I heard the same thing, a freind told me that he saw a guy on one of the first Polarises ride(157 ft) across a river. He said he just leaned back to keep the water out of the snorkels and kept the throttle pinned.

 

I can't believe we haven't seen Mr. MAX speak on this yet!

------------------
Andy Bassham *(1999 Arctic Cat 500 4x4, 1989 Honda 300)*

 

The reason Polaris's float (or at least the 250s) is because they are so bulky and big. They have alot more room than one would think to hold air. And if you have a little bit of air, for instance tires, frame tubes, etc, in numerous places, they float.

 

Ive only seen one float upside down headin down a river. But it is relatively easy to make the front end float when your in deep water while still getting traction from the rear tires. (friend of mine has a sportsman 500 with 27X12 Vamps with over 20psi in the tires and his front end will float if he just sits back real far and his quad wasnt even movin in bout 2ft water.

 

I've got a digi-pic (if I only knew how to get it on here) of my '87 Trailboss floating in my pond with me standing up on it - in 5ft of water, of course it sucked water in the exhaust and flooded the engine prior to the photo, also cost me a new drive belt. Before the engine died the 'boss was running a water level about seat-bottom high. Got other pics of the same day with us pulling some sunken Hondas out of the same spot with my tractor.

 

Thank heavens Polaris floats!! Me and two other guys riding on a Polaris Sportsman 400 flipped off a 10-15 ft. embankment on a pond because we lost the trail somehow(I was not driving). Luckily we slid for a second before the bike flipped. When it flipped I didn't know there was water under us. When it hit the water the bike was on top of us. Luckily the bike floated and didn't smash us down in the bottom of the pond. Now don't get me wrong the bike didn't just hit and float. It did sink and we did hit the bottom of the pond but it did pop up and float. Still upside down at this point. We flipped the bike up the right way and it did a pretty good job of floating. The crazy thing was it started right up and we got it out of the pond in about ten minutes. It took a little time getting it up slick rocks and pushing it with the throttle floored. We got damn lucky!

 

Father in law rolled a stock SP 335 into 10ft
of water. It DID NOT float. It sank like a rock.

 

I have a 250 and it will float without a rider. I have hopped off several times when doing water crossings as water gets TOO deep. THey float rear wheels high and can be kept right side up with one hand. My trail boss only weighs 445lbs. THe 4-Wheel drives do not float as well due to the additional weight.

 

I am told they will float. That only means they wont sink to the bottom. For sure our quads are not meant for us to try to fourd across a river, pond or lake. The Argo's and max's are for that. If your a waterfowl hunter you may want one of those. Ours can go
through pretty deep water/mud on roads, trails, forest roads and things like that and
can cruise. I want the best mudding ability I
can get but I will never try to go where they
are not made to go. If the atv was submerged in water, How could the tranny or engine not get water in it with a tail pipe under water....

rangerchet, polaris xpedition 425 cc 5 speed.

 

While at my local riding area this summer,I seen a guy on a 335 Sportsman sink that baby down about 5 ft or so.It did'nt come close to flooting.BILL

------------------