Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's AWD Polaris isn't 4wd!!!

Holy smokes, a whole bunch more information here than I thought. You guys are a wealth of good stuff. Thanks.

I'm standing corrected on the all wheel drive not being 4wd. I got up north over the weekend and cranked that Polaris up through a foot of snow. Yes, going backwards it is only driving off the rear two wheels UNTIL you hit the yellow button on the left handle bar and then, wallah, you have all four wheels driving going backwards. What a difference that made! Then I tied the trailer hitch to a pole and found out all four wheels spin going forward. I like it better now, but maybe not so much better that I didn't look for a new Yamaha Grizzly this morning. All sold out until maybe June, but the showroom was full of Polaris ATV's which told me something.

Polaris is made in the US and they're busy. All the rest are imported and likely sitting on container ships somewhere. That makes Polaris available while the rest aren't.

No. The Arctic Cat factory is 60 miles SW of the Polaris Factory. The world's supply of Grizzly and Kodiak 700 have been assembled in Georgia for years. The Kawasaki factory in Nebraska has made more than 3 million units over the decades. That doesn't mean they build the same quantity as Polaris.

Polaris built a factory in Mexico about eight or nine years ago. The four wheelers and SxS's for the most are made there. They shuffle their stuff around. AC which also makes Tracker are made here in MN. Honda SxS complete chassis are made here too.

Sounds like my info is out of date...and just when I'm getting up a good 'buy American' rage.

It's really hard to keep score.
American steel production is next to zero so most all of the steel tubing and sheet is imported. I can only speak about Honda and AC. Both use independent fabricating company's to make most of their parts both steel and plastics. Honda ships the tubing to the contractor and they laser, bend and weld the sub components, the sub components ship to Honda's North Carolina plant to be welded together and painted and finial assembly. The powertrain and electronics are about all that is imported. I believe Kawasaki does the same.
AC builds pretty much the whole thing here including the powertrain. They sublet out most of the steel fabrication and plastic molding but it is US company's.
Polaris does all of it's own fabrication including plastics in their Mexico plant and then ships it back here for final assembly. Their powertrains are assembled here.
Polaris made their move during the Obama administration. They hurt a lot of business when they canceled their contracts and laid off a lot of their own workers. It's taken a while but Honda and AC have picked up the slack and most if the subcontractors are back to running three shifts trying to keep up.
It's like buying a truck. What really is 100% made in USA anymore?