New member. Looking at a 2014 Polaris Sportsman 800
 

Hey, how's it going?

I'm a new member looking to get some advice before I go to check out a '14 Sportsman 800. I wanted to get input from you guys that have experience with Polaris machines. I've been riding my whole life, dirt bikes and atvs... Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, but never Polaris. I'm looking for advice on what I should be looking for, any common issues, really any general advice. I couldn't find many reviews of the Sportsman 800 online, so and general reviews on quality/reliability would be great too.

A little info on the machine.

-2014 800 EFI
-640 miles, 77hrs.
-Winch
-Asking price is $5500

Couple add ons: (nothing major)
-Aftermarket wheels with Maxxis tires
-Front and rear brush bumpers
-LED lights

Probably going to see it in the next couple days. I'll make sure to check out all the basics... Fluids, front end, tires, suspension etc. Plus anything else you guys recommend.

Thanks for any advice on advance!

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Hey sorry if im too late and you already bought it.

Polaris is a solid brand and that has fairly low hours so thats good. I havent herd anything bad about these. The only thing that can go bad after a while is the drive belt but since this is a newer machine it should be fine for quite a while yet. Make sure you take it for a test ride, the typical, and test the brakes, turning, acceleration, etc. Ask the guy questions about how often fluids and things where changed. So besides the normal things you do when testing a quad, theres nothing else I can really thing of. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply!

I did wind up buying it two days ago. I did a thorough check of it before I pulled the trigger, it seems very solid. The kid that was selling it bought it 3yrs ago from the original owner and has only ridden it a few times in the past 3yrs. He said it's mostly been sitting. It's very clean, no damage, the underside is spotless.

Since he said it's sat a lot I figured I'd do a full service. I did an oil and tranny fluid change, front diff service, and an alignment (the best I could in my driveway) today. It runs great, hopefully it winds up being a good buy!

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I've had several Polaris ATVs and I had a problem with my 1997 Sportsman 500. One of the rear A-arms broke. It turned out it had a bad grease zerk and one of the bearings never got any grease. No grease from day one I guess, and the end of the arm eventually snapped. The left rear corner dropped down and I skidded to a stop. No other damage except a scraped up inner rim of the wheel, and nothing happened to me. I don't expect Polaris to inspect every grease zerk they buy so it's hard to blame them for it. That bad grease zerk could have been sold to anyone. It's just my luck it ended up on my ATV and not on somebody's car, motorcycle, tractor, or a different ATV, etc.

As far as the 800 goes, my friend's brother-in-law bought a Polaris dealership and one of the first ATVs he hit the trails with was an 800. He was impressed with the power and after the test ride he took it home instead of selling it. Then he put his Grizzly 660 in the store and sold it. He really liked the Grizzly but he liked the Sportsman 800 even more. That's about the extent of my knowledge about the 800.