Derek: In as few words as possible, I love it.
I fortunately did no damage to anything. I just needed to move the thing over a few feet & thought I'd just push it & it wouldn't budge. I can see where if I was a 'gun it and go' person, I could have done some damage, especially in 4wd. This is not a Polaris problem, as the Honda was locked up just as solid. Remembering what Sweetcorn said about twisting something in his 4-wd, I looked & the slush had frozen into VERY solid ice. Now to your question.
Yep, I adore my Xplorer. Got close to 3500 miles, and 280 hours logged on it so far with zero problems. I haven't even had to replace the often cursed front steering stem bushing yet. I think it is because I heard how fast they wear and grease it every 5 hours I log. Yes, it is a lot, but I park it within 3 steps of the grease gun, and I only give it a shot or two. In fact, it is just barely starting to come loose. My brother, on the other hand has a 400 Xpress (2wd) with 5000 miles and his is shot. He only greases his like once a month at the most.
The engine has been rock solid, and a strong puller. No complaints there. It's performance is affected more by temperature/weather conditions more than a 4 cycle, but that is hte nature of all 2 cycles. After I had it a year or so I wanted a little more zip, so I went to a white spring in the front clutch, and a Uni filter. The green gives a bigger rush of speed than the white, but less control. For my uses, the white was better. With the green I could wheelie in high range without pulling up on the bars, just by leaning back. I weigh 190 to give you an idea of the leverage I had. The Uni gave me about 2 MPH on top. I do alot of weed spraying, which involves driving from 10 to 100 feet to a patch of weeds, idling for a few minutes, and moving to the next patch. This is probably harder on an ATV than anything else you can do on a hot summer day with no wind. I have personally cooked the top ends on 2 Hondas doing this, and my brother another. That kind of use just builds up way too much heat. We now drive the Honda around to cool it every 10 minutes or so but it still gets HOT! We also change oil every 10 to 20 hours when doing this & it seems to be holding up well. The Xplorer, on the other hand, just cycles the fan every now and again, and has NEVER had the overheat light come on. (word of advice, once the heat light on a Honda comes on, change oil as soon as you can, the oil is likely 'burned' - that is what killed ours, just got the oil hot enough on enough occasions, it turned to slime). The worst thing this prolonged idling ever did was foul the plug. A fast buzz down the trail on the way home (about a mile) usually cleared it up. As a matter of fact, prolonged idling or pulling heavy loads is about the only way the fan will come on any more. When new & tight, it would once in a while, but now if it comes on I am like 'what's that noise?' as it happens so infrequently.
The 4wd works & works wonderfully. I would never have an ATV without selectable 2 to 4wd for my uses again. I also give kudos for the true 4wd. Pulls real well. Friends of ours had a tornado go through their yard (I can e-mail pictures if you want to see) and a bunch of us went to help clean up. My Xplorer would pull every bit as much as a Grizzly would. It was muddy, and the true 4wd really made the difference. Also, the belt will take a lot of pull as long as you don't burn it by holding the throttle open if the wheels aren't turning.
The chain drive has been fairly trouble free. When you adjust it, a little loose is far better than a little tight. Also, you really have to tighten down the bolts that hold the adjuster so it doesn't 'creep' and wind up being loose. This is more of a quirk than a problem, but something to be aware of. If the chain seems to get loose too fast, the pinch bolts aren't tight enough. I am still on the original chain & it will still go a while. I do about any kind of riding except for jumping much over about 2 feet high, and rarely go over mud deeper than the floorboards. No sand in the soil, either. I am very pleased with it's performance (about equal to a Grizzly) and its reliablilty so far. I consicered a Grizzly, but no liquid cooling (scared I might cook it like the Hondas we used to have) and price (almost $1000 less between my 2 closest dealers). I ruled out a Honda because a 300 cost as much as my 400, and an oil cooler for the engine added another $400 to the cost. No dealers for other makes locally at the time.
Sorry this is so long, I went to school too many years and still haven't gotten out of the habit of having to fill 2 pages double spaced lol
If you have any more questions, my fingers still work, or feel free to e-mail me directly. I quit at sunset, so I usually have a good hour to goof off or surf the net before supper. (This may explain my long responses)
Take care.

 

Flood runner, I had heard that they exstended deer hunting this year, are the trails going to open a week later then usual? Also where do you ride your ATVs in the winter? There are a few of us that would like to get a winter ride in.
Thanks Sparke SP 500 Titen 589s

 

We ride in Iron County which is at the top center of WI. Its northern edge borders both the UP and Lake Superior. Trails are open year round for wheelers. Sled trails “officially” open when there’s enough snow to groom. As sledding season waxes and wanes we don’t care if the trails are groomed or not. With an annual average of around 250” of snow, in mid sled season groomed trails are the only ones we’re able to ride. It’s too deep everywhere else.

The Red Light Rally out of Hurley is supposed to be on the 9th (I think). Someone told me that there was going to be some conflict between the sledders for this rally and a late season hunt but I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of it.