I bought an 07 Hawkeye 4x4 limited edition and put it to the test yesterday. I knew of the problems that appeared on the 06 and Polaris seems to have remedied all of them. We rode for 8 hours on 3500 acres that has every type of trail, hill, mud and obstacle you could possibly encounter. The 4.7 gallon tank was more than ample and I did not need to stop for fuel. One rider stalled in the middle of a long mud bog about a foot deep. He was on a large Yamaha Grizzly. The Hawkeye went through it with out breaking a sweat. I then hooked the winch to him and I backed out of the mud with him in tow. With the AWD the tires did not spin once while pulling him 30 feet out of the mud. The low gearing on this machine is awesome. I am into trail riding, hill climbing and mudding and do not need alot of speed so the Hawkeye is a good fit for me. I am 6'1" and 253lbs and top speed was right at 42mph on a long stretch of level ground. Do not expect to keep up with a 500 Predator. On the trails we are rarely above 25mph which it reaches fairly quick. Getting from 25mph up to top speed takes awhile, but the initial burst of getting to 25mph happens pretty quickly. It climbed some hills that were 60 degrees and over 100 feet high and it did it at low speed with no need for alot of throttle. I came to a brief stop half way up and then continued to the top and again there was no spinning or loss of traction. I even got curious and did some jumps to test the suspension and the landing was soft and very manageable. I have had Polaris machines in the past and then migrated away to Kawasaki because of Polaris problems that appeared years ago. Polaris seems to have really gotten things together, and its nice to be back to riding Polaris again. I would highly recommend the Hawkeye 07 model. I will agree that the stock 22" tires are not that great for mud, but the 23" ACT Carlyles on the LE really make a difference. I will put 25" tires on her once these wear out, but thats a way off yet. Now I just need some snow to play in with the plow system. I hope this will be helpful for any of you considering the Hawkeye.

07 Hawkeye limited edition
front and rear custom brush guards
1.5 Warn winch
52" Glacier plow system
rear lock and ride carge box

 

Nice post Sat, I am glad to hear "Good" things about
the Hawkeye. I keep telling my cousin who bought to
06' models to check out these threads and figure what
to do "Before" things go wrong. Nice Quad, I even recommended
to a friend but he just had to have the SP 500 EFI.

Happy Newy Year and enjoy your rides...8)

R'

 

We got plenty of snow in the Huachuca mountains of Arizona.

Update 31 December 2006: I finally got my Hawkeye out of the shop last Wednesday. I was able to find CV boot while in Phoenix and brought it to my shop. They fixed it the same day free of charge. They were still waiting on the part and had no idea when it would be in. I do feel better about the shop, but know that I should try to track down my own parts if they have problems getting them in. It might have been on back order, and the larger shop in Phoenix just had them in stock already.
We did get to ride on Thursday. I went out with my friend and his son. He just bought a Grizzley 800, and his high school aged son was riding his other non Polaris 700. They both had big storage boxes front and rear. They made my Hawkeye look like a baby. In the beginning of the ride, I told them not to smoke me in the trail and loose me. He let me lead since I have been on the trail much more. He had only ridden it once out and back a couple of weeks ago. So we started out, at about 5,000 feet of elevation, and after a fresh snowfall. I knew the upper trails would be covered and was worried about traction. It was bad enough that some spots were so steep, not to mention some spots are just bowling ball sized rocks. We all wore face masks, long johns, warms jackets and winter gloves. The start of the climbing is a bunch of zig-zags, some spots loose, others rutty from runoff. I waited at each turnoff for them to catch up. This was some rough stuff, but not enough to loose much traction. We got to the top of those, and rode a nice trail along the bottom of some cliffs, part of the higher mountains. Then we descended down to a canyon. Some spots had about 6 inches of snow and I began to trust my traction more as my Hawkeye did not slip. I had to keep waiting up to make sure they did not miss any turns. Granted that this was not a race, and I knew the trail better, but the Hawkeye was doing fine. I was wondering what would happen on the steeper parts climbing all the way up to 7,400 feet on the looser areas. They actually turned out OK. The Hawkeye climbed as usual, easy to steer as the AWD system works well, and not much slip. At some points where it was leaning over the bars steep and loose, I thought it would die, but it never gave up and climbed everything. Even when we got into deeper snow, at least 8 inches, it just kept going. I had to give it throttle on the descents, as the snow was so deep. I was even able to climb some completely covered step parts of the trail on the way back without a problem. I almost forgot to mention, at some times, we were riding in blizzard conditions. Our way back down the canyon trail, was al blizzard and cold. It was nice to warm my hands with the engine heat while waiting for the other riders.
My friend actually looked at buying a Polaris, but could not ride with me for four months since mine was in the shop. I think that if he saw what my little baby Hawkeye could do ahead of time, he would have considered it more. I did ask what the point of a huge quad was if I could do everything that they could do, and keep from being left behind. He never gave a straight answer, except that I figured that he could haul more gear. He did like the concept of integrated storage that no other brand has. OK Polaris, with my sub-frame fixed, this is the toughest ATF in its class, and T.U.F. If only it was out of the shop sooner so I could show off to this now believer.

