The manual say's "To extend belt life use low gear in heavy pulling situations and when operating for extended periods of time at less than 7 MPH".
If I'm not going over 20-25 mph I leave mine in low. No problems with it yet!

 

Thats what I need to do, just keep the dang thing in low. Sometimes during night riding we go behind peoples house's and i put it back in high, thats also why this thing will never have a loud muffler...... Got a loud truck and car no need for a loud bike

Can't wait to get a new belt and clutch kit.

 

On the 850 it's around 7500 IIRC. Only tested it once...at 41 mine hit the rev limiter.

 

The owner's manual emphasizes the most important thing you can do is break in a new belt right (don't run it hard when it's cold, and keep it in the right gear range). I suspect a LOT of new owners ignore that and then cuss Polaris when they blow a new belt. The clutch is just kicking in at 1200-1400 RPM. Lugging it just above that RPM in high range, especially uphill or towing, will destroy the belt edges in short order because it WILL slip under heavy load at that RPM, and the resulting heat buildup is instantaneous. I suspect many older machines with smaller displacement engines don't eat belts even if abused simply because they can't generate enough torque to slip the belt at low RPM. Less slip=long life.

That said, I like to stay in high as much as possible with normal riding, because RPM=noise, and I hate noise! In fact, if somebody sold an effective and forest-legal aftermarket exhaust silencer that worked well without voiding my warranty I'd buy one in a heartbeat, and my 500 EFI is not all that loud to start with.

 

That does not explain why Sleds get high milage out of a belt even without a low range period,and they have much,much, more power then a XP850 ATV.

 

Good point, TLC. I can't explain that either, never owned a sled, and don't ever plan to live where I might need one. Maybe because of the power they generate it's a completely different clutch design? At any rate, since many mfr's make both sleds and quads, seems like the technology ought to transfer a little better, at least inside the company's engineering departments.

 

Clutch engagement we need to know at what rpm the sled and the xp are engaging at before you can explain why. I have noticed (no expert on snow machines but should be similar setup) that the xp I ride clutch engagement is high in rpm before you move though.

 

i believe most sleds have a much higher rpm engagement than atvs. no specific numbers though

 

I ride my ATV more but put more miles on my sled in there short 3 month season, all sleds can be set up and clutch different,but most engage at 1500 rpm for slow smooth take offs and slow twisty powered trail riding most all of them top out at 70-100 plus mph depending on model.

I think the slowest sled you can buy now is a 55 hp 550cc Fancooled that can do 70 mph now a days.

 

So there you go your sled has lower engagement and the xp has a lot higher engagement to get it moving. This the first thing I noticed when hitting the throttle. Maybe this dalton sponsor can chime in for us!