Riding in northern MN with the family on wooded trails 7 to 10 mph stopped for a break and smelled plastic burning looked the wheeler over and where the exhaust pipe is at the highest point the fender started melting under rack. Has anybody had this issue?

 

I haven't but I have seen others on the net who have had that problem with the 850's. Your dealer should be able to help you out. Most had problems using the first run of the HMF pipes. Others had it with just the stock pipe. I never heard what the fix was though. Hopefully someone with first hand knowledge can help you.

 

You would think with all the r&d into the xp's (and added cost) they would have fixed that problem. Had a lot of issues with exhaust heat on the sp's. Hopefully the dealer can help you out before another set of plastic needs to be replaced!

 

Thanks, yes I plan on brining the two 550's back to the dealer to get a few bugs worked out. polaris should do something for me since they only have about 140 miles on them.

 

I melted plastic on my 08 400HO. My fault. Let it idle 10 min in 85 degree temp.

 

I noticed my 550 ran extremely hot until it got broke in. If I would have been breaking it in during really hot weather, at slow speed in heavy timber I bet it could have melted something. Once it got a 100-150 miles on it then it cooled down noticeably.

 

My 850 gets super hot in the summer. It will burn my leg if it's too close to the side. I need to keep it away, or it will literally burn skin.

No plastic melted yet though. A friend melted the side exhaust plastic on his SP800 a couple weeks ago in the heat. He went to Walmart and got some reflective tape and it worked great...I think I'm going to add some to the 850 and see if it helps. He found similar tape at Napa (probably better quality) that was around 25$ a roll. The Walmart reflective tape was like $8.

 

Is this an issue on all the 550's? I am not buying until spring, but would like to know what you folks did to remedy this.

I hear the rear box gets hot enough to cook food in, what is the remedy for that??

 

get some steaks and throw them in barb. sauce optional LOL LOL

 

I think the post with the reflective tape is the way to go, even after having the dealer fix any issues. any place the exhaust runs clost to plastic should have a layer on it, keep the plastic safe, and reflects heat, so the legs dont burn either. I noticed this on a lot of Honda 300 ex 's with aftermarket exhaust, almost every one i saw had melted plastic next to the seat on the right side, because the bigger aftermarket pipe ran too close to fender. When i put a pipe/silencer on my sons 300ex, i put exhaust temp rated aluminium fabric on the inside of the fender, and several years later, not even a discolored spot. Same for the Polaris, a layer of insulating reflective tape would probably make a world of difference, either that, or you could wrap the pipe in exhaust tape, or have it Jet Hot coated, to seal in the heat and send it out the tail pipe instead of radiating it out to the plastic and your legs.