I am leaning towards the purchanse of a Xplorer 400 , but havce heard a lot about quality concerns, such as the long term reliability, the thing that comes to my attention first is the chain in the rear, I know it is Concentric (CDS) But is this jsut a cheap way to link the engine to the drive terrain? I know that the old Magnum 425's were chain and now are Shaft, so why arent the Xplorers shaft? This is my only true concern. But I hear so ,much about this, such as the chains snapping even the CDS models! I feel that teh Xplorer is jsut a smaller cheaper machine so they didnt bother with the chain and jsut left it. i get hung up a bit on my honda so if i get hung up on then Xplorer would it damage the chanin or anything?


Any Owners out there hanve anything to say/


Chris

 

I think the reason Polaris still uses a chain on a Xplorer is because you can put more power to the ground with a chain. Shaft drives are durabale as hell but it takes more power to turn a shaft than it does a chain and afterall an Xplorer is a SPORT/utility. Thats why you never see a high performance quad with a shaft drive.
Andy G

 

You will not hurt the chain when you get hung up. Well at least i havent hurt my chain when i got stuck.

 

The chain should NOT worry you. I have a 1993 Trail Boss 250 and I still have the original O-Ring chian. I ride in water, mud and sand and have not had any problems with the chain. My quad is the old design which is not as good as the concentric drive. I ride with a friend who owns a 400 and I wish I could afford one! It is really an incredible machine. You can also hop it up with inexpensive performance mods.

 

There are 3 of us who have had chain drive Polaris since 1986 and on the old trail boss with many many years of hard abuse the chain has been repalced 2 times! My friend has a 94 Explore 300 and burns nothing but wood, al the wood for the last 3 winters has been hauled out with his 300 4x4 Explorer. It just went into the dealer for tie rod ends and 2 sprockets and a rear chain.Myself and my brother inlaw just bought 2 new 300 Explorers last year and love them.We have had them all over NY state and have adjusted the chains not one time. Don!t let the chaindrive keep you from buying the 400, in fact next year I am giving the 300 to my wife and I am buying a new 400 !!!!

 

clindst,

Here is a good question for you, how do you get 9 inches of rear suspension travel with a shaft on a conventional straight axle machine? The answer is YOU DON'T. The angles of the driveline and U or CV joints is too extreme to permit this. If you want over 7.5 inches you'll have to go with an extended swingarm on a shaft drive machine (more weight/lousy handling) or a chain drive.