Has anyone ever had any experience in widen the Polaris predator 500? Ive heard they handle better on trails and racing when you widen out front end and rear end. So i was wondering the best way to do that?

 

I'd look at some wheel spacers for starters. The other thing that might help handling is a rear sway bar if you don't have one. My 2001 Arctic Cat 500 was kind of narrow. I widened the front track 90 mm/3.5" and the rear180 mm/7" and then installed an Arctic Cat rear sway bar, went from a clumsy turd to a nice handling bike. One thing to consider, sway bars will hurt rock crawling ability. It took me a while to find the right spacers, check out "Tusk"

 

You might look for aftermarket shocks too, the better you can keep tires in contact with the ground, better for handling.

 

I don't know how much of that applies to a sport quad. On some other sport quads I've heard of people putting longer A-arms on the front and putting a longer axle on the back. I don't know if they are available for the Predator but someone should be making them.

 

I think a lot of guys just put slightly smaller tires on them too. For racing, the less weight you have the better and smaller tires are going to be lighter too. You"ll lose a little ground clearance but for racing its not something you need much of anyway. Smaller tires will effectively slightly change your gear ratio and make for a quicker machine too.

 

Thanks everyone! I actually am planning to go get smaller tires soon. Someone had put some big back tires on it and the back end is quite a ways taller than the back and so i plan on getting smaller tires on back to bring it down. I knew they made wheel spacers but i was not sure if anyone had done that before. I think i will give it a try though.

 

It's hard to say if spacers will help a sport bike, never know until you try. I'd look to see what other guys run for tires, also pressures. 1 thing for sure, too soft in front is bad for cornering. I like 7 psi front and 5 rear, but I'm not racing.

 

Harder front tires make it easier to turn the handlebars at low speeds. It makes the contact patch smaller. I sometimes ride with a guy who has the front tires on his Sportsman 850 pumped up a couple of pounds extra for that reason.

 

Aren't you the guy that is looking to race xc? Skip the spacers, nothing but broken parts and dnf right there. Really stock width should be fine. What is the min track width? For us it is 50", my YFZ sets at 49" and I have rubbed both sides going through gaps a number of times. If you really insist on going wider, it HAS to be with either rim offset or better yet, axle and arms. If I remember right, the predator rear end/seat was a little high stock compared to the 450 class machines anyway. It really was meant to be more of a kick *** big bore than a racer. Smaller tires I would be careful. What size front and rear do you have now?

 

Scooter, Thats what i was wondering. I worried if i put spaces on if it would start causing problems and if it would put alot of stress on things, especially with the kind of racing and the terrains of the track. I looked up the dimensions and it sets at 50 inches. So I think it would be best if i left it. I am going back to the stock wheel size. The guy before me had gotten bigger tires in the back, so the back end was setting really high and so i felt like i was leaning over the handles bars. Especially going down hill.