Went riding in Oklahoma today. After riding my quad through out the day, I turned the quad off and noticed alot of smoke coming from the engine. I got off the quad and saw a large puddle of oil on fire under my ATV, it spread to the front of the bike in a matter of seconds. Before i could blink it was already burning off the front fenders. Fearing a large explosion i ran for help, i was 2 miles away from anyone. When i returned w/ an extinguisher the quad had already exploded and burned to the ground. All i have left of my quad is a burned frame with a melted engine. After further inspection i noticed a large oil trail for 10' or so behind the quad.

HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED?

This was my first quad, bought it used in May. It was totally stock. I picked Polaris because of its quality and performance. The machine had been completely serviced by a Polaris dealer when i purchased it. To top it off, the quad is not insured. I will be contacting Polaris tomorrow and seeing if they will help me in anyway. What are the odds?

 

Ouch! Sorry to here it man. Good luck on replacing it. First time I ever heard of a quad burning to the ground.

 

Sorry about that.

Listen man, don't mean to preach, but insurance is CHEAP. Mine cost me 80 bucks a year. Fire, theft, rolling down a mountain, it's all covered.

I highly doubt that Polaris will help you with this, but I wish you luck.

Dave

 

Sorry about the fire, man; glad there's no personal injury. The only other ATV fire I heard of was: guy had winch installed, REAR MOUNTED; left in garage on trailer, quad caught on fire and burned up. I asked him if any circuit breaker (e.g., in-line solenoid (Warn) or thermally-actuated disconnect (Superwinch)) was in the winch wiring; he never answered . . .

Tree Farmer

 

ouch that has to really suck. yeah i may ride a quadracer 500 but my girlfriend rides a 500 scrambler so i have respect for the polaris machines. i wish you all the luck in getting a new quad. see ya

 

Without trying to add fuel to the fire, no pun intended, but don't expect any help from Polaris considering it's a used unit.

Still an unusual incident. I'm not sure injector oil is flammable? Capacity of the oil reservoir is like 2qt.'s, the counterbalancer holds 100cc of 10W40, and there is about 12oz.'s of synthetic earl in the tranny.

 

Sorry man, but S#%& HAPPENS.

 

 

Dave-

Can you get me the name and number of the company that insures your ATV's? You are right that is cheap, and I didn't even know that there where companys that did that. I saw a brand new SP500 roll off the side of a mountain Friday it almost had me cry! Insurance would soften my tears.

Thanks
Jeff

 

Thanks for all the support guys. I just really would like to know how this could have happened. Is the injector oil flammable? How could the engine create a spark to start a puddle of oil on fire. It all happened so fast and i was in such a state of shock (still am) that i couldnt really tell how it happened.