Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Yamaha versus Arctic Cat ?

I worked for polaris when all that work started (DOD contracts)

I don't understand your question though, what are you missing or what don't you understand?

I think the hard part to understand is why in the world would they pick Polaris to use for the millitary. Don't they want their stuff to be top notch.

Sorry dave, I had to.

Does anyone make just a foot shift anymore? Last I knew, Yamaha made one in the Big Bear, but that was a good 3-4years ago. If the Big Bear still has one, that is the machine I'd recommend. They were virtuly bullet proof. My buddy bought one new in the 90's and it is still going strong. Oil changes and a battery is about it.

I dunno.

as a former Marine i can say with confidence that no group in America is more American that the US military.

So, choosing a brand from home soil was kind of automatic.

the polaris ATV's have always inspired towards success & effectiveness in the off road & recreation segment. Many other brands were geared more towards farm/ranch effectiveness.

They have done a lot with the mil spec machines since I worked for them but before i left in 05 I remember reading a letter from a soldier written to the mfg plant. He told of how he rode over an IED that detonated under his mil spec sportsman. long story short he was back in service in a short time after treating minor cuts & the machine was also put back unto service after minor repairs.

him and his unit had nothing but praise & thanks for the quality of the machines assigned to his unit.

I read a bunch of leters from servicemen but that one kind of stuck out in my mind. Dude ran over a bomb with an atv.

I was just funnin ya. that's what the were for. Sorry if I offended you with that. It wasn't my intent. I prolly should lighten up a bit on that stuff, I've been doing it a lot lately.

So you were part of the development for those Mil. ATV's? Cool.

I remember seeing them in a magazine at one time, but don't remember reading much about it. How did they differ from the regular off the shelf ATV's?

don't worry man, no offense taken.

these had same size tires front & back for comonising all 4 tires for maint. they went with a run flat tire too. really heavy coil springs all around, huge oversized front & rear racks that were like small flatbeds, a ROP system (roll protection) and a bunch of other stuff i can't recall at the moment, plus the standard mil spec OD green at forst then a desert tan later. bedliner coating on the added racking sufaces, kind of a 360 degree nerf bar type set up, stuff like that.

They went much further with it after I left. They had diesils and multifuels, they came up with all kinds of different engines to burn the different fuels the military requested. Which lead to engine failures do to the wrong fuels being used in the wrong engines etc.

I think they have that all ironed out now though.

I don't really know anything about the current milspec machines.

does polaris still make a disel for the public? I think it was them that made one.

IIRC the price was not all that different from a good used tractor.

I'm honestly quite out of touch with the current offerings from Polaris.

I remember when they did offer the first diesel, loud.

They used to offer a SxS diesel but don't know if they do now.

My anti-polaris bias was based on their snowmobiles - nothing runs like one from tough rubber balls...

+1 on that.
I have a '91 big bear moto-4 that I bought used 2 years ago as a project and it has been the best $700 I have spent in a long time. It is only a 350 but I have pulled out a lot of downed trees from my land and it works all day long. If I need to do heavier work, I will go get the tractor.

You can still find these very reasonably priced $1500-2000

Polaris does or did build very good snowmachines overall. However, they have also figured out, apparently, how to keep making money selling stuff that never should have been marketed in the first place. The 550 fans are one example. Ironically, the fan engines they replaced would go forever and 10-15,000 miles without ever being opened was common. (And my old 488 just spit it rings this spring with over 24,000 miles on it. By comparision, a 550 I also own, one with 9000 miles is sitting idle as it waits for its fourth major rebuild. Talk about disaster, those.) But with Polaris snowmachines totally over 60,000 miles sitting in the yard, the 500, with the lowest miles of any of them is the only lemon in the bunch.

As for their ATVs, they have yet to demonstrate that they have what it takes in our cold wet conditions -although their suspensions are nice. Honda has, prior to the intro of the Rancher, done well. The current stuff can be okay, but their record for reliability is probably not as good as before their engines were turned, (a factor that, in itself, had nothing to do with that I'm sure.) Yamaha comes and goes as ATVs are concerned, but they do know outboards as things are judged out here. But I think one could probably do well with just about any of the machines. Extreme use is really not all that widespread I don't think.

We currently have two Honda quads and two Yamaha outboards. Based on my experience with that stuff, my next quad will probably be a Yamaha. A few years ago one of the Hondas, just out of warantee, puked the transmission. Honda pretty much told me to go suck eggs. I'm done with their products. I run the Yamaha outboards on my fishing and duck boats from thaw to freeze up with never a hiccup.

I've had a lot of machines over the years and I'm big on the Yamaha.