I'm a new Raptor owner who has previously been riding a Warrior. The following are a few notes that I haven't seen comments about. They are in the perspective of a my experiences with my Warrior. I'm really enjoying the Raptor and and don't regret buying it for one minute. And my Warrior won't see much trail time by me (only my sons). But I think I will be spending a few $$$ for upgrades to improve my situation.

The Raptor has sooooo much more power! Zoooom!

Someone mentioned the stock exhaust being really quiet, but its much noisier than my stock warrior.

I'm 6'2" and like the added room of the Raptor, but the narrow seat and lack of padding allows my knobby knees to knock against the Fuel tank. They get sore after a day of riding hard on trails.

Ground clearance is not what I'm used to. It's around 4.5" on both sides of the skid plate and around 6" in the middle. My Warrior doesn't have a skid plate (not that I didn't think about it), and it has 6" of clearance at the sprocket and disc brake and much more in between. My Scramblr has 6" at it's sprocket and more everywhere else. That 1.5" makes a huge difference and I'm always hearing rocks and roots hitting the Raptor's skid plate. I also get high centered in areas I'm used to blowing through.

Today I changed the Oil. What a colosal pain in the keester.
Warrior: pull the drain plug, three screws to get the filter out, put it together and filler up - Done.
Raptor: Pull crank case plug (slightly angled approach, you can't quite come straight in) and the darn plug doesn't fit throught the holes in the skid plate. Really tight to get plug out any other way. You'll never get the drain plug back in. Gotta drop the skip plate (per the manual). Now it'll drain OK. But wait, there's another drain plug on the sump. OK, pull the plug. But now I need two oil pans or wait for the first plug to drain out. Ooops, there is no room for the sump's oil to drain straight down into the pan without spilling all over the frame. A bowl will work, but you gotta dump it a few times as it fills up. Spinning oil filter is cool, except I needed a filter wrench (I never needed one before) as it's torqued extra tight from the dealer. Argh! And just how are we supposed to fill up the sump with fresh oil without spilling half a quart all over the bike? Not enough room for a decent funnel, not enough room to even tip the oil can.

Maybe one of those tranny funnels with the long tube would work good for draining and refilling the Sump? Anyone else have a good tip for this?

Sorry for the rambling, but I've seen so many positive reviews on the Raptor and hardly any negative posts (from a happy Raptor owner). Thought I might try a little balance.

 

Yeah, I changed my oil this weekend in the field. Jesus, what a chore. It took me over half an hour, and I ended up with oil all over the place.
At least I got to practice my cussing.
Other than that, the only other complaint I have is that its geared too high, which is totally fixable.
Check out our pics at www.socalquads.com. Click on the Gorman link. Thats me on the Raptor.

 

I was having trouble finding a funnel with a small enuff end to fit into the tranny oil hole on my Polaris. Here's what I did. I bought one of those flexible tranny style funnels, then I found a turkey baster style battery checker, cut about two inches off of the end. It fits tightly inside the funnel end and works more than perfectly.

 

Ditto that one. I spent about 1/2 hour as well and can attest to the major labor it took to complete the job. I used a plastic funnel w/12" extension. It was OK, except the funnel end/hose end was so small it took forever for the oil to drain into the quad. I think next time I will do the following:
1. buy more than 2 qts from dealer
2. remove skidplate
3. drain case oil
4. re-install case bolt
5. using funnel w/extension, drain reservoir oil
6. re-install reservoir bolt
7. re-fill reservoir with funnel/extension using more than two, but less than 2.5 quarts of oil
8. re-install skid plate.

I also nearly lost the o-ring that seals the reservoir. It didn't seem to adhere to the dipstick very well.

 

The thing about ground clearance should be directly related to tire overall height. It took me maybe 15 minutes for the entire oil changing procedure. Did'nt have too remove the skid, so it stayed on. Tryed to pour 2 quarts in the sump initially and spilled a bit of oil, and got a bit of oil on the frame here and there. Since I was'nt planning on entering the Raptor in a beauty show, I did'nt worry much about a little oil spillage. One last thing...the oil filter is too expensive. Not that I am cheap, but just hate being ripped off.

 

I went and bought a small hand operated oil pump for changing the oil in my raptor. works great. Just insert the tubes and pump till filled. cut the time down a few minutes. and an easy fix to having to pull the skid off. Bore a hole under the plug and use a socket and universal. a few more mins quicker.



VOTE BUSH

 

I use a long funnel to fill the oil up ( tranny funnel as you stated works well) as for draining the oil I use a old cookie pan it flexes and fits inbetween the frame and holds all the oil. I have prm skids on mine, which are great I'de recomend them to all raptor owners, I drain my oil with the skid on a little oil gets on the skid plate nothing a rag wont take care of. When I fill it up with oil I put 1 quart in and start it for around 10-20secounds then I shut it off and add the other quart this helps from the black oil box from over filling. Yes it does take more time to change the oil then on my kx250, but its well worth it. Another note is it takes alot less time to change the oil on my raptor then my old 2000 polaris scrambler 500 what a pain that was so it really isnt that bad!

 

To drain the oil out of the sump, take a empty quart of oil and cut one side out(large flat side). Now put this under the sump drain and take the cap of the empty quart and place a oil pan directly under the quart spout. This will redirect the the oil away from your frame with no mess. It is also cheap

Putting oil in is another story, it just takes time. I sure the more you change it the easier it will get. The fist I changed the oil what a mess I though the Valdes tanker ran a ground.

Joe

 

skramblr, you obviously aren't familiar with the Pela oil extractor, http://www.carolina-edc.com/prod02.htm
My Warrior has a full length glide plate from AC on which the oil drain is offset from the drain plug. Even after enlarging the hole in the skid it was still a mess until I got the Pela. I haven't drained the oil for over a year..just suck it up! It's quick & clean and gets more out than draining it does. Their web site tells you more.
As for filling, Walmart carries a clear plastic container with attached clear hose with a shut- off. the reservoir has graduations in ounces & mms up to 1 qt. I buy oil in 5 qt containers for my Diesel p/u and use the filler thing on the truck as well as the Warrior & KQ.