I was at the dealer the other day looking for a work bike. I would use it to drag trees, pull trailers, and plowing. I was actually looking at the Xpedition, but the sales person recommanded the Sportsman 500HO. I have two concerns one being the belt always under a strain and would it hold up well. The other would be the belt getting wet. I have a creek on my property that I would cross often. Any insight would be greatful.

Thanks,
Dave

 

The Sportsmans are almost flawless. Great work horse. The belts are very strong and water is not a factor. I drive through creeks alot and never left me stranded. This is with my father inlaws Sportsman 400. I also drive through water with my Trailblazer and the belt has never gotten wet. I have been all the way up to my seat in water. WHEW! that was scary. If you really want a strong workhorse they have a professional series called the PTV Personal Task Vehical. It is a heavy duty 500.Kinda like a Sportsman but made for contractor work. Pulling capacity is 1225lbs. Anyways Polaris builds a workhorse of a utility atv. www.polarisindustries.com for more info.

 

My bro has the 500 HO and I have the 700. Both great machines. We've had them both buried in water up to the seats and no wet belts. Today mother nature dumped 8 inches of snow in my area, so the day was spent plowing. No problems pushing tons of snow with a 60" plow. Did mine, the neighbors, the nieghbors neigbor, the street until I ran out of things to plow. No problems at all.

 

I've also pulled down trees, logs, rocks etc and my quad hasn't even breathed heavy yet. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I have a 00 SP500 that has been an amazing workhorse for me. Plowing is so much fun, I literally plow 5 of my neighbors driveways when it snows. I've thinned out my father-in-laws land of trees, loaded up the racks with WAY too many bags of concrete mix to drive from my truck to the back yard, and I even (and this is no BS here) pulled my F250 truck out of a ditch when it slid off a very muddy trail while camping. I dug one heck of a deep hole for each of the 4 tires, but my SP500 REALLY saved my behind that day.
When I go camping, I like to play around in the Platte River on my atv. I only go up to about the top of the mud flaps, and I usually don't have any problems. I run into problems if I drive really fast in maybe 6 inches of water, because the tires splash water up into the PVT exhaust, getting the belt wet. You just have to let it idle for awhile to burn off the water.
I went 3 years with no belt problems, but I always use low range for working. I did shred the thing this past summer while in Moab Utah, but that was after a full 12 hours of extremely hard riding. I was getting pretty dehydrated, the sun was going down, and was exhausted. I got to a trail/road where I could drive full throttle all the way back to my camper, so I had the thing wide open for a good 12-15 miles. About 400 yards from my camper, the belt just shredded. I was so thankful that she waited until I was walking distance to my truck, I wasn't even mad. It was really easy to change out once I located a new belt, and I bought a backup just in case.
But that is a machine and design that is 2-3 years old. I haven't even had a chance to drive my new 03 SP600 in the garage, but from looking it over, it really looks like the Polaris engineers have made some significant improvements. I understand the belt design is all new and much stronger. I'll still buy a backup for when I go on weeklong trips where I have no idea if I could find a new one, but the only reason I shredded the old one is because I was stupid.
If you want something to pull a trailer, plow, drag trees, hunt, play, etc, the sportsman will not let you down. If you don't intend to do any of those things too often or too hard, you'll probably be perfectly happy with the Xpedition. But you could pretty easily push the Xpedition beyond its capabilities. I have no idea of the price difference between the two, but if you can swing the Sportsman without the kids going hungry, it is the safer investment IMO. (the SP will probably be easier to sell down the road as well) I have pushed my sportsman as hard as I can for 3 years now, and it is still running strong, and has had no breakdowns except for the belt. But again, that was my stupidity.
Hope this helps...........

Arcosanti