Having spent the last 50 days of ownership on a new 500 Sportsman, of which most were in the snow, a few suggestions. The SP500 is a great machine to drive, power, autotranny and true 4 wheel drive is why I bought it. Snow is fun, but its that deeper, more packed stuff that gets the machine stuck on the undercarriage. I studded my tires (all) and everything was awesome until I was driving on a packed snowmobile trail up hill, and the tires spun down through the packed stuff and she hung up on the underside. It is NOT fun trying to get a machine out of this predicament. No shovel with me meant becoming super human and lifting the quad up and out of the burrowed holes. Eventually I was free, but another problem is the rad packing with snow. I placed a peice of plywood from the lower front axle shield to the top bumper, still allowing air to move through the winch hole on mine. All in all, I ecpected a lot out of my Sportsman when I bought it, it is a great machine, but you can't take it EVERYWHERE. Us Ontario folk with sleds only get to use them for 3 or 4 months, I bought my quad to use it year round.