The 550 engine Is a Fuji engine, I would not worry about parts availability. All of us Fuji owners are in that same boat.

 

Done deal. Had my brother have a look before finalizing the deal. He thought it looked brand new.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

Congrats on the new ride. It looks good.

 

Looks sharp, I like the box on the front rack.

 

Now the fun starts...digging in to the owners / service manual, checking and or changing fluids, getting to know the Sportsman, looking at accessories, finding a place in the garage (it's like a big game of tetris to me...challenging, but i love organization).

Got a chance to ride it just a little yesterday. Going slow through some tall grass and didn't see little 2' ditch. Thought "great, just got the new ATV stuck." Selected 4x4 mode, and she eased right out, no problems.

Never owned an ATV before. Rented a few on vacations (yellowstone and jackson hole), and did the ATV trip to Colorado with wife and her boys last summer. Learning curve...

 

Great machine. Congratulations. I love the way they did the rims in camo. back then.

 

I think you will find the machine many times will be more capable than what you think. Just be careful on really steep climbs and descents and make sure you shift you weight to the uphill side to avoid flipping the machine. If it looks really steep, I generally put the quad in 4x4 climbing hills and also going down them as many quads need to be in 4x4 to get 4 wheel engine braking, Polaris being one of them. My Brute Force is new to me(had about a month) and I think engine braking is stronger in 4x4 as well. I had a Yamaha Grizzly previously and it had 4 wheel engine braking regardless of whether you're in 4wd or not though I think by the end of my time with it, the engine braking was malfunctioning. In 2wd, in many quads, you only get engine braking to the rear wheels. If its really slick the rear wheels will lock up and will make the machine harder to control. Some Sportsman models have a setting on the 4x4 selector called adc, which is active descent control. Not sure if the 550 has that but to get full engine braking on the models that have it, you need to use it whenever you go down a steep hill.

 

i was thinking the same about the rims, never seen that before...i almost thought it was rust lol but no it looks good

 

The camo rims are new to me too. I've only seen black on the camo quads.

 

Thanks greg, great advice. We borrowed wife's Ex's Grizzly's and did get to use the engine braking. My Polaris does have ADC. I look forward to giving it a try.

One the rims, the craigslist pic made it look like the rims were either full of mud/dirt, or rusted. That may be why he had tough time selling it. Original invoice was included in folder he handed me with title...listed for $~10,500. I'm sure he paid less.