Truely one of the worst horror stories has just came true for my friend. Last night his brand new 2005 Scrambler 500 caught on fire in the garage. No one was near it and it hasn't been ridden for a week. Thankfully the fire was discovered in its infancy before the flames were able to devour the Harley it was locked to as well as the entire garage. My friend braved the flames and unlocked the chain while others who were over moved all the trucks in the driveway so they can get the quad out. They were able to push the quad out of the garage WHILE IT WAS ON FIRE only suffering minor burns! Teamwork at its best. The fire department was there in a few minutes to put out what was left of the quad. Unbelievable. He just bought this thing barely 1 month ago and his last Scrambler was stolen over the summer. He has some very bad luck. To make matters worse, he didn't have it insured yet. They were just going to send in the insurance this week.

Now he really needs your guys' help. I need some opinions. The fire had to be sparked by something electrical. IMO this should be covered by warranty. No ifs, ands or buts about it. I'm very sick right now and hearing this news didn't help...so my head isn't real clear right now. But I know one thing, if that was my brand new quad I would drag its melted remains back to the dealer and definately let some steam out. Nothing else in the garage caught on fire. The fire appears to have originated from the front end of the quad. The quad wasn't ridden since last Sunday and it was clean. We were going to go ridng today. There is no doubt in my mind that this was caused by something electrical. That really sucks for him. Unfreakinbelievable.

How can he go about proving that this was caused by something electrical? He is going to call Polaris to see if this happend to anyone else on an '05 model (and to let some steam out). Can anyone help...any opinions will help.

 

I would bring it to the dealer and drop it off and tell them to figure out what happened and when you can get your new one. It is under warranty so there should be no reason why he cant get a new one. They can tell where it started by how it is burnt.

 

That sucks, I put insurance on mine as soon as I got it home. Thats just one thing I don't mess around with. I have heard to many bad stories about them getting stolen, so I don't want to have to pay for a quad that someone else is riding. I would call the dealer, and see what they say.....maybe they need to have a recall on the 05 Scrambler.

 

Fire investigators can tell exactly where a fire was "born". He should get ahold of the fire dept. & have them do an investigation. I know on my '04 the gas tank vent tube goes right under the hood & pukes out on the left front side of the radiator. This is when looking from the front of the machine. Mine no longer is routed there, I seen that right away after I got it home & took the hood off & re-routed it to piddle out on the ground if it needs to. Raw gas spitting on a 200* radiator, WAKE UP POLARIS!!!!!