Hello
I currently own a Yamaha Warrior, I plan on selling it to a freind and replacing it with another sport ATV. I will be trail riding in Minnesota and I go on sand duning trips once a year down to little sahara Oklahoma. I plan on hitting the dunes in Michigan and Idaho someday soon also. I've limited my search down to the Yamaha Raptor, Honda 450R, and the Preditor. I've owned machines from Yamaha, Honda and Polaris before. I and people I ride with have had poor luck when it comes to Polaris machines. I was on a riding trip this fall with 15 other riders and the only machine that broke was the only polaris in the group, a Sportsman 700. On another trip I was riding in the Gillbert riding park and there were two different Sportsman broken down in the parking lot with cooling problems. On another trip we were stuck in a swamp and the 4x4 broke on a xplorer, a Polaris mechanic who was riding with us had to rewire it in the swamp so the 4x4 would work, but you had to hold down the reverse overide to make it work. Another time up in the Gillbert offroad park I saw a guy litterly rip his handle bars off trying to unstick a Scrambler. I know polaris 4x4s are junk, but I've had okay luck with my Polaris sleds. They don't brake down more then anyother type of sled I guess. Have people had a lot of bad luck with Preditors, I don't think Polaris did too well with their manualy shifted expedition line, since they don't make them anymore. I hear that the motors are made by Fuji but that can be a deceptive statement because someone told me that Fuji owns the Polaris engine factory in Wisconsin, I don't know if thats true or not. So in theory all Polaris engines could be fuji engines its just some are more fuji then others.
My Polaris dealer is a really cool guy and I want to give him more business other then just parts for my sled, and I haven't found a Honda or Yamaha dealer in the twin cities who arn't jerks.
I guess my question is , are Preditors as mechanically reliable as a 450R or Raptor?

 

WOH!! Thats a pretty bold statement. Just because you have seen a few Polaris machines break down, doesnt mean that they are all "junk". There are hundreds of thousands like myself that have had very good luck with their Polaris's and couldnt be happier.

With that said, I will clear another thing up. Fuji makes most of the motors for the Polaris ATV's, all except the 600 and 700 twin motors, which Polaris builds themselves. And some of the 400 motors were built by an american company Robin. Fuji builds some great motors, just look at the 500 HO motor!.

Now, onto the Predator. It had its fair share of problems in 03, but what first year machine doesnt? Polairs has taken the known problems and fixed them for 04. The new 04 Pred is a great machine. Polaris is known for standing behind their products as well, more than you can say about other brands

And Welcome to the forums!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Sorry to hear about the bad luck with Polaris, I have had them all of my life, and have had little trouble. The trouble I have had, I could understand because of the beating the machine had taken. I am very happy with my PredAtor, and it is an excellent trail machine. If you get an 04 , you shouldn't have any problems. The 03's have had a few problems, some have and some have not. I was lucky and didn't, but I know Hozed had a hard machine to get along with. Anyways, it is an excellent machine, and if you get an 04 you will be pleased.