A Picture is worth a thousand words and I have a few of them going through some deep snow. I go throught the snow well but my freinds do not ride in the winter so I have nothing to campare it with.

 

I have only limited time on Sportsmans and there is only 1 Sportsman (500) that occaisonalyn rides with us. I have found that my Scram will go better in snow than the Sportsman and I have cleared some mud holes that the Sport could not get through. We talked about this on the trails and our guess was the weight and the tires on the Sportsman. Sportsman tires have a huge hieght advantage over the Scram but does that height help or hurt in snow? Scram tires seem to be a bit wider also. Just thought Id throw my opinion in.

 

I tend to disagree with most of the posts here, but that's not unusual. My Sp500 is the deep snow champ. It will go where the Grizz, Ruby, Explorer, Cat, Scrambler will not go in the snow. For one thing, the weight is a definite advantage. Also, GoodYear MudRunner help, but the not the wide ones. The 25" MudRunners dig thru better than the 26" or even 27" tires do. In running snow, you do not want flotation, these are not sleds, but to sink thru to the bottom to grip. That's where the weight comes in. I've run in 25" - 30" with no problems whatsoever. Wide tires in snow just do not work. Most of us learned that lesson 20 years ago with pickups and big tires in the snow.

www.godigital-design.com/schultzmotorsports
jackschutz@adelphia.net

 

I agree, wider is not better. I have a set of Spider Tracs which are considerably wider than the stock dunlops, but the dunlops will out do the Spiders any day in the snow. I recently put my dunlops back on the front and a set of 589s, which are about the same width as the dunlops, on the rear and it does much better. I think the softer the tire the better also.

 

the problem i see with wanting a narrower tire is that i would sink deeper. u say that it allows u to dig deeper to get traction. ive been in snow so deep that i would never get traction if i had to dig to the bottom.

in "shallow" snow i can understand wanting a narrow tire, but in deep stuff u need floatation because u never reach bottom.


later
jon

 

Jack, maybe where you live that would be a good approach. Up here, I can garantee you that lots of weight + narrow tires = getting stuck so bad you'll never want to use your quad in the winter time again.

Weight is never an advantage, unless you're talking about a bulldozer or pavement roller or something like that.

As Goattrotter said above, depending on the type of snow, a little weight can make a huge difference. On Sat. we were out for a ride and my Wolverine would clearly and without a doubt out climb his Rubicon. The Rubicon is more powerful, has better ground clearance, and most importantly, is automatic, which is a huge advantage in the snow, and still I could go higher up hills that we couldn't climb, and repeatedly climb places he couldn't get up.

If you had been there with your overweight SP, with narrow tires, hopeing to dig down and get traction, your quad would probably still be there. Explain to me how it's going to dig through 3 feet of dense, packed snow.
Not even the almighty Sportsman has that much ground clearance, does it?

Anybody who lives where it snows should not follow Jacks advice.

 

LOL kinda sad getting beat hand down by a prairie 300!

 

Easy, now... I never said I got beat hands down .

On another note, when we were riding yesterday, I noticed that no matter what, when he started, there were 3 wheels spinning. Got me thinking about that trick of using the rev override to engage the front hubs, then while holding the button, shift into a forward gear to start in 4 wheel drive. When I did this in the snow, I faired much, much better (still got beat, but not nearly as bad ). In the deep stuff, when the back wheels start spinning just before the fronts engage, it is already to late... you just end up with 4 holes instead of 2 . The other stuff you guys mentioned play a part, as well, but I think the way the Polaris 4 wheel drive system works actually hinders its prowess in the snow. I would like for it to be in 4 wheel drive when I switch it, not just be ready when the rear wheels slip.

 

You're right, that's got to be a big factor. It's really too bad Polaris doesn't have a way to have true full time 4wd.
I guess it just goes to prove that there are advantages and disadvantages to everyone's system.

 

The rear wheels only slip less than 1/4 of a turn before the fronts wheels both get into act unless something is not working right.You can not make much of a back wheel rut with only less than 1/4 of a turn.