I believe the Kawi system is the only one with front and rear wheel engine braking at any time. Most other systems require you to be in 4wd. I could be wrong though.

My wife's 500 has no EBS at all and I feel better with that rather than the extra strong EBS that I felt on the 800's. That back end starts sliding and it's worse than freewheeling. The 500 still doesn't freewheel near as much as my older 400 Polaris's though.

 

How do you make the front wheels on the XP 850 go into four wheel drive when going down a steep hill slow and trying to do a u-turn to head back up the hill?

 

Bill....Good point about the dust. Never really though about that relationship or tested it, but it makes perfect sense.

Your brief land description sounds like Maine, but I guess it could be anywhere in the northern tier of the US.

 

You don't the EBS and ADC do it for you! Just flip the switch.

 

So if you'll going slow down a steep hill and put the switch in the 4X4 mode and try to do a u-turn without the rear tires spinning faster than the fronts will the fronts still en-gauge to help pull the front tires around to head back up the hill

 

Hey I know!! Take the rear driveshaft out...lol J/k...but hey the fronts would be pulling.



No the rear must slip,although it is only a small amount...the front is geared lower than the rear,so the rear must slip for the front to be pulling. So the front won't pull you around and back up the hill unless the rears slip. It is a cool system,but like everything it doesn't work the better than every other system in every possible situation.
Maybe try a K turn instead of a U turn...

Also be cautious backing up on hils if you need to go back forward and turn around...If I backed up in AWD and the rears spun hard, engaging the front,as in on a real steep hill, it would more times than not lock the 2 front tires together,apparently it would wedge the AWD rollers into the locked position and that would make steering heavy and the front would push just like you would expect a locked diff to do,but worse because the fronts weren't still weren't actually pulling unless the rears were slipping. The only way I found to unstick it was I would have to get back to flat ground where I could back up without AWD,back up in 2wd then back forward and it would unlock. I'm sure someone will say something was wrong with mine though...but otherwise the AWD seemed to work normally,and after researching how the AWD works I am pretty sure what was happening on mine was normal,just a side effect of the Hillard design.
Doesn't happen unless the front really gets loaded in reverse...

 

It automatically goes in and out of 4wd so fast you won't even notice.
If it works as good as claimed the Can Am QE will be the 4wd system to beat.

 

Yes the Polaris system does lock very fast...

So far, as far as I can tell the QE is just as fast as the Hilliard..remember though you can only get the QE from the factory on models with PS.
Another thing to note...niether Can-Am nor Polaris make these systems...they just spec them out...
Visco-Lok is made by GKN and has been OEM equipment in the Dodge Viper and then BMW M3, the Polaris system is made by Hilliard for Utility vehicles, commercial mowers, and all-terrain vehicles. Both great systems,it is about time Can-Am spec'd the Visco to lock like it needs to for an ATV front diff instead of a street car rear diff IMO.

 

If you're going down a hill that steep in 4X4, you won't be making a u-turn unless you want to roll it. Try it with your Yugo first, and see what happens!

 

I go down some very steep hills with my ebs. No big deal. What I am most concerned with is being able to get up a slick hill of out of a mud hole. Getting into them has never been a problem. Lol!