Jeff made me do it. Anyways, for those of you that don't know, the Polaris Sportsmans have shocks and a sway bar. The sway bar adds side-to-side stability and extra dampening on the suspension. If you disconnect the sway bar, you have your shocks working the suspension and you get longer travel on the suspension.

So, like long-travel rock crawling trucks, you can get similar travel on the Polaris Sportsman and other machines. The kit replaces the link on one side of the machine and has quick-disconnects so that you can put it back to normal for faster riding. This setup without the sway bar connected is made for slower, techinical riding, not for fast +30 mph hauling ***.

I will be taking it out tomorrow to test some. Accorinding to Jeff and others, its a great setup. If it doesn't work well, I'll just give Jeff some $hit...just kidding, great guy with plenty of idea's and info.

disconnect pic 1

disconnect pic 2

disconnect pic 3

dave

 

I got one and trust me you will love it for crawling around.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

added some more pics from the side with tire off....

side disconnect 4

side disconnect 5

side disconnect 6

SPORTSMAN70003, I saw your pics, Jeff led me to them....i'm sure i'll like it, thanks for the info to you and jeff....makes the best ATV better...

dave

 

Do you have a pic with it actually disconnected? I would like to see what it looks like taken apart. Thanks

 

Thanks Dave. Nice pics. I look forward to your official ride report.

Have Fun.

 

I'll have to snap some pics with it off, but here is some on/off in work, not my pics:

in action

 

You will love having it disconnected ... once you get use to riding with it off, you will never hook it back up.

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Well...here is my opinion. I think on the '05 machines, with their new suspension, its not as much a benefit as it is with the earlier machines. I rode an extremely rough and technical section today, one with the swar bar connected, the other with it disconnected. My observation is that if you are moving slow, it works better with it disconnected....if you are still moving quick, more than 5-10 mph, then it works better with it connected.

On steep rough climbs, it works better with it disconnected. I also brought along a wrench to change the spring tension...it works better with the springs alittle stiffer on the rear than it does when they are soft. What I found when moving quicker, above 5 mph, is that it wants to dive the rear end in ruts and actually makes you tilt more than with it connected. On the slow climbs, it would put a tire on the ground, but what I noticed is that the rear end was softer and in certain circumstances it did not work as well as when having it connected.

I did take some pics, but not many. I'll do more testing in the future. One other thing, its a pain in the *** to put back on when on the trail....you can put the upper part back on easy and put the pin through, but then you can't get the rod compressed down enough to get the pin through on the lower part....if you put the lower part on first, you can't twist enough on the upper to get the 'square' lined up to push on....May be easier to put on by getting the left wheel up on a rock and compress the suspension on that side some...

dave

 

tips for getting in on when out on the trial...

1. Find the most level ground you can ... the rear must must side to side level.
2. Put the lower part on first but don't place the pin in.
3. Slide the upper part back on ... but the upper shaft must be CLEAN, any little amount of dirt will make it very hard to slide.
4. If still hard, you may have to much weight on the rear end.

I agree it will fell softer ... but my goal was to keep all four tires on the ground as much as possible.

If you do alittle test in the garage you can see my goal.

1. connected : jack up one rear tire with a rider on the machine, until the other rear tire comes off the ground. Then record the height of the jacked up tire.
2. disconnected: do the same as one

then compare the difference ... on the 04.5 it was nearly a 4 1/2" difference or the 04.5 will bottom out at the same time high side runs out of travel.

I would love to know the difference in the 04.5 to the 05.

 

Thanks for the test info Dave.