With two stock machines, which one would be better on deep snowy trails, the Sportsman or the Magnum?

I have noticed that the front to rear gear ratios are different between the Magnum and the Sportsman

The Sportsman has a 2:1/3.16:1 (front/rear)
The Magnum has a 3.7:/3.1 (front/rear)

Does this mean that the Sportsman is better in the snow?

Does anybody have any side by side experience on these quads with stock tires?

 

Sportsman all the way Had a 99 500 mag and a 99 500 sp the sp would literally need to pull the mag through the snow. More then all it is in the tires dunlup tires suck. I went ice fishing i put the fish house on the trailer 8.5x10 plus all the gear and three people on the trailer. Put her ein low 4x4 and away we went about a foot of snow and i did not get stuck that was on a sp 500 with 26 " mudrunners. By the way anyone need a sled bed trailer. 1 year old. fore sale.

 

When you were pulling the Magum through the snow did you have stock tires on the Sportsman?

 

My Mag does very good in the snow. I plow driveways with it too. And it has its original Dunlop tires.

 

Yes i was all stock at the time the ground clearence was the factor plus having all the tires on the ground made a helluva difference.

 

Magnum will go thru a lot, but gotta give the edge to the Sportsman. More ground clearance, plus the wheels follow the terrain better.

 

Its funny that you mention those sucky dunlops because thats exactly what I have on my Xplorer when I pull sportmans through the snow.

I have done this many times and its basically a question of ground clearance and a tire with a less aggressive tread such as the stock dunlop will easily outperform the stock sportman tires in the snow.

Last year I was riding with a friend who had a new sportsman, which he was riding double with his wife. It had snowed most of the day but the conditions through the woods were great. We got to an open area which was about 2 miles long but the wind had drifted the snow pretty bad. My friend decieded to go first and I was following his tracks. He managed about 500 ft and then just sat there spinning all fours. We backed out and took another run at it but this time I was in front and he got stuck again behind me in my tracks. We took another shot at it but this time I had his wife on the back of my quad and I was opening the trail he got stuck again. I could easily go wherever I wanted but the sportsman couldn't even follow my tracks. Now, the total weight was not the problem because, with his wife on the back of my quad, the weights basically evened out. The more aggressive tread of the sportsman would dig holes much faster in the snow than my sucky dunlops and he would get high centered. The other thing that helped me out was that my explorer has about 1 1/2" in more ground clearance than the sportsman and the swing arm geometry will not lose as much clearance when compressed compared to the irs. Two of my friends who just bought brand new HO's had the dealer install sucky Xplorer dunlops before taking delivery because they also know how much better they are in the snow.

I am in no way saying that the dunlops are good tires for anything else, but dam, there good in the snow

 

i wont arguee with you on it becuse i was not there. But from my experience, the sp goes more places in snow then a mag. But it could be allot to do with the driver. I know my sp,s never lost that much clearence with the irs I do know that we sold the mag for a sp and havent looked back. plus you don,t **** blood for a week after you ride a sp compared to a mag.

 

I wasn't referring to the Magmun. I was simply saying that, ground clearance combined with the right tire will get you farther in the snow.

 

The Sportsman has a 2:1/3.16:1 (front/rear)
The Magnum has a 3.7:/3.1 (front/rear)

Hello 3TV, The figures quoted came right from the owners manuals published at the Polaris Web Site.

Is it right according to your manual?

So maybe it is the TRACKER P tires by GoodYear which are the cause of the "fishtailing". I know on the day I was out with the Magnum and the Xplorer they had the Dunlops and I didn't. They did not fishtail but I did.