Hi,

I am looking to buy a ATV, and have pretty much made up my mind that I want a sportsman. My friend has a Kawasucki praire 360, and is pretty disapointed with it. He bought it new about 3 months ago, and we stopped at a Polaris/Suzuki/Harley Davidson store and he got educated quite a bit.

He has lost about $2000 in the 3 months of owning it, and is pretty pissed about the whole thing. Cant blame him. Also he has changed the jets 3 times and adjusted the valves twice to get it right, until we went up in the mountains. We live at 5200 ft Elev. and we went to 11,000 Elev in the mountains, needless to say,"it did'nt run to good.

Which is why I want to go with EFI. If I am not mistaken is the only one's that have EFI, are the 500 H.O., 700, and 800 right? What would be the advantages of going with the bigger cc's, other than speed and a little more torque?

I want to get something used, so what should I look for when looking for one? How much hours/milage are they good for until they need rebuilt? I'm a pretty good mechanic with the chevy's but I dont know shicken about cc's type engines.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, the only people to talk to around here are the owners and salesman and they just brag about what they have and really dont give you the straight. Plus its very rural here, so there isnt many people to talk to.

Thanks

 

aFTER OWNING A SCRAMBLER, I test drove an X2 and it felt really sluggish to me. I then test drove a red Sporty 800 and ended up buying it I liked it so much. I would start out test riding the 500 efi and if you are not satisfied with its power, move up until you find the one that best suits you. They all will pretty much do anything you need them to.

 

If you're looking second hand, you might have trouble finding a 500efi .. plus, if it's being sold I'd be ware of the 500's. Chances are the person who owned has had the 1st year troubles and is trying to offload it on someone else. Not always the case, but this machine hasn't been out long enough for someone to get bored with it.

Having said that, I love mine and it hasn't let me down yet, despite having drowned it once. While it does lack a bit in top speed (tops around 55 - 56) it has plenty of low-end.

Noted problems on the 500efi are:

Stalling - can either be a switch adjustment (ETC) or engine control module flash.

Overheating - on the earlier ones, there was a faulty air or temperature sensor.

Melting plastic - on the right side where the AWD sticker is, apparently the exhaust brackets chafe through the insulation, and then melt the plastic, part of the rear fender assembly.

On those issues, I've only ever had the stalling. My dealer said to drop the bike off and they'd adjust the ETC for me. I expect that the problem is more in the engine control, needing to be reflashed, but my dealer doesn't seem inclined to agree. The few times it has stalled, I've just turned the key to restart. Oh .. and it doesn't stall while driving, just when you come to a stop, sometimes.

Good luck on whatever you get .. oh .. and the 700/800's are supposed to be a good bit thirstier than the 500 ...

 

I was in the same place this winter. Running with guys that have big bore quads and have no real experiece on them. I opted for the 700 EFi. It was in the upper middle of the 500-800 popo lineup. It has more grunt than the 500 and is close to the 800 just not quite there. It has great power and will run like the bigget bikes it just not quite as fast off the line and it does not have the same top speed it real close to a stock BF750 in off the line preformance to about 50 mph. It a good in the upper middle choice if you looking at popo. You you want to you can also milk a bit more zoom zoom out of them with the right tweaks. They've been out for 3 years now so all the first year jitters are worked out. It's a good comprimize IMO.

 

Thanks,

I appreciate the input, I did alot of researching last night till 4:00 in the morning. The only contender was the King quad, but after the problems they have been having I dont think I want to go that way. Your right about the 700, and that I think is what I am leaning towards.

I saw some problems about the gravel in the rear end, do you think that could be adjusted like a rear end in a car. Is it a ring and pinion gear? Me and my friend are all gearheads and I think we may be able to figure it out. Doesnt sound like the polaris dealerships want to fess up and help anyone fix problems that I have seen on the net.


Buy this truck for me so I can get a 700 that much quiker K?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevr...spagenameZWDVW

you'll have to copy and paste, then hit the bid button