[EricH]

I was reading this in another forum and was wondering if it is true.
I have never owned a 4wd Polaris quad.
I am picking my Scrambler up Saturday.

THANK GOD , my buddy rode with me in Snow on his Sportsman 850 and we rode groomed snowmobile trails that were hard and we could go fast. he was completly out of control all the time because his rear tires had to spin 20% faster than his fronts, so he fought and fishtailed that beast all day and was absolutely pissed off at the end of the day. I had a Sport quad and he could not keep up to me because he was fishtailing out of control and could never apply much throttle without wrecking.

 

[bp405]

If he was out of control I would guess it was due to bad tires. Take the 4x4 system out of the equation, if it was working that bad and leave it in 2 wheel drive. I really can't think of to many situations were a sport quad is going to out perform a sp 850. And under those conditions I would think the sport quad really only has a braking advantage due to the weight difference. So definitely bad tires and probably rider ability contributed to the performance advantage of the sort quad.

 

[SMP63]

NO!!!! It's not true. The rear tires don't spin 20% faster than the front.

 

[defleppardsg]

Agreed that the traction issues were likely due to bad tires. When I had the stock tires on mine, my machine was all over the place in the snow, I couldn't keep in a straight line at higher speeds.

The statement you read about the AWD is being misunderstood. When a Polaris is in AWD, the front wheels are not engaged until the rear wheels slip 1/5 of a turn. At that instant, the fronts are engaged and begin turning. It is true that rear wheels spin 20% faster than the front when both are engaged. But what you have to understand is that the moment that machine gains traction again (and all 4 wheels begin traveling at the same speed), the front will disengage.

It sounds like the author of that quote thinks that Polaris machines travel down the road w/ their tires spinning at different speeds, creating the loss of traction. But in reality, the fronts are only engaged in the instances that the driver needs them, and not when he doesn't.

When I first learned how this AWD system works, I was kind of scratching my head, but after watching a few videos, and experiencing the effectiveness of it on my own machine, I don't have any doubts that it's as effective or more effective than any traditional locked 4x4 system.

 

[EricH]

I won't tell you which forum it was in...but let's say they were bashing the Popo and it's AWD system.
I need to tread lightly, because for the time being I also ride a Canned Ham.

 

[ChickenHawk]

I won't tell you which forum it was in...but let's say they were bashing the Popo and it's AWD system.
I need to tread lightly, because for the time being I also ride a Canned Ham.

No need to tread lightly around hear, CanAm makes a good machines. We are not a bunch of arrogant pricks like that other forum you won't disclose.

 

[EricH]

I won't tell you which forum it was in...but let's say they were bashing the Popo and it's AWD system.
I need to tread lightly, because for the time being I also ride a Canned Ham.

No need to tread lightly around hear, CanAm makes a good machines. We are not a bunch of arrogant pricks like that other forum you won't disclose.

:biglaugh:

 

[polarisrider1999]

1999 sportsman 500 4x4 problem

I have a sportsman 500 that i can never win with. My speedometer stopped working about 5 months ago and ever since i bought this ATV the 4x4 has ben switching from working and not working, most of the times I've fixed it by cleaning up the terminals in the switch but this time it didn't work. looked around the internet and all other posts about it state that when the speedo stopped working the 4x4 stopped directly. but my 4x4 has ben working "sometimes" I've tried the brown and white grounding trick and that did not work, I've checked the power going to the speedometer and there is power going to it. at this point i don't want to bring it to a mechanic until i'm sure i cant fix it. can anyone help me.

 

[whtrapta]

I'm not a fan of the AWD in snow. I often find myself having to gag the throttle on trails to get the front end to engage and pull its self around. Talk about some wide turns. Overall I like it but it does have its faults. Same on snowy roads, it has traction so it disengages and the back end will fishtail until it senses slip, then its ok for a bit until it disengages again. Wish you could force it to stay in 4wd for times like that.
Other than snow I prefer the awd over an on/off system like yamaha. Same with the locker lock/unlock by itself. Its seamless and awesome!

 

[Benn28881]

My 2 cents:

I really have very little experience with atvs, as I am new to the sport. That said, I took mine out ice fishing last week after the big ice storm here. The ice had a layer of slush, then an inch thick ice crust, then hard snow on top of that.

The machine had to break through all that, and did so very well.

Had great traction, albeit the engine had to work very hard.

Anyway, so far, very impressed with the awd.

 

[Treacherous]

I guess I don't push my machines enough. I can't remember having fishtailing issues in the snow. My quads spend 3-4 months in it as well. Of course maybe it is less of an issue when I am towing stuff.

Of course it looks like I only have a 10-11MPH average speed with my hours.

 

[bp405]

I'm not a fan of the AWD in snow. I often find myself having to gag the throttle on trails to get the front end to engage and pull its self around. Talk about some wide turns. Overall I like it but it does have its faults. Same on snowy roads, it has traction so it disengages and the back end will fishtail until it senses slip, then its ok for a bit until it disengages again. Wish you could force it to stay in 4wd for times like that.
Other than snow I prefer the awd over an on/off system like yamaha. Same with the locker lock/unlock by itself. Its seamless and awesome!

As far as the "pushing through turns" that's an engineering characteristic. They push for rider safety in the event of making a extreme maneuver at higher speeds. In this event if the front bit to much instead of pushing or sliding the rider could be ejected from the quad.

 

[whtrapta]

its not pushing in corners, its at slow speeds 1-5mph the front end needs power to the wheels to pull me around. Its like slamming on the brakes while turning in a car without ABS, you go straight.

 

[bp405]

its not pushing in corners, its at slow speeds 1-5mph the front end needs power to the wheels to pull me around. Its like slamming on the brakes while turning in a car without ABS, you go straight.

im replying to ur statement "talk about some wide turns".

and how deep of snow were u in? all vehicles are going to strain and slip in ice and snow. im guessing u were draging or plowing snow, meaning it was building up and under and infront of ur quad. with this type of snow building up i could see the bike fish tailing. the reason i ask is because i personally wavent had the any problems like ur describing with my ride and i know u have a bad ass set of tires on ur bike.

 

[zoomeroo]

Fishtailing in the snow.

I love when this happens. I make mine do this all the time even in the dirt. It adds to the fun.

 

[InRBigness]

Well I know a thing or two about this as I have two 850XP's and live in Winnipeg where we have 8 months of winter and 4 months of bad sledding. Okay that is not quite true, we have 5 months of winter and 4 months of mosquitos. The statement from the original poster is just plain incorrect.

As stated the back wheels need to spin 1/5 turn to activate the AWD. Once grip has been reestablished it turns back off until you need it again. If you stay on the throttle you can normally keep the fronts turning.

I drive in snow all winter and so far we have over 3' this year. In AWD with my tires in hard pack snow (not a glazed over road) I have trouble making the machine fishtail without rocking my hips and throwing the tail end out with my body. In deep snow there is no better system as far as I am concerned.

Stock tires suck, brand bashing sucks worse. As long as your out it does not matter what you are riding.

 

[polman500]

I'm with you Big'un...I work on and ride all different makes and models regularly and Polaris AWD is the best system out there as far as I'm concerned.