Do you own both? I'll take the word of someone who both owns and rides both over techno babble.

Originally posted by: upnort
Might also try looking at the Grizz.

I personally preferred the SP over the outty because:

1. I like the way the shifter is laid out better. I use mine to plow with and to pull trees for firewood. I can go from R-L without having to pass through other gears or snake it around the nubs. For this reason the weight is also a +.

2. I found the ride of the sportsman to be smoother not as bumpy. The bomb seems alot more bumpy. Again maybe the weight helps, more sprung weight.

3. I found the sp AWD got traction better. Last spring was pulling a log with my gf (now wife) outty. Had 2 rear tires in about 2-3" water over ice coming out of a swamp. RF was in snow, LF was on nice solid ground. Had the rears & RF spinning and the LF that was on solid ground did not turn or pull a bit. I had to grab the front bumper and nudge it to finally get it going. Up til that point I was considering an outty.

I am not saying the outy is a bad machine by any means but it was just not for me.
On the other hand I do think SP has some reliability/workmanship issues to work on. Although it is touted as a mudder the rad sure likes to get packed full & overheat pretty easy.

Originally posted by: BryceGTX
Its interesting to see the one bad point about Polaris 4WD system. Lets see what all the fuss is about.

1) The Polaris system allows both front tires to turn at a faster rate when the quad turns a corner. The BRP has at least one of the two front tires and often times both front tires slipping in the turn because the front is locked to the rear end. Remember.. no center diff. So every time a BRP turns a corner in 4WD it is slipping its tires.

2) When the BRP becomes stuck, its famous visco-lock becomes 3 wheel drive until it finally engages. Interesting concept. The Polaris system engages in 1/12 of a wheel revolution. Hmm.. more of that tire slipping stuff.

3) When any quad is on any surface, its tires are slipping. On low traction surface, we get more acceleration when our wheels slip slightly. Now when the BRP system slips in 4WD, all tires may (or 3) may slip including your front steering wheels. Kinda hard to steer when all tires are slipping. When the Polaris system slips, we get maximum torque transfer to the rear tires by allowing them to slip first. And the fronts will only slip (preserving our steering) till the rears have provided considerably more acceleration torque and the fronts have reached their normal limit of traction.

4) When driving down a very slippery muddy or snow/ice covered hill, the BRP goes into a 4 wheel skid because of 4 wheel braking. This is the scariest situation to be in in a 4wd vehicle. The Polaris will never go into a 4 wheel slid in this situation because the front tires will free wheel, so you can always steer yourself to safety.

The Polaris system is very unique and has a performance advantage in most any instance of comparison. The Scrambler makes use of this advantage to often destroy Utes and sports quads in the twisties. Its advantage comes from the fact that it can provide maximum transfer of power to the rear wheels around the corners by spinning them like a sports quad with the added benefit of providing additional torque to the front tires. And unlike the BRP Ute, it does not force its front STEERING tires to loose traction in the corner.

So yeh.. I agree with mrtwostroke.. the Polaris system beats the BRP system hands down..
Bryce