Well,for the 2nd time my front brake line broke!!
It is braking at the splitter box at the flare fitting.Now i have broken both sides. luckly I was able to reflare it both times and save the day but, it pissed me off.After Talking to my dealer we compared it to the 03 pred which he said had no problems like this. I saw the problem Frist it's the brake line loom that is on the upper a arm.It is bolted on the 04 preds and just snapped on the 03s.The snap on 03s seem to move about with the movement of the a arms.The 04s loom dosen't move.the loom not being able to move causes the line to pull and push on the splitter box ,which makes it brake.My loom was cracked at that end just as if it was under some kinda pull.More then lickly it was caused by jumping it but, it's NOT SAFE.The polaris dealer said that they would call polaris and tell them of the problem.
The next things are just things I gripe about;
1- The thumb throttle:WHY PLASTIC ( I broke those things on my scrammy and now on the pred)Thank HPD for aluminum
2- The frame paint just sucks!! it falls right off;It's chipped all up and I'am always out front!how is that.
3-Those dumb *** side panels;Boy they hurt my legs and knees.
4-The Foot brake; very hard to find because it goes over the foot peg and keeps your foot out on the peg which causes you to miss the toe pad(learned to step on the top)
5-the shifter is to high and has a boss spline,so you can't change it's hight.(hpd has a fix)
6- The overflow tank;the cap is facing forward and has a hole in it,this makes it leak more(I know it needs the hole but, the cap should be straight up like the scrammy.
7- NO GREASE FITTING ON THE SWING ARM AND BALL JOINTS!! WHY IS THAT!!The swing arm needs to be greased every 25 hours and ball joints wear faster without grease. that means TAKE THE WHOLE THING APART!!
8- JUST A LACK OF ZIP TIES;WIRES HANGING OUT RUBBING OFF THE CRAPPY PAINT.
9- THE body Plastics; they still brake to easy
DOn't get me wrong the Predator is the best ATV I have ever owned but, it think that if Polaris would have picked out some younger more aggresive rides for there test crew they would have found out more of these little problems.After all only one rider was under 20 and the rest were older then 30 most were in there 40s.COME ON NOW DO YOU REALLY THINK A 40 YEAR OLD GUY IS GOING TO FIND THE FLAWS.
They did change some things like the shocks, the frame and the tranny but, all would have had to be dealt with weather they had a test crew or not.
Just my thoughts and I'am sorry if any of you were part of the test crew,I just think they should have taken me.
WHAT ARE ALL OF YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS
MATT @ Team Bricktucky

 

quite a list.... and you can move the shifter up and down.. i did it on mine the day i bought it...
and as far as the coolant cap.... ive never really had mine leak... if it does.. that means you have way to much coolant in it...

as far as grease fittings... look at any other models... most of them dont have grease fittings for them.. let alone anywhere else...

 

Many other quads don't have grease zerks so don't worry about it.

 

Don't let age fool you. The chosen contestants of the Predator Test Crew weekend put the machines through some very demanding paces. They were tasked with a very busy schedule of machine, and equipment evaluations. They shared many constructive debate sessions with the engineering and production staff. A couple of them were current GNCC competitors, and some had some Baja experience. The second day had a couple of sessions which turned out to be the equivalent of mini GNCC's....in other words, the test gear wasn't babied. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Sounds like you just need to get some seat time to become acclimated with some of the ergos. If the 03 brakeline sleeves work better than the 04's, maybe just suggest to the dealer, you'd like those installed...simple enough.

As for the plastic throttle, you've got it right about replacing it with the billet HPD unit. Looking at it from the manufacturing cost angle, that would be just a bit spendy to install that unit on every machine....would be nice though. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

It's been so long since I have seen my TLD Predator I forget what it looks like.

4th gear went in September took it to the dealer ship and its still there today.

It's been apart 3-4 times now and sounds like its going to grenade on test drives, its now waiting for 04 tranny parts.

 

Polaris had a great first year with the Pred....now all the dealers around me have lots of 03's left over and can't move. They have not ordered any 04's yet. My buddy has one for sale, not having good luck either. I hope this machine does not turn into a one-hit-wonder!

03 black and red Raptor
PRM Desert Grab Bar
IMS direct shifter

 

Man!! sounds like you could tear up a dozer. Are you jumping off a cliff.

 

Sorry for the griping but, i found most of these Problems with in a mounth of owning it. Don't You all THink that they should have found some of these things with the test crew?You have made them seem alittle better modquad,But, I think us real world riders would have had more to say.Mybe I should have been there or maybe you Modquad or daryl from HPD .He and I have talked about some of these problems and he seems to agree.
As for the cost of manufacturing it wouldn't be that hard to get rid of the hurtful side panels.they wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have the rigges in it.The thumb thottle is aluminum on most ATVs.How much it really cost to add that to the quad at the factory. They changed the Scrammy brakes once,from plastic to pot metal(or alumi--)
All they would have to do is add it to the price of the Atv.I'am sure it would still be less then a raptor or the yfz450.
Well anyway,I still love it and I do ride it hard.It will take the abuse BUT,LIke any other quad it needs more mods!
Some like i have said are dumb and shold be Fixxed by polaris. Like that front brake problem.I already fixed it by cutting back the loom and then making a stand off for the line right on the frame next to the splitter box. that takes the flex off the box fittings and put the flex on the line it self.
Propolaris,I only jump off cliffs if there is a down hill to land on.I do jump it high but, I only jump big if i have a good landing ramp. flat landing jumps I DON"t jump big at all.
One more thing MODQUAD I have had many hours of riding this quad even befor I owned one.What do you mean by writing(You need more seat time to be acclimated with some of the ergos)WHAT do you mean!! your always keeping us guessing.Us pee ons don't understand your words sometimes.
Thanks anyway I always take what you write as Fact and always lok forward to your input.
THANK YOU
MATT @ TEAM BRICKTUCKY

 

Matt, no offense intended. Just thought if you were new to it (didn't know you had other time on the machine) that the feel would grow on you. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

A couple problems with your post. I guarantee you, that me and the friends I ride with that are over 40 would find those flaws and a whole LOT more technical issues with that or any machine than you might think. Come ride with us sometime. We don't let off for anything and we know a lot more about machines than 99% of you young 'uns.

If you are "always out front" but the paint still chipped, what's the issue?