I am going to be buying an ATV with in a month. I had decided on either a kodiak or a AC 500 Auto. I have decided against the Kodiak for several reasons, and am now also considering a Sportsmen.
My Concerns with the Sportsment are mainly from what I have heard (reliability, maintance) but know two guys who have them and have had no problems. As far as price I can get either in a 2000 model brand new out the door for 5800.

What do you guys think???
W

 

I hardly hear of anyone having problems with their SP 500's on this forum. They must be really loyal to Polaris or maybe I just have a lemon.

I bought a 98 SP500 new. I don't beat it or go mudding. Most of my riding is on logging roads in Upper Michigan.

I have averaged over $1,000/year in repair costs not including general maintenance. It is sitting in my garage right now with a collapsed left front strut, blown right front wheel seal and a major anti-freeze leak by the bottom left area of the radiator. All this occured less than two months and 250 miles since my last dealer service. The tie rod ends need replacing also. There is just under 3000 miles on the machine.

My wife is so angry she mailed a nasty letter to Polaris. It is unlikely that I will ever be able to buy another toy again. I can't even mention the S (snowmobile) word around here without hearing about my junk ATV.

My brother has a 300 honda with the same amount of miles on it. He drives it on the same roads I ride on and plows snow with it besides. He has had zero problems.

I did alot of research before I bought my Polaris and I still think it's the best ride out there. If your single and can afford to ride the Sportsman 500 go for it.

geno

 

ok I got annother question. I have read that the belts on the sportsmen wear out very rapidly under severe use (mud or rough terrian).

Is this true? If so is there anything that can be done to prevent it. If its not true why does the sportsmen seem to have a bad rap?

Dont get me wrong, I have ridden the sportsmen and like it, its one of my two choices. I just dont want to get a machine that is prone (or seems to be) to certian problems that could be a real bummer 50-60 miles back in the woods.

Please helo convince me that this is the machine as I do like it the best of the two as far as riding is concerned.

 

Yes. The belt is a huge problem, and is the engineering blunder of the century. It's nothing more than a $35 rubber band, and they break constantly. I usually carry three spares with me. Most of the time, those will get tme through a 20 mile ride.

I hope of course you can tell that I'm being sarcastic. This damned belt thing has been beat to death. Yes, the belt will occasionally slip, but, only if you are in water to the racks, or in a situation where you should have put it in low range to start with. Polaris has put a lifetime warranty on the belts. Does that tell you anything ?

Truth is, you can't really go wrong with whatever you buy. You'll have fun on it, and you'll think that it's the best. There are trade off's in everything. For every feature that you gain with one, you'll give something up on the other. There is no such thing as the "perfect" quad. You'll always wish something was different. Just do your homework, and buy the one that best fits your needs.

Just out of curiousity, why did you decide against the Kodiak ? My Dad has one, and we both like it.

Dave

 

I agree with Indydave, there is NO, and I mean absolutely NO perfect quad out there. Whatever you feel comfortable with is the one for you.

I own a Scrambler, and as the tranny only has High/Nutral/Reverse. Sure I wish they would have put low range on the scrambler, but when I'm out riding, there wasn't one time when I wish I had low range. I nver had a prob!

Good luck,go with the Sportsman, and have fun!

 

I have 1100 miles on my 2000 sportsman 500, the only problem I've had is my handlebars got bent after I rolled it down a very steep hill {my fault]. New bars were 29.00. The sportsman will take you places you cant come back from! I love mine.

 

Indydave,

The reason I originally wanted the kodiak. But after reading about it I took a friends for a long ride. I had read that tall people (i'm 6'1" and 225#) can be uncomfortable on it. Sorry to say that was true. I felt like I was leaning forward the whole time and sliding into the gas tank.

Originally I did not consider the sp 500 at all. I was very leary of the required maintance and of all the horror stories that I had heard (but never seen). That is why I put the AC 500 inmy choices.

I still have not taken an AC 500 for an extended ride, but I am leaning more and more to the SP500. Just about all my concerns about the SP have been laid to rest. The only one that I have left is that I have read (and it does make sense) that the SP is vunrable to having problems with the radiator when gooing through deep mud. Any truth to that.

I know there is no perefect ATV, I just want to make sure that most of what people are doging the SP for are just people talking out the side of their mouth. You know, a guy was driving down the road and saw a dodge getting pulled out by a ford. "those dam dodges SUCK, always getting stuck. Gotta have a ford." Stuff like that.

By the way, the reason I went wtih these there is that I want a ATV that is auto but also has 2wd/4wd capability.

Thanks for the info and if you guys can smooth over the radiator thing, I just might be heading to the dealer on tuesday to pick one up.

 

regnar, I understand about the Kodiak. I'm 6'2" and about 50 pounds heavier than you. You would certainly be more comfortable on a bigger quad.

I, or none of my SP riding buddies (4 of them) has ever had a problem with over heating. I can see how it could happen though. After we do the serious mudding, we always find some water to run through. Not because we ever thought about the radiator, we just want to get the stuff off.

Again, good luck.
Dave

 

Regnar, in regards to your comment about the SP500 overheating due to mud, I can attest that this can sometimes happen. Not only does it happen on the SP500, but it also happens on mine (Scrambler 400 4x4)and I'd imagine it happens on all the other models that have the radiator directly up front. I go on rides here in northern PA with a bunch of guys that own SP500s and it seems as though the muddier it is, the more common place the overheating is.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not like we're out for 45 minutes and all of a sudden there are 6 or 7 guys that need to stop and take a breather because all of there machines have over heated. It typically happens only on long, extremely muddy rides (which we had a lot of last year). If you can keep the radiator relatively clear of mud, you'll have no problems, it's only when it really gets gummed up for an extended period of time that the machines over heat.

Good luck with your decision, I had to do the same thing last year, and I'm glade I got the machine I did, it suits my needs well. Go with which ever machine does the same for you. If you decide on the Polaris, I don't think you'll be at all disappointed.

 

Well, now you know another 500 H.O. owner. I couldn't be happier with it! I've only had it for a month, but I haven't had a single problem... I live in Prior Lake MN where its been below freezing now for about 50 straight days and it never fails to start on the first try. Runs great, pulls a ridiculous amount of "trailorage" thorugh the snow on the frozen lakes... I love it!

kjw & the
Shortbus!