The other day, I noticed it was harder to steer in AWD on the pavement during tight turns VS in 2WD, like when you make a U-turn with the handle bars turned all the way and giving it enough throttle to get around the turn, not a powerslide, just a turn. Is this normal?

Thanks for any help...

 

Yes, that is expected. It is not a good idea to have the machine in AWD when running on pavement. You will also likely notice that steering is somewhat more difficult on any type of terrain when AWD is engaged.

chad

 

Thanks, I don't normaly drive on pavement let alone on the pavement in AWD, I just forgot to turn the AWD off and wanted to check it out after I noticed the hard steering. Thanks for the response.

 

way out here,read your owners manual,you all dont even know how a Polaris awd system even works,the front wheels don't engage until the rear slip,if it is, something's wrong.. gees, wayout,out................

 

redmnt; have had my 06 500efi stick in fwd a couple of times. i read manual and it dosnt realy say much about this. i know one time was after i couldnt back up in a mud hole and used reverse over ride to go to fwd. i knew it was in fwd because it, as yours was hard to steer. i run in fwd all the time unless i'm on a gravel or dirt road at speeds over 10 mph or so and dont want fwd kicking in when i slide around in corners ect.

 

From what I understand, when in AWD, the rear wheels need to slip, overiding the front diff to engage the front. If you turn sharp (180) in AWD and the outside rear wheel which is locked up with the left, turns faster than the left front wheel, will it engage the front wheels?

 

wayout, correct me if I'm wrong...

 

Polaris claims it wont do that,it's not suppose to,the two I've had didn't do it,but i guess it's possible,besides the wheels aren't actuallyslipping,the inner wheel is sliding,like if you were standing and you twisted one of your feet toward the other one while standing straight up; that's why you tear up the grass when you make a sharp turn,if you notice,the inner wheel does the must damage,because it is sliding not slipping. any how life's good; wayout,out................................. p.s. by the way my first reply was dirrected more towards cskidmore,they must be something wrong with his machine.................

 

Thanks for all your help. Im still not sure if what my atv is doing is normal. My dealer says he doesn't know and to bring it in. It's a four hr round trip. I checked the fluid level and it's perfect. I changed the fluid on it with the required on demand hub fluid and the old fluid it looked fine. I only have 100hrs on my ATV. Other than the slight resistance on the steering while making a sharp turn in AWD on pavement, it seems to run great. Thanks for you help....

 

I may be incorrect, as has been suggested, but I have two 2006 500 EFIs and they both seem slightly more difficult to turn on hard surface when in AWD. Polaris may say that they don't confuse turning with slipping but I'm not sure how they might do that. Slipping ends up being one wheel turning faster than any of the others and that is the same thing that happens when turning sharply.

I'll drag out my service manual tonight and see what it says about the AWD. The owner's manual is borderline useless in terms of understanding how it is working.

chad