I'd like to here some opinions on the engine braking system on the 500HO.
I have an 04 1/2 and am on the fence as to if i like the engine braking or not.
I ride in the snow and i guess it's the same if it was in the mud. If i let off the throttle while coming down a steep grade the wheels tend to lock up and slide. I spend alot of time hitting the gas to keep the wheels rolling when it might be easier and quiter to just use the hand brake while creeping down a hillside.
Can the EBS be diabled? It does have it's place like at high speed. i rarely use the brakes at all. But at times i'd like to not have it.
I'd like to here what others think.
Thanks

 

yes steep grades suck because the polaris awd system doesnt include the front wheels in EBS

 

Just don't let fully off the throttle when decending steep hills.
Kinda like not using WOT to get the bike moving, but a little finer on the loud lever.
The only way I can think of to make the ebs less agressive would be to clutch the engine to run at a lower rpm for a given speed.
Would likely reduce aceleration too, therfore not to popular an idea.
4 strokes naturally have good compression braking and couple that with a trans that back shifts to Low gear automatically and you get a quad that slows quickly.
To bad polaris does'nt figure out some way to make their front hubs engage under ebs too. As it stands now as long a the front tire is turning faster than the rear the front stays disengaged. Its a great 4wd system but it has this one drawback.
Some posts talk about tricking it into 4wd but I'm not sure how that could be done reliably

 

As far as disableing the EBS system, it's main part is a small racthet pully on the drive pully. The racthet pully is only in contact with the belt when the drive pully is fully open (no power applied). I would think you could modify the small inner racthet pully or just bye a drive pully from a non-ebs wheeler. I guess you could just slip it into neutal when you are going downhill.

 

you could take the part out maybe, but why not just keep a little presure on the throttle and it keeps the ebs disengauged. i liked mine on my 02, but i could control it w/ the throttle if i didnt want it to work

 

The one way sprag in the clutch only makes a difference once the engine drops to an idle and the clutch not longer sqeezes the belt. This only prevents the belt from freewheeling through the clutch. As soon as the clutch closes it lift the belt off the sprag. Removing it would not make much difference IMHO.
Ken

 

Looks like i'll continue giving it a little throttle on the down hill grades. Thanks everyone, i was unaware that the EBS didn't work on the front tires.
I checked out your pictures there,beyondupnorth, Cool stuff, how do you handle a tire like that in the woods.
Did that hammer your trailer?

 

Try this-Just befor starting down the hill,stop put it into reverse and hold the reverse override button back up enough to lock in the front wheels,stop and put into low and with out touching the throttle start decending down the hilland you will have 4 wheel engine braking,it helps out with the steep sloppery hills, However, i dont know if this is health for the drivetrain or not

 

We have a boom made that hooks on the skidder blade and we used that to load and a Barko to unload when we got back to the road.
Trailers fine, but you would not want to drop it on there. I built it with this in mind
Would not recomend this for decending grades over say 20% (at least without trailer brakes, almost put them on there too)
Surprisingly though the ebs is even strong enough for a load like this up to the grades I mentioned.
No wonder the wheels skid when decending 30% + grades on a empty bike
Seasons Greetings
Ken

 

Rskiing
So thats how its done, makes sense now. Don't see how it can hurt anything.

It would be no different then when 4wd engages because the rear wheels spun a little while backing up.
Actually my 96 does this sometimes when you back a just a few feet then go forward. The steering gets heavy because the hubs enguage in the reverse direction (usually because I spun the back wheels alittle while reversing but did not continue backing up far enough for them to disengage) Then once you go forward the hubs can't release because the front axels are geared to turn slower than the front wheels. As long the the wheel rpm is above the axel rpm the hub stay out. (normal condition) But in this situation the hubs are lock therefore the rear wheels are locked to the front, but the rear are driving more distance on the ground then the front. So the front wheel have to slide on the ground a little and the steering feels very heavy. And reversing again is the only way to get it to unlock again.

Sorry for the long windedness, Maybe someone else can explain it better.