Actually you want all 4 tire braking. Not locked, just braking. You can always use the front brakes to aid rear wheel engine braking only but to say you don't want front brakes is kinda silly. Unless you are on a wide open hill where speed isn't a factor.

 

WOW!!! You must be one heck of a crazy driver!!! I sure am glad I have front brakes when I go down hills...

 

Ya that did come out kind of silly sounding what I ment was even on real step hills Ive never had the ebs on the rear wheels only be a problem...

 

Bah... sounds more like some people just aren't skilled enough or maybe... are too lazy... to use the Polaris brakes. The Polaris is a very good quad all around. I let my wife ride one, with no fear.

 

Bet she's got a big life insurance policy on her eh?[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I'm sure the Polaris is a great quad, if you can keep rod bearings in it, particularly the 700. I'd go with the AC, but i'm biased, i own one.

 

Rhino I can tell your a guy that knows alot about atv and how they work.So you should know why polaris has the system set up like that. It makes it very easy to turn while in 4 wheel drive If youve ever seen an atv with a locker front end turning while in 4 wheel drive you would know what them front tires do to the ground so dont give me this trail damage crap.I dont care what kind of quad your rideing if you need to put it in 4wheel drive chances are your ripping up the ground already.And dont get me wrong I like the new arctic cats.And as far as the ebs on the sprotsmans go Ive been up and down some big *** mountains in Alaska pulling a trailer with a 1000lbs dredge on it and have never had the ebs be a problem but I guess I just dont know steep...

 

This is all im going to say about this.next time your on a atv with a locker front end lock it in and drive in a tight circle in your front yard then take a look at your yard.And like I said befor if your needing 4 wheel drive your not treading lightly anyway.

 

Hear, hear.

And, uh, BTW once again we went out with about 20 other ATVers in some hard riding, a lot of mud and packed snow/ice on the trails still. And once again my wife on the Sportsman was one of the only ones not to get stuck. We got a Bombardier stuck, and a new Arctic Cat... which had a sticking thermostat that we removed on the trail to keep the machine from overheating ( a freak occurence, I'm sure, but there we go ). To be fair, the guy on the Bombardier did one of the most amazing rapids crossings followed by a 60 degree gravel climb up the other side... very impressive... very dangerous... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

The wife bitched about her machine sliding around on the ice trails today... until I pointed out that everyone was doing it and me on the Predator was probably the worst of the lot. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I got stuck once, over a tree in tight scrabble... but got through several parts that the AWD machines had trouble with... even with my manual trans and the stock Razr tires. Hard going, but my Predator made it where several AWD machines didn't. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

The problem I have with my 700[ bit cat ]is sreep hills with off cambers,those moments when you need to go real slow to takle the off camber my rear wheel ebs end up in a slide.Ive rode these same trails on my Hondas and arctic cats without these problems.I still love my 700 Im just not confident and don't like the ebs on it.Maybe when I replace my goodyear tires on it,it will help.Polaris atvs have come a long way and I love the ride the honda 650s ebs has its problems to,its too high and free wheels to much.Maybe Polaris could make a switch that engadges 4wheels and with it off it uses the rear wheels only.This might keep everyone happy.

 

I bought a 96' polaris 500 last year. I compared the polaris and arctic cat and almost everyone I talked to said go with the polaris. I have had no problems with it except it pulls hard to the left other than that this is a great machine. I live in MN. and it goes through snow very well. And I have a very steep hill in our back yard I go down all the time and it stops very well on it even when the hill is ice covered. But maybe this is because I had and 82 three wheeler. I'd say go with the polaris but that is just my point of view.