 

Another 8 hr ride today on the same location as last week. With all the rain the night before I was prepared for alot of mud. Again the Hawkeye impressed me. Got into one long mud puddle about 50 ft long and instead of staying to the side I decided to go through the middle. I got caught off guard when it got to the bottom of my seat going through it. All the thoughts of problems raced through my head, but the Hawkeye just chugged right through it. No water entered the air box. The belt did not slip and no water entered the engine or belt housing. This happened early in the ride and the rest of the day it climbed steep muddy hills with no trouble. So far all the problems I have read seem to be with the 06 model, so either I am very lucky or the 07 has remedied the problems. With the low gearing and larger tires this machine is a mud lover and excellent hill climber. Time now for first oil change and putting a K&N air filter on it. I'll post again in two weeks after the next ride.

07 Hawkeye 4x4 limited edition
Warn winch
front deluxe brush guard
rear brush guard
cargo box
Glacier plow system

 

congrats on the new bike.
if you dont mind me asking, the 3500 acres, is that private land? sounds like a cool place to ride,
looking for a place to ride that i dont have to worry about the state police or the game wardens. the game wardens pose as
riders and bust guys riding on state game preserves.

 

Same here with the Hawkeye,,Since i bought it in MAy it hasnt been stuck,,It doesnt have the speed of a grizzly, but i did hit 50 Mph with it on a Long dirt road, it was very stable, Im also building brush guards for the front and back Im almost done with the front brush guard. I went riding with bunch back in the summer and one old man on a grizzly said to me , hey that thing is tough looking and it has more ground clearance than my grizzly does and i had to show him of course that is does go where some wont..If Polaris had started out using 25 inch tires on the hawkeye it would have been ATV of the year in my opinion and fix the Jetting problems..I found that if I need more power from it I needed to run Higher OCtane fuel..it always gets attention especially in the back of my truck,,People always Look at it and ask questions.

 

I just took mine out for the first time since putting on the 25" Mudlites this weekend, and man I love this thing. The only time I had to put it in AWD was backing out of a hole with my bosses son's 4 wheeler hooked to the winch from getting stuck. It handles the 25's pretty well considering it doesn't have an actual low gear, and I hardly ever spun tires going through any of the mud holes both yesterday and today which I consider to be pretty good since it rained Thursday, Friday, and today. I still haven't had a chance to test it in the snow, but as soon as we get some that's the first thing I'm doing.

 

hey ive also got Movies posted on youtube.com just type in the search area Polaris hawkeye and you will find videos posted by rickeyparker.

 

How did you get your Hawkeye to use AWD in reverse? I tried backing up on arocky trail one time and just spun my rear tires out. I was thinking of installing an over-ride switch.
Thanks

 

You already have an override switch. It's the yellow button on the left handlebar. You just hold it while in reverse to allow AWD to engage.