How many times have you been out riding and have one of those oh crap moments when you think something is broke and you get ready to get upset over it, only to find it's one of the most simple things that is really not a problem. Those things that make you get worked up over nothing.

Yesterday I found a tree across the trail. I did not have a saw, and it was too big to man handle. So after a little wrestling, we broke it in the middle, and latched a tow rope around it to pull it out of the way. After getting half of it moved, I started to get the other half pulled out of the way. I locked my Sportsman in AWD, and proceeded to pull. When I looked down, only my rear tires were spinning, and the front's just set there motionless. It has only been about two months since I put about 1400.00 getting this machine going again. Most of which was my fault, just to neglect on maintenance. After I started to get upset, I looked down at my AWD switch, everything looked normal where the wires plug in, but I tugged on it to be sure. The harness was just barley pulled out and not making contact. Last week when I put on the hand guards I got for Xmas, I was readjusting them, and must have tugged on the wires a little too much and loosened the plug . When I put it back in, everything work working correctly.


Have you had anything similar happen to you on the trail?

 

haha my dads first time driving my sportsman he was bitching there was no 4x4 in reverse then i told him you have to hit the over ride. he looked embarrassed because he also rides a sportsman and did not no how to use it

 

I think Polaris should be embarrassed and not your dad.

I ran into a guy on the trail one time and I stopped to see if everything was OK and he said sure.

He said that when his Sportsman 500 gets hot and he shuts it off he has to let it sit up to 1/2 hr before it will turn over, like it has a dead battery or something.

I asked why he just didn't use the recoil pull start to start it??

He had that deer in the head light look and told ne he didn't know it had one.

I pointed to it and he was sooo embarrassed that he had never noticed it in the 2 years he had owned it. LOL

Can we say "owners manual"?

 

My old Sportsman died on me and I didn't know what was wrong. I was hoping I wasn't out of gas. It turned out that my keychain hit the top of the gas tank and turned the key off.

 

I had troubles that I attributed to bad gas last fall and put some injector cleaner in and it seemed to help. It was bucking, stalling, and backfiring. Happened again so I was wondering if the battery was going because it wouldn't stay running. Didn't heed the warnings and went for a ride. Stalled repeatedly. With the pull start I was able to get it started and back to the truck. Got a new battery in and it purred like usual. Was out on the trail a few days after Christmas and it started bucking again. I thought maybe there was something more than the battery wrong. Rode it like that about half the day and my buddy suggested seeing if the screws on the terminals were loose. Sure enough, they were. I had been thinking shop time and large amounts of hard earned money and it was just a simple ratcheting job. Couple days after riding I took a look at the terminals and the screws were a little bit loose again. So, this time I put Loctite on the threads and a star washer on each screw. Hopefully this will keep them tight.

 

Took us awhile to figure the same thing out when my son had an ATP.

 

Those are some good ones. I had a buddy today have one of those moments. I bought a 550 about two months ago, and we finally rode together. We were playing with his winch, and he was telling me about buying the cheaper one with no remote. He said it worked good, but it was hard to stretch getting the wire and hitting the button on the handle bar at the same time. That's when I looked down, and showed him where the free spool lock was. Now he can pull the cable out without reaching up to the handle bar. The look on his face was priceless lol.

 

Took my wife's Trail Blazer out to get it warmed up for her. About 100 yards out, it dies. Went on a nice little rant about the cheap fuel they must be using at the gas station I filled up at before we left town.

Walked back to the trailer, took my quad and another person out to the blazer to pull it back. Took one last look at it again.

I had shut the fuel valve off and didn't turn it back on.

 

Yep, son did that a couple times with the ATP.

 

I hit my kill switch by accident one time in the middle of a long deep mud/water hole.

My wife was cussing me out when I finally noticed what I had done.

I don't know why they put kill switches on these things, that's the only time I have ever used mine.