Hey Bill...you seem to love your Xplorer just as much as I do! Sometimes when I am on my Scrambler I bug my wife to trade and lend me "my" old Xplorer for a while! It still gets my blood pumpin'... and especially with the new 26" tires.

 

All I know about Xplorers is that they are faster, lighter, cheaper, louder, and use lots more gas. The Kodiak is one of the only new Yamaha designs and is a very fine machine-BUT it is too narrow and tippy, especially after riding Polaris. Highlifter makes 1.5" wheel spacers which may be all it needs. It has lots of power, a great motor, is a fine machine, and has a weight advantage over Polaris. My son's 425 Expedition cost $5500. It is a great machine, but my 500 Arctic Cat Auto SMOKES him bad. The Sportsman will too. It has a lot to do with that Auto Tranny, it really does get the power to the ground. I think Polaris needs to reintroduce a 425 Magnum or 425 Sportsman And Get rid of the 325
4x4 Magnum and the 335 Sportsman. The 325 Magnum
2x4 is okay, and the 325 TrailBoss is a nice entry level machine, but by the time you are ready for a 4x4, you need the extra power for the extra weight. The 425 motor is state of the art, and should have an automatic available, especially one with EBS.

 

Ha, i was in duluth minnesota 3 hours ago. i brought my polaris xpedition in to get my progressive lift heavy duty springs put in and get my backup fan that dont work fixed. I took today, friday off to get ready for fishing. My dad and i got the boat ready. tomorrow is opening day of fishing in minnesota. Well, I just saw for my first time, a polaris magnum 425. NICE MACHINE! i talked with the maintenance man where i was at about it. He said that these atv's rairly come in for maintenance. I would be glad to buy one. I hope i catch a bunch of walleys instead, tomorrow. We are going to the minnesota northern wilderness. Not taking my atv this time obviously.... Crap! rangerchet, polaris xpedition 425 cc 5-speed. To Jeff newman at high lifter, if you log in here some times.. thanks for the mud bug tee shirt. I love it. I got my progressive springs to. they are getting put on.

 

Killemall I am going to make this real easy for you based entirely on your posts. First the belts that have slipped are not design flaws. They are the result of the person that took the clutch cover off and put it back on wrong. The clutch cover has a rubber gasket that needs to be seated properly for it to be air-tight. This is easily achieved by cleaning the inner groove with alcohol and then a SMALL bead of R. V. silicone and setting the rubber in and allowing it to cure. ( 4 hours) Then , with proper light so you can properly see, replace the outer cover(NO SILICONE HERE). You will never slip again until you sink it. The idling trouble is probably a combination of dirty air filterS and too low an idle setting, do not dink around with your oil injection EVER. The oil injection is very simple and reliable. I have seen the result of the dirty air filters before and while it isn't the most exiting 10 minutes you will spend it is incredibly rewarding. First thing to do is get rid of the paper inner filter and buy a good foam one (they are all very good) I have found that Bel-ray makes a superior air filter oil that sticks like blue honey and is also the CHEAPEST. The other quads you mentioned are nice for lots of reasons and I am sure their owners will extoll their benifits but the bottom line is the explorer is faster,cheaper,easier to ride double (it takes room away from your passenger if you need to shift gears) and 2 strokes DO NOT SCARE DEER OR MOOSE. I have rode to 50 feet of both and all they do is look at you quizzically. They will take off if you have your lights on though. Trust me the best quad is the explorer. The yamaha will not powerslide and it takes a football field to turn around. The exped. may FEEL fast as you upshift but your friends WILL be faster. HPD or AAEN or HOT SEAT will allow you the last laugh with them tho. enough said

RIDE HARD AND ROOST OFTEN
QUADMAN 400 ON A 96 SPORTSMAN 400

 

I just have a comment FOURLIX. The Xplorer is not louder than the rest. It has but a higher frequency sound. Up close it seems a bit louder. I tested it with a riding buddy against a Sportsman500 and we could hear the SP500 at twice the distance that we could hear my Xplorer. When on the far side of a hill we could not hear the Xplorer coming twords us and we could hear the Sportsman two hills farther. That's a fact! Low frequency sound wave travel farther.

Plus we ride alot and my Xplorer is about equal on burning gas. I usually fill up a few miles before the others because I love to hit the throttle a lot more than the others, therefore needing more gas.

 

Well here is my input. I own a Xplorer and a Xpedition.

The Xplorer does not make you smell like gas. It will not smoke very much if the oil injection pump is adjusted right and you use the Polaris synthetic two stroke oil. It will idle until the bike runs out of gas. The Xplorer is faster. With stock tires mine would peg the speedo at 60 mph and keep going. It will go through water that is over 3 feet deep if you ride it right and the belt will not get wet.

The Xpedtion does not look as tall as the Xplorer. The difference is that the handlebars on the Xplorer are taller. When Polaris builds the bikes with the handlebar light they use different handlebars so that the headlight is not taller than the handlebars. It will also go through 3 feet of water if ridden right. It is real easy to make it start in gear. It will get alot better gas mileage. The shifting is very easy. The bike has enough bottom end power to pull a gear higher than what you should be in so you do not have to shift all the time on the trails. The 425 four stroke will out live the 400 two stroke.

If you like the yellow plastic you can order it from Polaris. If you want the Xpedtion to look as tall as the Xplorer put the handlebar headlight on it. My Xpedition is yellow and has the handlebar headlight.