Unfortunately the Pol site only goes back one year. Do the Sportsmans use chain drive like the Mags on early 98 and older. How are the X-plor's set up. We had a bud ride with us this summer that had the early Mag with the dbl chain settup. We weren't too impressed with the abortion. Thinking of buying used (someone has to) would like some guidance (other than my GPS. LOL!).

 

Sportsman 500's are all shaft drive, the old Sportsman 400's were the double chain setup.

 

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Actually, the older Sp400 and the Magnum 425 had a 3 chain system. My 98 has this system. Performance wise, it is no worse than the shaft drive system. The pain of the system is in adjusting the extra two chains and keeping them all lubed. If you just search the papers in Northwest Ohio, you probably will not find any good deals on utility quads. A guy in Defiance had a 2000 Magnum 500 in the paper the other day and he wanted $5,900 for it. The funny thing is, he will probably get someone to buy it. When you get serious, sometimes the local dealers (Wauseon, Maumee) have trade ins that they are looking to get rid of fairly cheap. Another thing, if you don't get the Defiance paper, you should. GM is laying off a bunch of people and there probably will be some guys wanting to get rid of a few toys to get rid of some payments. Might be a good time to get a deal. The Toledo paper is worthless for atv's.

 

What about the x-plor? I'm assuming that the newer body has the front shaft and older body has chain? Is it that simple?
I just saw a picture of what was labeled as a 96 x-plor 400. This machine has the new body with the newer racks. Can this be right? And would this be a shaft front? Which Scrams have a front shaft?
I keep archive lit on Pol and Ski-doo sleds just for this purpose. But I have nothing on 4WD. I may need a place to put a chain saw this summer. It seems some of the trails I find have logs in the [road]. But hey, that's the fun. Going where no man has gone........for a few years anyhow. Ha!

 

The 400 Xplorers were 3 chain models up to 1999. Then they went to the concentric drive and shaft to the front.
The 425 Magnums were 3 chainers, all of them I know of anyway.
500 Mags are shaft all around.