My SP500 is always giving me trouble...I've had to replace my handle bars twice now......lol..the darn thig has a tendancy to roll over on its back.

 

I ocassionally ride with a few guys that have the same problem. It's that loose nut behind the wheel. Remember dirty side down. Oh wait, which side would that be, bars up or down. Regardless, the more dirt the maryer.

 

All ATV's are different just like vehicles. I own a Honda and my friends pick on me constatly. The majority of them own Polaris.

My friends that follow and keep up the maintenance ride their Polaris's for ever with little to no trouble. (I will never admit that to them) The ones who don't do their maintenance are the ones who have the problems.

Its kind of a funny thing, some people think it is a bad thing to put your ATV in low range. I guess they think real ATV's and real men have enough power to climb anything in high range. This is the worst think you can do to the drive belt. When you are going to load it and work it put put it in low and enjoy it. Every one say the belt drives are bad, use it correctly and they will last for a long time. I have friends with the ORIGINAl AUTOMATIC ATV, a 91? 350 2-stroke liquid cooled 4-wd, and two of them still have the original belts.

Just take care of what you get and follow the maitenance schedule outlined in your owners manual.

Specta
01 Red Rubicom[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

There you have it.

Do the proper maintanance and you will not have any more problems than with any other ATV.
All the bikes on the market today are pretty competitive.

I could not be happier with my 400 Scrambler. My Trailblazer is Underpowered,but had the wife sit on a YELLOW 700 twin over the weekend and she liked it. I WANT ONE, JUST GETTING MY HOPES UP. MAYBE IF I WIN LOTTO.

Both of my POLARIS's are very Depedable, Reliable,AND FUN. I know I can also speak for the other 4 POLARIS ATVs within the Family to be the same.

POLARIS HAS SOLD SIX TIMES MORE AUTOMATIC ATV THAN ALL OTHER MANUFACTURES COMBINED.

 

I like polaris snowmobiles so I thought I'd try riding my buddys 500 scrambler 4x4. I didn't need to go far before I was ready to trade back. It felt like a tank and had no snap at all. Not for me because I like to jump and trail ride hard and I just can't see it happening with that quad. Maybe for utility use but they need a reality check on the sport quad division.


Its all about personal preference!

 

Jerry "Well, you see there's this guy named Muddy4life, Uhh, well, lets not get into that."
i had to laugh when i read that comment. in fact, i'm quite surprised he hasn't joined the post yet.
for sometime i've been wondering why Muddy keeps 'beating a dead horse' with the bad luck and all the reliability issues he's had with his polaris atv's. christ! he's talking about it in almost every post he writes! most normal people would have moved on by now.
you wanna know why he doesn't?
he's a SALESMAN at a HONDA dealership!

djfz71,"Are Polaris's as bad as people say or do they just like bashing them"
i bought my first polaris in '95. it's still in the family today. it runs great and i've had little maintenance done over the last 7 years.
i started riding in '70 with a honda, blue ATC90! great trike! i've been buying honda's and a kawi, and a few polaris's 'till current. i'm not brand loyal. in fact, honda's new 650 is look'in pretty sweet on paper- i can't wait to see it in person.
i've had 32 years of riding and i can tell you that polaris is right on top for reliability.
so go ahead and buy one, you won't regret it!
(and no, i don't work for a POLARIS dealership!LOL)
see-ya,
MT

 

Got 5400 miles on my '99 Xplorer, never had to walk yet because of it.
My brother trashed the original belt, along with the rear clutch buttons & bushings @ 5000 miles going 'drift busting' through wet, heavy snow, while in 4wd, and HI range. Like was said, don't be afraid of Low. My recommendation. If you are gonna go 25 or less, be in Low. If you are going to be going 10 or faster, be in High. Low is for towing and hill climbing.
Notice the fairly big overlap? That is because you don't have to constantly be shifting from hi to low & back. Leave it in low, unless you are revving the engine hard, save high for the open areas & flats.
Other things I have replaced since I bought the machine new:
Front brakes (the newer machines have better brakes, the older ones wear
out WAY too fast)
Tie rod ends (improved in the 2001+ machines)
believe it or not, I am still on my original chain/sprockets (lube them AFTER every ride, if lubed while hot, the chain draws the lube deeper into it)
Put in a Wiseco piston @ 5200 miles. The 400 2-strokes are noted fro cracking the piston skirt when it starts to get some wear in it. Not a worry with the 4-strokes.
Had to adjust the shift linkage once, the jam nuts worked loose, allowing vibration to turn the adjuster, making it difficult to get into Hi range. A 10mm wrench & 15 minutes solved that.
Never had a problem with any leaks, the 4wd system, etc. Still on the original battery.

 

WhoDat, Sony color TV??? Is that the mobile doghouse for when the wife gets angry?

By the way, you goin' to the spring ATVAM convention at Eveleth/Gilbert?

Ken Thompson

 

I have a 2000 Scrambler 400 and I've scuffed a stock piston after modding it out. The lower steering stem bushing was replaced after about 10 months, but it was still rideable, just a tiny bit loose. The lower bushing was revised and improved in 2001. The tie rod ends are stock ( They were improved for the 2000 Model Year ) as is the belt.
The 400's have a piston that will crack or score if you turn the HP up on it a LOT ( I was at about 45+ HP when mine scuffed ) but at that HP level you should expect some durability problems.
Polaris keeps improving it's quads, and taking steps to improve them. Honda keeps churning out what it produced for years before with the only updates being "Bold New Graphics".

 

Honda's have been very reliable I think mainly due to the simplicity of there atv's. There air cooled push rod engines, gear driven, no 2x4 4x4 switch(this year it was put in the Forman 450)full time 4x4, very little suspension travel and drum brakes. This is something they haven't changed in many years(if it aint broke don't fix it). Polaris on the other hand pushed the anti of atv's to a new high years ago at the expense of reliabilty. They put in liquid cooled engines, IRS, 2x4 4x4 switch, true 4x4 mode, automatic, disc brakes and a very comfy ride so you can ride harder. Now it seems, the other manufatores are following in Polaris footsteps. Also the way Polaris atv's are set up, with such a comfy ride, there atv's are riden harder then others. I know some say they ride hard on there Honda, But I know for a fact that my Hondas can no way keep up with my sp500. The harder a atv is riden, the more chances somthing will go wrong.