I just thought you might be interested to hear this. As long as I can remember my family has always rode Arctic Cats. My uncle got his first, an 03 AC 400, then my brother got an 04 400 then my aunt got an 05 500 then my dad got an 06 500 and I got an 06 650 V2, then my wife got an 07 400. That's all we have ever ridden. My 650 overheated way to often, so we sold that and went down to just the 07 400. We sold my wife's 400 a month ago to pay for bills since I was laid off. I was originally kicked from these forums a year or two ago for coming onto this Polaris forum and just talking trash, I hated Polaris with passion, more than any other ATV in the world. Well my family had planned an ATV adventure this past weekend, and since I had no four-wheeler, I had to borrow my father-in-laws 07 Polaris Sportsman 500 H.O. EFI. Since I first met my wife's parents I always gave them crap about their Polaris' and what junk they were, I photoshopped pictures all sorts of mean things. Well come to find out this past weekend, Polaris makes one hell of a machine. I mean one HELL of a machine. It was by far the best performer in the pack. For Arctic Cats there was: 03 500, 03 400, 04 400, 05 400 06 500 07 400 and 1 08 Grizzly 700 which was the only one geared for mud riding. We rode the Spider Lake ATV trails, which we ride quite often here in Minnesota. There is a gravel pit in the northwest part of the trails, that has claimed many-a-ATV, usually whatever I am driving, every time we go. Spider Lake has a lot of varying terrain, a lot of rough rocky stuff, quite a bit of mud, a little bit of everything. Our Arctic Cats were never the best ride anywhere we went, especially on the rocky stuff, I had to stand and bend my knees 95% of the day to help absorb the terrain. The Polaris seat was so soft, and the ride so nice, I could sit on the seat all day and never feel a bump, I was extremely impressed. Then when we got the the mud hole at the end, I was surprisingly the only ATV that did not drown or break something, and I was in the deep end riding water wheelies through. 2 people broke their differentials, and everyone else drowned their ATV at least once, several are out of commission (at my house waiting for me to fix them actually). I like to get to know an ATV before I ride it too much, so after some inspection, I was so happy to see that not only are the air intake snorkel and CVT intake snorkel up high and under the handle bars, but the CVT exhaust was as well on the Polaris, whereas an Arctic Cat has the exhaust in the right rear wheel-well on the newer ones, or by the tail light on the older ones, where when I would let the RPMs get too low in water, the belt got wet. Also the snorkel for the air intake on the ACs run up to the front around the radiator, so if you go head first into deep stuff, you're screwed. We spent 2 hours here playing in the mud and I never got stuck, and never took on water. So I am sorry to drag this on so long, but I want to apologize for all of the negative things I have ever said about Polaris, and I take them all back. I am converted and will be buying my in-laws 500 next Spring.

If anyone is interested in seeing the picture video compilation of the trip its here on youtube: YouTube - Spider Lake ATV Trails, MN - Gravel Pit Mudding

Thanks for your time and again sorry to drag it on.

 

Bravo! Glad to see you've found the light. You are only one of a hand full who have come to other side. Many of my friends were hardcore honda,yamaha,suzuki,etc and talked trash, until they reluctantly rode my sportsman. Every time it was like a light bulb flipped on. You are not the first nor will you be the last. On a final note: It's takes back bone to admit when your wrong. Congrats to you.

 

Congrats on finding a new love. Hopefully the real lesson learned here was to not bash other people's preferences. Every person has their preference and each one has their reason for it being their preference!

 

Thanks for coming clean. Most of the "trolls" on the forums are people with no experience or very limited.

Glad to see some people getting out and enjoying the trails here in MN.

Here is a quick vid of some of us up there last year.

SL 5-17-08 video by Roofer750 - Photobucket


Looks like you all had stock tires. Surprising you got through most of it. You have to admit that the Polaris tires are much better than on the competition. How did people break stuff with stock machines? Just hammering through it or what?

 

Nice vid, looks like the water was a little low. At one point last year when we were out there there was no water at all in the hole, just thick *** mud. Yeah we all did have stock tires. I have always loved the Carlisle ACT (PXT) as a stock tire, pretty similair to the ITP Mudlite XTRs I had, but thinner and shorter and slightly less aggressive. They broke the diffs on their machines because they were water wheelying in 4WD, so I think when they came down from the tires spinning quick to getting traction quick the weak stock parts just gave. That's my best guess.

 

Nice vid, looks like the water was a little low. At one point last year when we were out there there was no water at all in the hole, just thick *** mud. Yeah we all did have stock tires. I have always loved the Carlisle ACT (PXT) as a stock tire, pretty similair to the ITP Mudlite XTRs I had, but thinner and shorter and slightly less aggressive. They broke the diffs on their machines because they were water wheelying in 4WD, so I think when they came down from the tires spinning quick to getting traction quick the weak stock parts just gave. That's my best guess.

 

Also it wasn't really to mucky underneath, as you can see in the video I am the only one who gets in the water to help push other people's machines out, and it's chest high+ on me, but the bottom was pretty solid.

 

Glad to hear you liked your PoPo ride. I find them to be the most comfortable I've rode. Grizzly 550 and 700 aren't bad rides either. Pretty comfy.

 

kooooolllllll vid

 

I sure hope that you didn't send that link to your in-laws....