outside.no ive never been to chadwick.Ive heard about it but have never been.I do most my rideing on my familys land up near troy.theres a few nice creeks to play in.I love fingers lakes theres a few holes up there that well really put your quad though the test.yes I made the spacers myself with a leath and drill press.The tires on the front are 27x10x12 and 27x12x12 on the back and there mudlites.

 

i know a guy that was riding a scrambler 400 4x4 and took off down a road. we don't know how fast he was going but he was moving pretty quick. guessing about 60. well, the front right wheel snagged and pulled him towards a guard rail. he let off and the wheel grabbed even harder pulling him completely into the guard rail. the wheel grabbed the guard rail and flipped him off going about 60 like i said. the machine spun at least a dozen times in the air then hit the ground, still spinning, and rolled into a ditch. he flipped around a couple times and landed on the ground breaking 10 ribs and his right shoulder, almost leading to a collapsed lung and death.

the four wheel drive was off when the accident happened, and the hubs were full of fluid. i checked them both before we left.

i had a sportsman 400 that would lock up after using the four-wheel drive and shutting it off. if you backed up and turned the wheels side to side it would unlock though.

Polaris even acknowledges the fact that their four-wheel drive systems will lock-up one wheel and impair the drivers steering ability in one of their safety videos. This system is completely unsafe and any four-wheel drive setups should never lock-up only one wheel.

Any other reports of accidents like this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Wes

 

the front wheels can become engauged without the switch on it happens when fluid gets dirty/old and bearings too loose. as far as the hub locking up that is not what happens. understand the rear wheels have to turn faster than the front to enguage. therefore when the front engauges when it shouldnt the front wheel is turning slower than the others causing a pull to the side that is enguaged. this does happen occasionally on my bike but never has it caused me to wreck. and its always the right side. when it does i change the fluid and check the bearings and it goes away for quite awhile.

 

Sorry to hear of the death. My condolences to his family.

That said, he was operating an off road vehicle on the road. Any warranty or safety issues are gonna be tossed out the window.

 

Thankfully he almost led to his death. The guy did not die.

 

That must have been a old Polaris cause the newer Polaris engages both front wheels at the same time.

 

Sorry, misunderstood that line. Glad to hear he made it, and is recovering well.

 

I have a 1997 Sportsman 400L, and riding it in snow with the AWD dis-engaged, I found that when I'd spin the tires really fast one of my front tires would engage causeing me to be pulled to the side of the trail. The older system is horrible on snow even with the AWD engaged, the front tires never lock up at the same time cusing a wild steering effect.

 

the only times ive heard of the front wheel locking up is when the cv broke off getting caught, or a guy had his front bearing froze up. not a fun crash indeed. hope he makes out ok.

 

your case will have a hard time because of the fact that you were riding on the street. polaris slaps all the stickers on their quads stateing no public road use. a good lawyer could make the excuse that the situation wouldent have been there if it were on gravel or dirt. good luck with everything, but id make these out to be more freak occourences rather a deadly situation.