The machine performed very well overall. It was fun to drive and comfortable even with my 48x18x19 cargo box on the rear. We averaged 50-80 km/h (30-50 mph) sometimes slower, sometimes faster. I was blown away by the gas mileage. One day I managed to drive 173 km (107 miles) before filling up and I still had 2 litres of gas (half gallon) left. I couldn’t believe it.
There were nine people in the group and all but one suffered a flat. Some had numerous flats. A fella on a Wild Cat Trail had to replace a tire and rim. On the fourth day I had to replace both rear tires. I had a huge gash in the rear left sidewall. Luckily about 12 plugs held air until the next town, which was 10 miles away. The other rear tire had three rock holes in it. Everyone else managed with tire plugs. I bought two 8 ply radials, Kenda Bounty Hunters, to replace the stock Carlisle AT489II’s that came with it. The shop only had 26x9x12 instead of 10’s or 11’s. They were one inch narrower than stock but they worked surprisingly well. I will move those to the front and will put two 11’s on the rear. I already ordered them online, should be here soon.
The rear rack broke on the right front part facing the rider’s back, closest to the outer fender edge. It will cost $270 plus tax to replace it. I was very disappointed. The rack in my 2008 Sportsman 500 was made of much thicker plastic and could handle much more. As soon as I bought the machine I noticed the plastic seemed to be thinner than the old machines and was worried about them breaking, I was right. That’s one place where steel racks have an advantage over plastic for sure.
The power steering stopped working one day which was very weird. I stopped, shut off the machine, turned it back on and it worked fine the rest of the trip. One day I noticed the engine sputtered a bit under hard acceleration at about 50-60 mph. I slowed down and drove easy for a few hours and never noticed that issue again the rest of the trip.
Besides the tires and the rack the machine performed very well. One of the guys had a 2009 850 XP that had 23000 km (14,400 miles) on it! He had a small issue with a loose wire that was causing stalling, luckily we were close to a Polaris Dealer that day. They diagnosed the issue and fixed the problem quickly and we were back on our way.
The tire issues was a drag and unexpected expense but I can’t blame the machine for that. I am pretty pissed at the broken rack though. There is no steel in that location. Polaris needs to address that. The Can Am Outlanders and Arctic Cat machines with plastic racks have steel reinforcement on the entire outer edges.
