Just a little story for the Polaris owners out there. I was moose hunting last week and we shot a moose quite a ways off the atv trails we had three quads but a 400cc two stroke sportsman was used to pull out the moose this quad was chain driven to the front and back wheels at first I was skeptical but low and behold we hooked up our atv tariler and the Quad went to work, it only stuggled when the trailer got hung up badly on one huge log which is understandable but in a few minutes it was free and we continued breaking a train out to the logging road, after that we had to go about 6 miles through a hydro pole line with some big mud holes no problem except one part where 3 quads got stuck with no loads on them and the sportsman which had a hell of a lot of weight in the trailer and the moose was just gutted and not skinned yet, so had a considerable amount of weight behind that quad so it was stuck, but we just winched through the bad spot and that sportsman easily pulled our moose back to the camp not only that, we have pulleys set up in our garage to pull the moose up to our hooks that the legs hang from and we used that same quad to pull our moose up to the hook with no winch. I helped my cousin work on his sportsman over the years now and I can honestly say Polaris quads are tough and the ride is awesome. I will try not to bash polaris quads and they seem to be an easy target but I have seen with my own eyes what they are capable of and his quad is an older design and the newer ones are even better with irs and so on I have one single major complant and that is the weight. Mind you I own a Kawasaki Prarie 700 and when I get stuck it is not fun! I just thought I would post a positive story about a Polaris Quad for everyone to enjoy happy Trails and enjoy the ride!

 

Polaris 4x4 chain driven[front and rear]ATVs were well noted for given users an incredable amount of trouble.Many had constant driveline issues,including the chains,sprockets.They were a very BAD design and I was glad to see Polaris do away with them and switch over to shafts.

Best of luck with yours!

 

96 300 Xplorer I used to have.

in 4 years and several thousand miles, replaced rear chain once. Replaced a center sprocket.
Never replaced center or front chain, and adjusted them about once every 2 weeks (20 minutes)
DIdnt like the time taken to adjust them, However, I was never left stranded and the chain never broke.
Old Neighbor 00 Xplorer 400 - No Chain or sprocket problems. (plenty of starter problems though)

Glad they are Shaft drive now though!

 

thanks for the positive post, nice to see there are some smart people out there who don't see a polaris and say oh my god, he rides a polaris. I made a post in the kaw. forum and had alot of good responses.

 

My buddies just got a large Bull on Sunday and used a 96 400 sportsman to get it out. They apperently just get the head up on the rack/backof the seat and pull it out like that......need someone to sit on the front rack to keep her down but nice and easy!

 

Muddy,
You must live in a far different world than I do. I have owned a chain driven Polaris since 1992 and to date have never once replaced a sprocket or broken a chain. I used the same 6x6 and the same Sportsman 370cc 2 stroke 4x4 to go back to moose camp 6 years in a row pulling 400-500 pounds in and a lot more coming out. distance was 25 miles each way. I personally think that going to shafts caused a lot of unnecessary weight gains and wished they would go back to chains. Ever wonder why most sport and racing quads use chains? Cause they are lighter and can take more power. Look at your modern sport bikes and see how many run a shaft.

 

i have a pred love the quad but hate the polaris name and most of all the suvice all over canada and the u.s their sevice blows...

 

Yea Snow, I love the performance of the 2001 Corvette with its chain drive and all?
LMAO

 

Snowwolf,
''QUOTE''chain drives are lighter and can take more power than a shaft drive?

The reason SPORT machines use a chain drive instead of a shaft drive has nothing to do with them being able to take more power than a shaft drive.Chains driven units do not use as much HP as a shaft drive does,and they dont hold up nearly as long as a shaft drive does either.You obviously dont ride your 4x4 quad in the same terrain I do here in Michigan,if you did,you would NEVER want a chain driven 4x4 over a shaft drive unit.I had a 2000 4x4 400cc Polaris Xplorer that I bought brand new,it was chain driven and NOTHING but a pain in the *** to maintain.I went thru 3 differant front sprockets and three rear sprockets in 1800 miles.I will NEVER make that mistake again,at least not on a 4x4 ATV.

The REAL reason behind using chain drives on sport machines has to do with SUSPENSION travel and the fact that gear ratio's can be easily changed to acheive differant performance results by using differant sprockets ect.

Bill

 

we have both chain and shaft drive and havent had a problem with either but if you think Polaris gets bashed its twice as bad on the sled pages the new 900 RMK was bieng bashed before it ever came out! sometimes it gets old