There is a thread going about how flimsy the new Outlander 800 is. There are way too many inconsistencies in the story, and a straight out attack on the Outlander frame design. I think it is B.S.
I rode the 800 and thought it was awesome.

As far as the fliimsy frame goes....
About two months ago I took a red Outlander 400 Max on a ride with the guys. We were way out in the Gila National Forest, trying to find a trail that would connect point A to Point B and GPS it. We got on a single track trail on a very steep sidehill. We got accross the steep section okay, but couldn't get very far because of fallen trees blocking the trail. So we turned around. At this point, only my son on a King Quad had followed me. Everyone else was waiting back before the steep part.

As I had made it accross the first time fairly easily I wasn't too concerned going back....oops
My uphill front tire hit a little rock, and ever so slowly the quad started to peel over and start to roll.
No fault of the quad, definetly pilot error. My son criticized me for not walking the bike back accross as he had done. At the very least I should have had all my weight on the uphill side, not just my butt.

This is the first and only time I have ever had an "incident" on a quad. My son has had many. His philosophy is "If it starts to go, get the hell off!" With that in mind, I bailed off the back, like a highjumper, going backwards and upside down over the backseat rest. It was too late to get off uphill.

I saw this big rock coming right at my face. Even though I was only going a couple of miles an hour, I hit that rock head, face first, about 15 mph, with the full force of my body weight behind it. I love my full coverage helmet, which made a mild carress out of what could have been a life threatening injury in the middle of nowhere.

I sat up and took my beautiful helmet off,,,,and watched the show. I saw it all, and so did the rest of the guys as the Outlander rolled, and rolled, and flipped and spun and piroueted like snoopy dancing down the canyon, bouncing off of ponderosa pine trees as it went. Bounce, spin, roll, twist. It lasted forever, I wish I had a video of it.

It left a yard sale of red broken plastic, and cooler ingrediants all the way down the hill. I thought "Holy Sh!+!" it is going to take 3 weeks to get this thing out of here....It must be totalled.

We walked/climbed down to the Red Max, which had stopped just short of another steep section about 200 feet below the trail. It was lying upside down. The first thing I noticed was that the wheels and tires and chassis all looked straight!

One of the guys had a big roll of "mule tape" for pulling electric. We flipped the bike over and tied off the uphill side to a tree 30 feet uphill. We started the Max right up. There were pine needles jammed in between the rims and tires where the Max had bounced on its way down. We put it in low range, walking along side with it slung from tree to tree to keep it from rolling away from us. We had it back to the trail in less than an hour! Fortunately there were 6 guys to get it back, and a natural sort of ledge we traversed back to intersect the trail.

Though the Max looked like hell, we straightened the handlebars best we could and I attempted to ride it, as we were a long way out in the woods. Well, hell, it rode just fine!! No twitchy, no funny pull to the steering, nothin'! I was doing full powerslides on the Forest Service dirt road back to the trucks! We decided the day was not lost and kept riding! The topper is, we took the Max out the next weekend, flapping broken plastic and all, 'cause we needed an extra ride!

Repairs to the Max cost about $800, mostly plastic and bending stuff back....The Outlander frame design is awesome... All the impacts were absorbed by the outer plastic and supports. There was no damage to A-arms or brackets or any vital components. The SST design is brilliant. A conventional ladder tube frame would have been bent into a pretzel. A similar "incident" to a Polaris cost $3500 to repair, including new frame and most major suspension components.

This is no B.S. This quad is now repaired, and I think I have it sold.
It brings new meaning to the term "Demo".

 

bump

 

Thanks for the post, I have always felt that bombardier makes a competetive product. I have had two accidents with my DS that I was able to drive away from when I should not have been able too? It is unfornuate when some guy makes a post as he did concerning the new 800. I have owned many 3 -4 wheelers in the past and this one from Canada has never been a disappointment. I am not brand loyal and at this time very intrested in the new raptor 700 ( 686 ). I hope tons of people will see your post, especially the helment part- glad you are ok.

 

You forget though, that 40lbs on the 800 makes ALL the difference according to the num nut who posted about how flimsy the 800 is. I crashed my Outlander in a pretty nasty roll over, I thought for sure it was totaled, straightened out the handlebars and rode the rest of the day. The quad faired better then I did though.

My buddy crashed my DS, he was going down a trail hit a jump wrong, flipped the quad, it went over/through a couple of small douglas fir pines, rolled down the trail about 20 ft, landed upside down and the only damage was a broken seat latch I KID YOU NOT. Oh, one of the front lights is out but that may or may not be from the crash.

Just an FYI, DON'T put 7PSI in your tires LOL

 

In April I got hit by a Sandrail (my left rear tire). Pretty scarry, I was out cold and don't remember much from when I first saw him coming at me to when I got back to camp. . . Sandrail right front A-arms were busted up. . . my left rear rim was bent in a little.

That's right. . . sandrail vs. DS . . . guess who won!!! (I didn't. . . ouch that hurt!)

My buddies said I flew a good 12' in the air. All the insides of my helmet came unglued and there is a nice dent inside on the foam. Visor is munched. I've kept it just to remind me (but, mostly others since I always have mine on) to keep their helmets on.

The DS lost the bead in back and one of the front tires got sand in the bead so, had a slow leak. Not bad for getting hit by a sandrail and flipping over.

I feel very lucky, could have gone very differently.

I know, lucky. . . I got hit by a sandrail and I'm lucky. . . seems a bit off doesn't it!