Cowboy,

On a polaris the front wheels will not pull for 2 reasons, 1. the Awd switch is not in the "on" position 2. the rear tires are turning slower, or the same speed as the fronts.

If the switch is in the on position and you have rear wheels spining and no forward progress, the the fronts will pull. If it don't it's broken.

IN reverse the only way the front wheels will pull is if the switch is in the on position and you have the overide button pressed.

Now, if the rider could not climb out in forward, I think he(well I) would first check to see if the 4wd switch is on. Then if he found that it was on and still could not climb out he would try reverse. If you use reverse you are mostlikely to press the overide button on a Polaris most of the time cause they have a bad habit of backfiring very loud(cause of the rev limiter) at anything but barley above idle when in reverse and not pressing the overide button.

So, if all 4 wheels were pulling(we can assume this IF HE DID infact check all these things out) and it could still not climb out it has to be the next link to the ground. THATS THE TIRES.

I bet thats the reason the polaris could not climb out of it's own ruts.

 

Man, didn't expect that much of a response from that one, thanks guys! Boner, thanks for the info on the SP, makes sense now. Tires is another great possiblity there as well. I thought though that the 500's came with the titan 489's, like the 'Cats do? I've seen several here in the Pullman area, and back in the Tri-Cities with 489's, so I just assumed they were the stock tire. Maybe they were just an upgrade? I think the 489 is a great all-terrain tire for a stock tire, seems to do well in all areas for stock.

On a side note about the skid plates-I personally really like the plastic one on my 500. Smooth, lightweight and slides over stuff very easily. True, diamond plate looks better, but somehow, I would think it would catch on stuff easier, not slide as well as the plastic does. That stock plastic one on my 'Cat is tough as hell too, yeah it's got a lot of small scratches in it, but no tears or rips at all. And, I've drug it over some serious rocks, logs and stumps before that I thought for sure would tear the hell out of it. Kind of like timex, takes a lickin, keeps on tickin!

On another side note, does anybody have, or use a rear skid plate to protect the rear drive shaft? That upper cv joint looks like it could be subject to abuse while backing through tons of sticks, debris and such. Anybody have any thoughts or recommendations on that one?

Mike

 

Cats pull all four wheels as long as all four wheels are on the ground!

 

Sportsmans come with Goodyear Trackers. The fronts looks like they would suck too. Real narrow looking. That was another thing that I really DIDN'T like when I was checking out the HO's.

From a performance standpoint, I think the HO whips the AC's *** thoroughly, and this coming from someone who has owned an AC since Oct. 1998. From a build quality and ruggedness standpoint, I think any polaris made is still way behind. Even the brand new ones seem flimsy. Whats up with using sheet metal screws to hold on the fenders?

 

So, Cat owners, what you are saying is that whan a Cat/Honda or anything else non-polaris will spin all four wheels on flat ground? In my experience Hondas and Yamahas (don't know about Cats, but from what I've heard they are similar in preformance) will spin the wheel with least traction, even when they are on flat ground, but there has to be slightly more traction to one tire for this to happen. OCCASIONLY both fronts will spin but traction canditions have to be VERY similar. So why not give this a try: Tie the cat to a tree, put one front tire on pavement, and the other on sand or maybee even pavement, jack up the rear tires, and feed it some throttle and see what happens. I'm not trying to dis your claims, or your rides, but I'm just curious to see how good ACs really are.

 

Tried it. Earlier this year, I tried to pull some hook looking thing out of the ground out in the field. Dug 4 massive holes with the AC. Later found out this thing was actually an anchor point for a telephone pole that is no longer there. It had just been beaten down flat to the ground. Big auger bit thing screwed in a few feet. I found that out after I couldn't get it to budge with a Massey Ferguson.

Still, I had 4 wheel traction on flat surface. Now on uneven surface, I will argue all day about the 3 wheel thing being FACT.

 

489s come on anything with smaller than 25" tires on a Polaris. I think the Sport bikes have different fronts, but other than that, I BELIEVE the above statement is true.

 

Which begs the question... Why do they put the trackers on their flagship model???

 

We did try tieing a 2000 model 500 Cat and a 2000 model Honda 450 ES to a tree. The Cat made 4 even holes. The Honda made 3 holes, didn't even spin the 4th tire, (flat ground). Then we tried tieing them to a truck, same results. Flat even ground both times.