I am looking at picking up a SP600 on Friday. Is their anything going with these bikes before I sign off on this deal. I am trading in an SP500 H.O that I have blown 4 belts up in less than 2 months, clutch changed out, coolant leaking, and ignition braking. Please tell me about any problems with the SP600 that you may know about. Have the SP600 had any belt problems that you have heard about?

Thanks again for the feed back!

 

The SP600 has a lifetime warranty on the belt. It is a new spliceless design. They must feel pretty confident about it to have a lifetime warranty, knowing full well that there are still people out there who are going to be pulling heavy loads and other no-no's in high range instead of low.


Arcosanti

 

Arcosanti:

Thanks for your feed back, but the thought of the life time warrabty is missleading. First, I have blown up 3 of those famouse new spliceless belts for the SP 500's. I do know that the SP 600's and SP 700's belts are different from the SP 500's and below. The thing was, I was not pulling any loads when they took a dump. The other problem with this belt warranty is that the dealer is only going to change the belt once. After that, they charge you labor fee if they install the belt. The belt is still free replacement, but you would have to pay the labor. Of couses, if I ran into that issue, I would just put it on myself. The worse thing about the belt problems is, what if is is a four day weekend and your dealer is not open when you belt takes a dump? My belts where getting at the most 6 hours of use. The last one only had 2 hours on it. I would have to stock 10 or more belts just to get through the hoildays! LOL.

Please don't read this reply as a shot a you or anything. I have just been going through a really fustrating time with this belt issue, and everyone keeps on saying how they have not had any problems, and the new greate warranty deal. They problably started doing the lifetime warranty, becasue so many belts have been taking dumps.

Thanks again for taking the time to try to help...happy holidays!

 

Hey Lightningsvt01.........got to be frustrating to have a chronic problem such as the belt. I just got my sp 600 yesterday and barely had enough daylight to get it out of the crate so this weekend I will see how it does. Unfortunately the best product have a lemon every once in awhile.....you just hope it is not you.

Good luck on your 600....what color are you getting ??? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

 

AtvMeister:


I am workning on getting the sonic blue color if they can get one quickly. I am not sure yet. Because I am working on this deal, I told them what ever I could get, just as long as it works this time. I am hoping for the Sonic Blue color. She is going to try to get it if she can.
Hope your new bike works well. Keep me posted on what you find out this weekend.


Have fun ridding. Thanks!

 

I don't have enough miles on mine yet so I really can't comment. I agree that the lifetime warranty is misleading. 1/2 hr labor plus a new cover gasket is the same price as a new belt!!!. I have never had a problem with belts on my Polaris quads (since 94) but still I always carried a spare. Sure you have to pay for it, but if a belt goes you don,t have to worry about being stranded and if the dealer is open or not. One of my riding buddies has a HO and he has chewed up several belts, he also carries a spare. He just brings in the chewed up one and the dealer replaces it. By the way, he is on his 3rd Polaris and never had a belt problem on the 2 others.(94 Sportsman,97 Xplorer) I fail to see where it can be the lack of not knowing when to use low.

 

I have the 2002 500 HO and no belt problems. If you killing your belts you have to remember certain things. The Sportsmans are alot heavier then the sport quads so there's more load on the belt. The Low gear is on these quads to be used for climbing up steep hills, going over logs and large rocks. Don't think the low is for towing only, that is not true. If your not going to blazing trails at 40-50 mph but you will be traveling at 40mph or less and going over some ruff stuff. Then put it in low and ride with low. Keeping the quad in low will not hurt it, even if you try to go high speed. If your gonna be riding smoother trails and less climbs and more speed then use high for speed. Many people think that the low gear is to be used for short periods of time and that you will hurt the quad by using it to much. In fact you will do more damage not using it and I can't think of damage that would be done using it, you just won't go as fast. Also you can also shred a belt by going to slow, if you gonna be riding trails at 7 - 10 mph then you can shred the belt by overheating it. By going to slow you wont let enough air in the PVT to cool the belt and it starts to melt. If your gonna be going at slow speeds use low only. By the way don't let the dealer sell you a new PVT seal everytime you change the belt, you don't need it unless your unit is old and the seal is worn away. The seal can be reused even after talking off the cover. And as far as the labor thing, put the belt on yourself, it's not hard, besides I don't expect any manufacture to pay for labor for a lifetime (don't know who could affor that) . But I think the free replacement gives me a piece of mind, so I'm happy with that.

 

Lightman02:

Thanks for the info. Somethings you said are very helpful. I did/do use low in the appropriate times that I am aware of. I am getting a new SP 600 on Friday. From what I have read, the SP 500 H.O's are having alot of issues at this time. Not everyone is, but more than the other models it appears.

Thanks again.

 

You'll ruin a belt if you go 40mph in low. secondly, can you realy get it up to 40 in low??

leaving a 5sp (lets say a 450 honda) in 1st gear, going 40mph (if that's even possible) won't hurt the gears, but the engine won't like it. what i'm tring to say is that 40mph in low isn't a thing i'd go doing all the time!

 

The Polaris transmision has two gears in the sportsman, One for high, and one for low. It doesn't actually switch gears while riding like a normal manual or automatic does. The way a Polaris works in there is a belt between the engine and transmision, the faster you go the more the belt deflection changes. So even though your on the low gear, the Polaris quads still changes the ratio as you speed up because the faster you go the more the deflection changes in the belt. The actaull gear in the transmission case always stays the same, it's either using the high one or the low one. The belt is what acts like a shifter. By using low over rough terain and slow rides, it relieves the strain on the belt and keeps it cooler. And yes you can get up to 35-40 in low on Polaris. Don't compare it to a normal manual transmision on a bike, it's not that same at all.