next time buy an arctic cat. 10 inches of suspension travel, 13 inches of ground clearance, no sway bar so theres more absorption of the bumps. i used to ride my wifes parents polaris 500s on the trails and they ride like ****. i bought an 06 ac 650 v2 and ive never rode anything this comfortable. easy to adjust the suspension for a softer or harder ride too.

 

yea and hope the engine holds up and doesnt start smoking like a guy i know who has one.

 

RticKwad - My 500 X2 had the same problem with the rear suspension. I found that the bolts on the rear A-arm pivot points were way too tight and wouldn't allow the suspension to move. I loosened them all off and re-torqued the bottom a-arm bolts to 30ft-lbs and the upper arms to 35ft-lbs. (according to service manual). It rides nice and cushy now like a Polaris is supposed too.
Our 450 has the nicest suspension I have ever felt. I am very impressed with how well it performes in rough terrain. Don't unhook your sway bar unless your only doing slow driving in very rough terrain...like rock crawling. You will have to much body roll while cornering and it won't be any fun at higher speeds.

 

All good tips you'all thanks everybody. I will definately check
those things out Milkmanz, thanks for info.

R'

 

We have 2 06 500 EFI machines and they both ride nice. I did notice that when I changed the tires to the kenda bounty hunters that the ride and handling improved dramatically better. I also run my tire pressure about 1 pound less than recomended. ACPOWER, the Artic Cats are nice machines and ride ok, but every one that i have been on plows with the front end in corners and at high speeds corners are really dangerous with one front tire coming off the ground depending on wich direction you are turning. In my opinion you can't beat the ride and handling of the Polaris.

 

RticKwad, I'm not as famaliar with the handling on the 400's and smaller machines, but most of the 500 and larger Sportsman's I've ridden and dealt with are usually on the soft side on the front suspension for a person of your weight and the type of riding conditions you described, especially if you're riding fast (ie.20+MPH in rough choppy type terrain). Usually the rear is set in the softest setting from the factory and can be adjusted up to suit most riders needs. Be cautioned that adjusting the rear up stiffer without first stiffening up the front will compound the rough ride and increase the potential for the front to bottom out and beat you to death. My only mod to my 700efi so far has been front springs. (currently testing between EPI heay duty and Polaris MV7 springs to see which I like better. EPI's much better than stock. Haven't got the MV7's yet, on order. Will report on same hopefully in the next couple of weeks). Tire pressures also can make a world of difference. I've found about the the only way to deal with this is trial and era. I started out at 4PSI with the stock PRT radials on the 700 and now I am running about 6-7PSI in the fronts and 5-6PSI in the rears with better results. I was beating up my rims more at the lower pressures in the rocks and even suffered 1 pinch flat in a sidewall due to this. The radials hold well even with the increased pressures due to their design and rubber compound (soft). If you have biased ply or heavier ply tires you may actually need to decrease pressure to help your ride. Stiffer springs or spacer's are your choices for the front as it has no adjustment. Most people that have done the spacers have not been happy and usually go with springs later. In my experiences the springs have been money well spent. Hope this helps.

 

Speedy63 what ply are those Kenda bounty hunters? From other posts
on different threads I hear the Mudlites are really good. If you know anything about
them how do they compare to those Kenda's?

Fireslayer thanks for all the good info., everybody keep it coming.
Lost thread I started yet! All good things for me to check from
Tires to Tire pressure, Shock settings, Hop up Shocks to Different
PSI level experiments. Is shock weight any factor at all, do different
people use different shock oil? Cool!

Thanks everybody!

R'

 

Oopps, replace "Lost thread" with "Longest thread.." above

 

they are 4 ply but have with standed lots of abuse from sharp rocks and some really rough trails. I have about 800 miles on them and they don't show much wear at all. The real story is that the day that we picked up our quads, I brought the tires home and put them on mine and the wife decided that she wanted to test them ( I hadn't even rode it yet) and she came back and said to call the dealer that she wanted a set too as they rode and handled so much better than the stock PVT's that she had on hers. I do hope that you get your problem figured out as I think that the Polaris is a great quad and the best ride that you can get, Beleive me i tried them all as I had part of my spline removed ( work related) and the dr said not to ever get on a quad again, but I have been on my sportsman after the first 6 weeks and have not had a problem.

 

Thanks Speedy63 for the info, hope your recovery and ride further continue.
I think I will investigate all these issues, if it comes down to replacing all my
tires, I can still stick it out until I get extra cash and/or wear down my existing
tires, so Yes its something I can live with. BTW, I still really like my Quad
for all the readers, I am a true Polaris fan thats why a month ago I went
out and bought my wife one too...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Alot is probably my 350 lb weight
added to something going on mentioned in this whole thread. Funny though
my cousins 800 is a much smoother ride but a completly different Quad
altogether.

Where did you buy those Bounty Hunter tire sets? Online?
If so could you provide the URL for future reference?

Thanks,

R'