I see a bunch of posts about slipping belts and burning up belts. I see people not wanting to go with Polaris because of this problem. I Have never had a belt slip or burn up. I have had a 93 350L 4x4 and a 350L 6x6 since fall of 92. I have beat the living hell out of these machines and run them through rivers and mud for days at a time. They both still have the original belts. I have never had a single problem with them ever. I have had to replace a couple of speedo's because of rollovers (not by me) but that is it. I recently got rid of the 6x6 and traded it in on a scrambler. I see Polaris taking a lot of hits for reliability and I just wanted to show that they do make a very reliable machine. My father will be adding one more Polaris to the family this week, a new Sportsman 500 HO in yellow. We will have 4 Polaris's altogether. I have relatives that ride other brands and I personaly love Honda and Suzuki motorcycles and have owned quite a few but Polaris is definetly at the top of my list for the best quads on the market.

 

Colorado

I'm with you on the slipping belts issue. I have really abused my atv over the last 3 years and have not slipped the belt at all except for a few times that I tried to make a waverunner out of it . I have not had any major problems with the machines either. Just the minor problems like brake pads wearing out early. I am convinced that if you do your maintenance and take care of the atv's, the Polaris's will provide years of reliable service.

 

Agree. My Trail Blazer, along with the Scramblers, have the worst water profing of the Polaris quads. And I still have not had my belt slip. I have been in water almost up to the seat. Very impressed.

 

I have had nightmare run ins with mud getting into my clutching on my Kodiak, never on my Sport.

 

I was just talking to my dealer this morning about the belt problems. He said the belts burn up or melt when towing heavy loads or running in deep mud while in high gear. If you ride these conditions in low range the belt will last for years. As for the water problem.....He said "Ive never had water get into mine". Polaris changed the vent tube on the belt cover from the front to the side and also changed the wheel well design to direct water away from the clutch cover. I came across this info because I purchaced a 2000 expedition because I heard all this bad stuff on the belt drive system. For 2001 polaris has made many improvments over the 2000 model. So many I may just sell my expedition and buy that new Remington magnum 325 limited edition thats sitting on the showroom floor.

 

2001 has life time limited warranty on the belt.CM

 

It seems to me that alot of the Polaris bashing related to reeliabilty comes from people that have never owned one. I know there have been some guys in this forum that have had problems with their Polaris's but you see that in all the forums about all the bikes.

As far as the belt goes, when used properly, the belts will not slip and will last a long time. I have heard them referred to a rubber bands, but you see the rubberbands do fine in pulling contest where the owners know to put the bike in low.

Maybe, Polaris dominates the industry and the only way for other barnds to compete is to bash and hope something on the Polaris will break.

Greg

 

Belt question--I was telling a friend of mine (who does not have internet access) that I saw a post(s) on one forum (I can't find it now) about a "double cogged" belt or something like this. Cogs on both sides, maybe? The posts said something about it staying cool better, or being stronger.
Does anyone know anything about this or something like it?

Also, I have seen posts about the Polaris brand belts, Dayco, etc. Is one brand of belt better for different uses? Any brand or materials/componets in the composition of a better belt is appreciated.

PS-Nice rodeo out there COLORADO.

 

The idea behind the double cogged belt is to give more suface area and keep the air moving around the belt, thus keeping it cooler and giving it longer life.
I haven't had a bit of trouble with my belt even with the horspower that I'm producing, but I'm not abusing it.

 

Hi!

The continuous variation transmission is a reliable system. They're used in cars also - my Nissan Micra (it's a small car, not available in the US) has one - it doesn't have the simplicity of the Polaris transmission (the clutching is not done by the belt itself, but by a separate electro-mechanical clutch), but it's the exact same principle. My Micra only has 75hp, but the Primera (also a Nissan) has one with the 136hp engine, and it's very reliable.

And the design of the PVT is a engineering work of art, with a system that is so simple, and at the same time so effective.

Pedro Pinheiro