Hi, I am going to check out a 2001 Sportsman 400 w/ plow this evening, to buy from a private seller. I have a 2009 Sportsman 500 touring, so I'm familiar with Polaris.

Anyone have any suggestions as to common issues, problems, etc that I should be paying particular attention to? thanks.

BTW - anyone know what years this model was made before major mods were done? I have a 2009 Kawasaki Prairie 360 and it's great for finding used OEM parts on ebay because it's been the exact same bike since 2004. Would like to have this same thing with the sportsman 400.

 

Hopefully some 400 owners will give you some of their observations,but they were first introduced to fit some where between the 325 Trail Boss/Trail Blazer and the 500 Sportsman. Did have a few complaints on lack of power versus the 500,but that was why they introduced it to fill the gap. Had the same basic features as the Sportsman 500 and don't recall any major problems. We didn't sell too many as most people just jumped up to the 500. Hopefully owners will jump in. It did change in later years and went to a compact Korean frame and transmission surrounding the engine(around 2008?) which I personally didn't care for because it was tough to get big hands in to work on .You do have the awd in the hubs which needs fluid changes at about 50 hrs and you have to expect some things to address since it's 11 years old even if it was treated decent. OPT

 

to me the biggest issue is it's a little under powered in some cases, but for the most part it is a good bike. as mentioned, it's pretty much like the 500's except a smaller engine.