I have an 03 Sportsman500HO that has a cracked upper transmission mount and stabilizer bar mount. Has anyone else had chassis cracking problems with Sportsmans?

 

I have had 3 Polaris quads and all three have had cracked frames. Two of them cracked at the front right part of the frame right at the bar that goes up for the muffler mount. The other cracked on the left rear section where the brace is welded up toward the battery.

 

Ive never heard of frames cracking. what were you guys doing when it happened? just curious

 

You two must do a lot of rock crawling because I have NEVER seen this problem...

 

I would think more like jumping! when pigs fly...

 

I have an '03 500 SP and the right/front, upper strut mount just about busted right off the frame. It broke up the rear side of the mount and right across the top. When I removed the front rack and the metal mounting bracket for the rack (in preparation for a valve adjustment), I heard a rather loud "boing !!" noise from the right front corner. Upon looking under the fender, I was quite suprised to see the top of the strut shifted about two inches forward. It seems the metal mounting bracket for the front rack was the only thing holding the strut in place. It looked really bad, but it only took a welder I know about five minutes with a mig to make it better than new. I'm sure glad it didn't break right off miles back in the bush. Oh, and by the way, this quad has never been jumped. Further investigation leads me to believe it was a manufacturing defect. The left strut mount on my quad is welded all the way around, but on the approx. 3" rear side of the right mount, there was only about 3/4" of weld towards the top of the mount. About 2" was missed.

 

I don't jump my quads either. The frames on Polaris quads are made of mild square tubing. Most of the joints are welded on two side or just tack welded. That is why they use square tubing so they can hide the unwelded sides. The frames are weak and heavy. I have now reinforced my quad frames and made some custom parts. I am currently working on new floor boards to replace the plastic junk they come with.

 

All quad frames are made of mild steel tubing, be it square or round

 

The frames on other makes of quads are made from higher tensile strength steel as a guess. Also when you bend square tubing to shape a frame the metal skews and becomes real thin on the other edge of the bend. Look at the frame on your Polaris at a bend point. You can see how the shape has been indented on the outer edge of the bends. Round tubing is much easier to bend without skewing. There are differences in how metal is manufactured. Cold rolled steel is weaker and cheaper to make. The hot rolled steel is stronger and has a much higher tensile strength. I bet Polaris frames are cold rolled steel. I have heard of other makes of quads cracking frames as well but it is usually a sport quad that is being raced and beat on pretty good.

 

of the 10 or so Sportsmans i've owned over the years, i have yet to see a crack in my frame.

Hairback357 that makes sence. i'm not a metal bending kinda guy but i think continuous improvement is a good thing. you should email Polaris with that info. i'm all for more strength and lighter weights!

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