greetings all,
picked up an 06 hawkeye for the wife this morning. i have read at length about some of the probs people have had with them, but i always said i'd love to have a 2wd independent rear sus with some decent tires. finally got the opportunity to try one out!!
a lot of our friends have older 2x4's by various mfg's. they always seem to go where ever we go except their live axles always hang them up or their tires are almost treadless. we usually just throw them a rope and pull them behind us if stuff gets too deep.
anyways, we got down to our central fl riding spot about noon today and set out. me (6ft 265 lbs) on the lil hawkeye with 25 in mudlites on the rears and 25 in carlilse's on the fronts. (yeah yeah....the stealership made me a deal on the fronts since he had had them in his shop a long time) and my son (6'2 200 lbs) on his 04 sp 400 with 27 in mudlites.
i fired it up and gassed on it hard for about an hour. deep deep sand (4x4 trucks boggin down it) and a lil mud. its so dry where we ride most spots that r usually under water r now deserts. we did manage to find a small stretch of mud that had my son spinnin and grinnin in 2 wd on the 400. jumped in on the hawk and followed right behind him in his ruts.

we found a few water crossings and crossed with no probs. one of the reported probs had been sputtering after water crossings. water was a good 6 inches over the the foot boards. we stopped for a drink and while talking lightning struck pretty near where we were so we decided to head back to camp. my son wanted to drive it so we swapped. he had a grin on his face from ear to ear. here are our impressions.

after driving sp 400 and 600 for a couple yrs this thing is a hoot!! it may weigh 500 + lbs but it shore dont feel like it.
no...its not a hotrod. but u dont have to always be shifting into low range to negotiate some difficult terrain on it either. this new lil trans/clutch deal worked pretty slick to us. it steers VERY easy...u can turn it with one hand at any speed. even sittin still!!! even with the oversized tires on it we still never srubbed anything and we intentionlly hit some pretty good sized mounds and bumps at speed. we're pretty good sized younguns and we felt it rode smooth as butter and with both of us at 6 ft or over we both had plenty of room......yet it seemd small....so maybe the the 5'2" 130 lb wife will like ????????
overall we thought it was a pretty good bang for the $$. no probs listed in any of the forums and got my fingers crossed it doesnt develope them. i bought this for my wife to ride and she likes to go along but she's not into trying to sling all the mud out of the swamps or climb light poles. but i do believe it'll follow us on the bigger more tricked out atv's just about anywhere we go. and it'll keep up too. u wont be waitin on whoevers ridin it to catch up.
the best part was riding it into the bed of my 6 ft dodge quad cab...slammin the taigate shut and goin home.
all in all a pretty cool lil package.
wonder how cool the 4x4 version would be????

 

A few weeks ago I purchased a 2006 Hawkeye 4x4 for my wife and she just loves that thing. Like your 2x4, turing on the machine is effortless. The machine is low geared enough to climb out of just about anything and is very stable on extremely uneven ground, like driving down a creek bottom. The 4x4 system is a actually an awd setup, where the fronts only engage when traction is lost at the rear tires. So far I have found that it will go through just about anything within reason. I have gotten stuck a few times play in a creek but it was mostly due to trying something beyond the capabilities of most machines. One spot I was stuck in, my dad's kawasaki brute force 650 wouldn't even cross, so I'd say it holds it own just fine. The ride quality is unsurpassed with the IRS and is like riding on pillows. I'm also very impressed with the turning radius. The only complaints I would have about the machine is the 22 inch maxxis tires it came with and a little jetting problem. The jetting issue has been cleared up and I'm now deciding what tires I should put on it. I would agree with you that it is definately not a rocket ship, but that's to be expected from a 300cc motor. All in all I'm quite impressed with the 4x4 hawkeye and have ended up riding it more that my wife has!

 

Great write up, I agree with a better set of tires it's good machine for the money. It appears the carb issues are getting cleared up, I'm quite happy with mine...

 

i cant wait to try one you guys are makin it sound so good. my friend is a polaris salesman(he sells to dealers) and he can get anything he wants and i get to try to break it.

 

Bought my hawkeye back in may ,,had the jetting issue also but i fixed it on my own ,we have been going to the south Canadian river in Oklahoma and the Little hawkeye hangs in there with the best of em , I took the 22 Inch tires off and put 25 inch goodyears on it, it stans taller than a Kodiak,, it you put 25 inch tires on it they are 12 Percent bigger than the 22 inchers which means the speedo is off 5 mph slower..we have had this thing riding up sandy 45 degree hills and in the water and in the woods people love and are always asking what it is ive got a bigger write up i will post later and some video soon. but the jetting was an issue and it needs to run leaner than factory with a little more air..hey it pulled 50 mph with me on a dirt road and that was good enough for me. emails are welcome if you have any questions..but we love our little hawkeye.

 

Oh by the way the 4wd Is perfect it works when you need it ,,we just leave it in awd all time..im 6ft 200 and i ride it most of the time, if the rear suspension gets to stiff and rides hard you can replace the hard rubber bushings with softer ones or take off the sway bar all together ,,after the sway bar is removed it really rides like a dream real smooth and it doesnt loose any stability at all, people get really ticked when you do something that a grizzly cant do or go where a 2wheel drive cant. The headlights really are the best on the market also and people just love the front storage as well.

2006 polaris Hawkeye 4wd
1988 honda fourtrax 300
2 feet if the 4wheelers quit

 

I totally agree with you about the front storage. Polaris really had their thinking caps on for that one. Not only can you throw an extra jacket in there to keep it dry, but did you notice the drain plugs in the bottom? Throw in some ice and take a six pack of beer on your next ride. Might get little shaken up, but foamy beer is better than no beer [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

 

After rejetting mine and shortening the carb vent hose (now it stops up by the tank instead of continuing the run towards the right rear tire where i tend to dip it under water when coming up out of deep stuff) it behaved much better saturday night. It sputtered early in the riding in not so deep water, but performed just fine in deeper water later on. The front storage is absolutely great. However the rear springs are simply too stiff, with my larger 25" mudlites the thing plows when turning, and with the stiff rear springs when you're in off-camber situations the thing is extremely easy to tip over, i constantly lay it on its side or have to bail off, every now and then i manage to lay enough of my weight from one side to the other and save it, but you really have to pay attention when crawling slow over ruts and rocks.

 

For those of you that have experienced problems with the Hawkeye... What did you do to fix the problems, don't be vauge, be exact. Some folks may have issues with their quads and your info can be a huge help.

Hud

 

The fix has been very well documented lately, try searching.