on the forum hsp, hpd, and aaen. We haven't tested the hpd or the aaen but people have posted good things about them. A good 250 pipe will pick up at least 7hp and it won't be all on top either a piped machine on runs at 6000-6200 rpm were stock is 5500 thats not a huge differance. Our 250 pipes are one of our best sellers the only complaint we have ever had is the noise and that has been fixed our new pipe has a db rating of 88db which is well under any requirement. If you do put a pipe on your machine you should seriously consider cluthcing upgrades, and get rid of the stock filter make sure you get the proper jets too I'm not sure if hpd or aaen sned jets with there pipes.

 

How much was that stage 5 kit? I think the budget here was $375. You can make anything faster with enough cabbage. 42HP better beat a stock 400 at 33HP. You asked "Why do I think that" - seat of the pants, the 250 is slow and adding 5-8HP doesn't feel like much (seat of the pants again). That's why I suggested spending either a little on clutching or plan on going all out like you did with the stage 5 kit.

Maybe it's just me but we went though this where we just were not happy with the power at the 250 levels and unless you mod the hell out of it, it just is not the same as going bigger. I guess I know more guys who were disappointed after spending the $ on a pipe and ended up, in the end, buying bigger bikes.

Bottom line is I don't trust the advertised gains unless I see a dyno and not the one in their ads.

 

What 400 is 33hp stock? Not a Polaris. I know for a fact that everyone here that has a 250 and has put a pipe on was very impressed with the gains. I started with HPD and then went with AAEN. Both pipes had a huge gain. Any of the mentioned pipes had a dyno chart. I for one dont go by what I read but by word of mouth and charts. I spent less then $1200 on my mods and paid $1800 for my 00 250 in 01. So for 3k I had a kick a$$ quad that would hang with just about anything. I used to have 93 Banshee but I got too old for the rough ride so I bought the blazer for comfort and realized myself how slow it was. I put the money into it to see how far I can go with the mods. I sold it 1 year ago and there are so many more mods for it now. Yes the 250 is slow stock but there is a ton of power to be let loose. $375 is well worth the gain in performance. ANYONE here that has the right mods on the 250 will state the same. You were wrong about the percentage of power gain and saying a pipe will do little. You were right about the clutching and getting the power to the ground. Clutching on these 2 strokes are not everything though because they dont have alot of power. If someone wanted answers about performance for the 250 there are few people here that know ALOT about the 250's and I am one of them. If you know people that put pipes on the 250 and did not get much gain then either they used a crappy pipe, did not know how to jet it and/or clutching was wrong. Any one thing can screw everything up.

 

Sorry the '99 Xplorer 400 was quoted at 33HP I think the stock Trail Blazer was 38.

I agree the mods you did were an excellent value. $3k for a screamer. but this guy wants to spend $375. Hey it's a start, with the 2 stokes you can always build 'em up.

I guess I approach these things a little differently. Rather then say what can I get for 'X' dollars, I say I want 'X' H.P. or 'X' speed and then look at the options to get me there. When I bought my last sled my criteria was anything over 100HP and all the old fart options, electric start, reverse, travel bag, etc. I found that sled and bought it.

When I bought my quad I wanted a 4x4 machine as sporty as my brothers Scambler with better mud protection, I bought the 400 Xplorer.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not rich, I didn't buy my first brand new toy until I was 40. If I couldn't afford it new I would look at used but my criteria for the most part would stay the same. Otherwise I wouldn't be satisfied.

Just a different approach, that's all. I would ask myself what will it take to make me happy on my 250 and then look at the options. If I can't afford those expectations now then maybe it's better to save the $ to get me there rather than doing something to get me part of the way.

 

The 2 stroke 400 is rated at 38hp and the 250 is 22hp. Your explorer is capable of producing 80+hp at the crank. If you were to put a pipe on your explorer it would produce 46hp. The 400 can be a mean motor. I have seen 400xpl drag racing and killing everything that goes up against it. Just so you know if you were to have bought a Scrammy they have mudguards to keep the mud off of you just like the explorer and sportsmans. The explorer is a great machine. Well most Polaris atv's are great. I understand wanting to do everything at once. Thats when you get the most of your expectations but some people just cant afford it all at once so they do what would get the most performance up front. The pipe is by far the best thing to start with.


Audibert,

You can get HPD or AAEN pipe, silencer and clutch kit for around $300 then buy the airfilter. You will be way under your goal. If you go with the RCR kit then you get the pipe, silencer, clutch mod(not a kit) airfilter mod and free shipping. You cant beat that anywhere. $375 is a good start but you wont want to stop there.

 

my uncle owns our local polaris dealer. he said that hes tried a pipe on a tb 250 before. he also said that you would gain power in mid-top but loose power in bottom. do these pipes do that.

 

The HPD trail pipe will give you tons of low end torque but still adds top end speed. The AAEN torquer pipe gives low end torque and adds top end speed. The AAEN top end pipe adds lots of mid to top end torque. RCR has pipes for low end, mid or top end. You need to figure out where you want your power. The HPD trail pipe or AAEN torquer pipe are the best all around pipe. Your uncle needs to try the right pipe.

 

Actually the Polaris pipe is made by AAEN.