I was woundering if it would be possible to swap the Sportsman's front shocks for the longer travel Scramber shocks? Would the shocks fit? If not, What about the Magnum's or the Explorer 400's shocks? I know the weights are no close but you could put stiffer springs to compensate.

 

Boner, what are you trying to achieve by putting longer travel struts in the front of your Sportsman?

I’ll tell you what I did, and I’m very pleased with. I installed the firm front springs ($16 each, from Polaris) and a HighLifter lift kit. This improved handling and ground clearance, as well as the ride.

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FloodRunner, on the Wisconsin River

 

Boner,

The last time I checked, you have to replace the spindles/strut holders as well. This is the part that the strut slides into. If you don't, you will have some serious handling problems due in part to excessive toe-in on the front wheels (the tops of the tires are wider than the bottons). As the Macphearson strut moves in its travel you get more toe-out (the bottom of the tires are wider than the top), if you increased the wheel travel you would create a toe-in condition that could adversely affect your handling.

The only time I saw what you said done was at Cochranton this year on a Sport. I asked the guy the same thing you did, he replied that it takes a lot more than the strut or springs to get more travel out of strut setup. He basically had to modified the Scrambler (4x4) strut housing to get the longer travel he wanted. Before you do anything else, contact you Polaris dealer to find out the cost of the new strut housing/spindles.

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Mike Chero 97 Polaris Sport 400L/ 97 Polaris Trailblazer 250ES

<A HREF="http://users.penn.com/~hal9000/mikeetta.html">MIKE & CELESTE'S ATV PAGE </A>

 

Mike, you said:

“If you don't, you will have some serious handling problems due in part to excessive toe-in on the front wheels (the tops of the tires are wider than the bottons). As the Macphearson strut moves in its travel you get more toe-out (the bottom of the tires are wider than the top), if you increased the wheel travel you would create a toe-in condition that could adversely affect your handling.“

“Toe” actually refers to the parallelism of the front wheels when the vehicle is viewed from the top. Toe-in is the condition when the distance between the leading edge of the front wheels is less than the distance between the trailing edge, when viewed from the top. Toe-out is just the opposite.

What you are describing sounds like camber. Camber is simply the tilt of the wheels from the vertical when the vehicle is viewed from the front. If the top of the wheel leans outward from the vehicle, camber is positive, and if it leans inward, it's negative. A setting of zero means the wheel is exactly perpendicular to the road surface.

 

You should not have a camber problem if you change the struts to a longer strut due to Polaris suspension being a strut system if your increase is not excessive. But if it is then since the strut, lower arm and tie rod are the only thing that control the spindle the strut will control camber in a straight line in respect to the lower A arm distance from chasis mounting position. If the increase in a arm drop is large then the effective length of the lower A arm becomes shorter due to the geometry. If the upper mount of the strut is now outside of the lower A arm strut then you would have positive camber. High lifter gives you a piece of solid metal the same size as the strut to drop down the strut housing to effectively lenghten the strut and includes an outer spacer to effectively lenghten the spring without changing compression rate or total travel. Their change must not be too radical or it would cause problems. Going to a Scrambler strut and spring setup MAY cause problems these would be the things to check. Check the total lenght of the struts SCR and your struts (I am not sure but this length difference could be 4" or greater due to two inches of shock shaft and a longer body may be required the accept the shaft) If this is true I would look no farther at going this way due to A arm drop and possible bump steer problems due to increase drop. Bump steer is the change in toe througout suspension travel and is something you don't want. It will make you guess where you are steering at that point of suspension travel. Check out Highlifters length increase and if it is comparable to the length increase you would get from the longer struts then it may be an option to change the struts. But you will also want to check on the rates of the longer springs you may not be able to get a spring heavy enough for the sportsman. This is just info you will need to do research to get specifics. Good luck

[This message has been edited by losi (edited 11-20-1999).]

 

Texridr,

You are correct in your terminology. I did err in refering to the leaning of a wheel as Toe in. The correct term was caster. Thank You.


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Mike Chero 97 Polaris Sport 400L/ 97 Polaris Trailblazer 250ES

<A HREF="http://users.penn.com/~hal9000/mikeetta.html">MIKE & CELESTE'S ATV PAGE </A>

 

Just an FYI but FloodRunner is right about the stiffer springs available for the front end. Also note that Polaris has come out with 1-1/2 spacers for the front suspension on the SP500's. They are just starting to get into thedealers right now . . . I've had mine on order since Sept.

<A HREF="http://www.godigital-design.com/96Polaris.html">Schultz Motorsports</A>

 

Adam, I paid $32 and change for a pair of “firm” Polaris front springs for my ’99 Sportsman. That was the list price.

BTW, I have a pair of “firm” Sportsman rear springs with only 100 miles on them I’d part with for half of list.

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FloodRunner, on the Wisconsin River

 

Did you say $16 each? I think we paid $30 each for our 3 sets (our Sportsman + 2 friends). I hope I am wrong.

 

The reason I asked this question is because I wanted to know if it could be done. I don't own a Sportsman, but I might in the future. If I would get the Sportsman I would like to try to put the Scrambler's front end then I would have almost as much travel in the front as I would in the rear.

99 Arctic Cat 500, Wouldn't trade it for the world, But I would for a 2000 model