Are the residents of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan getting more clogged radiators than the rest of the country? My dealer tells me that it is because of the iron ore dust that we ride in. (He tells me that the ore dust is also tearing up seals, brakes and clutches)

I have seen Polaris radiators clog up during trail riding without even going through mud holes. It seems the dust on the trails and wet radiators followed by more dust will eventually layer up and clog the fins.

I was hoping that the radiator re-design of a couple of years ago would have cured this but apparently it hasn't.

Do trails on clay soils also clog the radiators?

 

Thor

The clay down at Wayne National Forest is horrible on the raditors. It generally takes several washings to get it out. I never had my Magnum overheat down there, but I would clean my radiator every chance I could. I would imagine that iron ore dirt is tough to wash as well.

 

Interesting question Thor.Myself and 10 others in my riding group just completed 245 miles in a little over two days of riding in the U.P of Michigan.The dust was HORRIC at best.Out of 51 total riders in this event,only seen one ATV running a little hot,it was a Sportsman.I myself had no overheating problems or clogged radiator at all.So my analogy of the iron ore would not be to bad,at least not on my ATV,

Bill

 

I believe that Hulbert and the Newberry area are east of the Iron Range aren't they? You can usually tell if the soils and water puddles are a reddish to bright orange color. Ore dust will coat your machine with a very fine coating which is very hard to remove. It even works it's way into the plastic.

Hope you all had a good time up there and everybody was safe.

 

Thor,
I think you have something there.I did not see the bright orange water you talk about,so my guess is you are right.

We had a great time on our Poker run.The DNR messed[tickets] with alot of riders on Friday but that was all taking care of for Saturdays run.

Bill

 

<< ...The DNR messed[tickets] with alot of riders on Friday ... >>



How many tickets did they give out and what were the reasons?

 

a 25 yr old DNR officer was issuing tickets for not riding the required 5 ft from the white lines on some of the Forest roads.You HAD to go around some mail boxes and therefore were required to go around them and closer to the white lines.He also issued tickets for being on horizontally posted National Forest roads instead of verticle posted Forest roads that NO ONE knew about.I have'nt heard to many good reports about DNR officers?

Bill

 

Back on the radiator topic [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Does anyone out there know of a way to jimmyrig the radiator to keep mud out of it!!! I know some of my buddies are trying to come up with there own ideas. We all know after hitting one good mud hole we are doomed to overheat every twenty minutes of hard riding.
We were thinking that the radiator should sit in the machine like a hummer's radiator; that is sit at the slope of a normal car hood. This would prevent the mud from a direct injection into the radiator while giving it just enough air to keep the temp down.
Everyone knows that the hummer is the #1 off road vehicle in the world, so wouldn't you think that the Sportsman is a little model of it without the correct possitioning of the radiator? Maybe this will be a mod we will see in the new SP700?

Ride em' Hard

 

I have seen some ingeneous riders carrying plastic lawn spraying jugs on their atv's. The type that you usually use for killing weeds etc. that has a pump up handle. If you spray the mud out immediatly before the radiator warms it up and bakes it you can be effective with this method.

Or... you could buy a Traxter, that has the radiator mounted like you are suggesting. LOL [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]