For me the thumb warmer is more important than the heated grips. I never even thought I needed the heated grips until a week or so ago.

I went out to plow and I wore the same snowmobile gloves and stocking cap that I normally do. But instead of wearing all of my arctic gear I wore jeans with no long johns, a jacket, and mesh athletic shoes with big holes in them. I thought if my feet get cold I'll slip my boots on, no problem. But my feet were comfortable even though they were wet, and my hands FROZE when I had thinsulate gloves on! The next day I wore the same thing except I wore my regular winter boots and <u>my hands stayed warm</u>. Weird huh? My boots kept my hands warm. Your body will constrict the blood vessels in your extremities to keep your core temperature up. That's why you can get frostbite and still have a normal body temperature. What I never expected was that the blood would leave my hands and still circulate in my feet. Do yourselves a favor and don't repeat my experiment.

I might be getting the hand warmers too, but if it gets REALLY cold I'm wearing my mickey mouse boots and Carhartt arctic wear. I think my next quad will have handwarmers, a thumbwarmer, and a butt warmer. I might even get electric socks, gloves and, a vest. I can't take the cold as well as I could when I was younger. Low thyroid will do that to you.

 

I installed the hotgrips brand on mine along with the Moose thumbwarmer.That was all the local Polaris store had in stock.These only have a low and a high setting but I think they will be ok for what I do.
The Hotgrips says DO NOT run a thumbwarmer through their resistor so installing two switches is a must.I must have burned out another 20 gigs of brain cells trying to get them wired through one switch.LOLFinally had to give in and go to the two switch system.
it seems like they work ok but kind of a pain building all the wires for them.

 

I thank you very much for the input and advice, I was hoping to read positive comments. I looked up the kit that John recommended on truckandquad.com and will more than likely pick one up sooner than later. Still a lot of winter ahead.
Thanks again, Happy New Year!

FYI- Cabelas does still have the same system recommended by John at $10- less.
Mine should be here after the first of the year. Thanks again.

 

I have the Pure Polaris which are the thin heating pad stickers that go under the OEM handgrips. They are OK. I just bought my son a pair of Cycle Country grips that are the whole grip and they work very well. They are nice and thick so if you have big hands they are very comfortable.

In all the bikes I used that spray expanding insulating foam inside the handlebars, which, I am told, keeps them warmer and even reduces vibration. I didn't notice a difference but it couldnt hurt and I had a can laying around....

 

The expanding foam sounds like a great idea.

Thanks for the info dangerousdon.

 

The metal handlebars act as a heatsink, and suck heat away from the grips.
Before installing the grips, try wrapping cork handlebar tape (from your local bicycle shop) around the handlebar. The cork will insulate the grip from the handlebar, and improve the amount of heat you receive.