I am looking at an 03 800 Vertical Escape with a 159. How reliable/good is the 800? Is there many crank issues with them? It has about 1500 miles on it.
03 Vertical Escape 800 reliability
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boxster7614
Well-known member
Reliability and polaris go together about as good as oil and water.
Zing...
Chances are it will break the crank at some point or if you check it regular you can catch it before it breaks and get it fixed. There are lots of things you can do to help with the life of the crank.
I just did some clutch work for a guy with an '01 800RMK with 7850 miles on it... no broken crank. I've never seen that before.
sled_guy
This will be my first Polaris. I've been a ski-doo man forever. I got a crank runout done on it and it was at .0011. That within specs?
My nephew lost a piston (busted up) While we had it apart the bearing fell off the pto end this is very common, under neath that bearing was a crack not big But . we got lucky catching that one. Cranks fail on these like crazy. you know the saying not if but when. When it does it will cost quite a bit to fix it.Your run out sounds good.Fact is Polaris has had trouble with all there 800's to date. i would have thought they would have given up and i thought the consumer would have given up but brand loyalty has no boundry.In my opinion Stay away there are just to many issues and it seems as though Polaris just guesses at how to fix them. Sledguy that is unheard of, one of the lucky ones.
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boxster7614
Well-known member
Here's the deal, these are great sleds but they do have issues with the crank. The concenses is they break around 2500 miles anything over that in my opinion is you are running on borrowed time. Now if you do your own motor work and can pull the crank you can get j&j machinery to rebuild your crank for $350 if you want a brand new PTO end add another $200. If you can do the work yourself and every 2500 miles redo the crank it's not that bad! Now if you have to pay someone to do all the mechanic work, this sled can eat you alive in labor bills. That being said, if this sled has 1500 miles on it you should get another 1000 miles on it, that should get you 2-3 seasons depending on how much you ride.
I might just try to look for a 700. I just want something to have fun on that I don't have to worry about. I don't ride much, so it just might not be worth it. I thought the older 800s didn't have as many problems. I have been reading the threads on here, just wanted some opinions. Thanks everyone.
I have one that is now my backup sled, at 4000 miles I sent the crank to SLP and they told me the crank was bad so they put a new one in and put their bearing on it. It lasted 700 miles, I then sent it to Indydan and for the same amount of money he fixed it right and it had a warranty. The only thing I see that's a problem is the drive shaft bearing on the clutch side needs lubed a lot and if it has stock drivers the track has to be pretty tight to keep it from ratcheting.
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freak58trio
Member
Get a crank from Indy Dan and be done . A couple of things most don't consider is making sure the motor doesn't move buy and engine plate from FTX or SLP get SLP's tourque arm and there push arm and you should be able to get more miles out of the crank not to mention the clutches should be balanced ! I'm on my 4th year with an Indy Dan crank and so far no problems. 700's also occasionally have crank issues too but very seldom. just my .02
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boxster7614
Well-known member
Well I like my edge sleds I have 2 and don't plan on ditching them anytime soon. Last year when my crank broke on my 800 I replaced the motor with a 2005 700 with 1500 miles on it thinking that I would not have to worrie about crank problems. I hade SLP motor plate on it and push and pull torque arms, and clutch was balanced I did everything I could do.......well, the 700 broke the crank a few weeks ago. Don't think the 700 are fool proof either. We need to face some facts with these sleds. I think indy dan does great work no doubt, but the value of these sleds is reaching a point where unless you are just in love with the sled, it doesn't justify the price of putting $1500-$1800 into a bottom end when I am seeing complete sleds selling for $2000. It's reaching the point if you dont do your own work and you end up with a broken crank then you're better off selling it for parts when it goes.
Now from my recent adventure with my 700 I found out that polaris no longer makes PTO ends for the 700 cranks. I had to buy a used crank with a good PTO end and use that. So when it does come time for a rebuild the 800 PTO ends are still available which kind of makes me wish I would have kept the 800 when I took my crank in to get rebuilt they had a few polaris 500 cranks sitting on the table with broken PTO ends. Polaris has problems on all their cranks not just the 700 & 800. it's just thier were way more 800's sold than anything so that's what you always here about it. lets aslo keep in mind that its not just polaris. 2 stroke motors, doesn't matter who's name is on it, are just not known for their reliability! If you really want reliability get a 4 stroke. but what fun is that......my new philosophy is buy it ride like you stole it and worrie about it when it brakes. You could hit a tree and total the whole sled quicker than you could break a crank, do you worrie about every tree you pass?
Now from my recent adventure with my 700 I found out that polaris no longer makes PTO ends for the 700 cranks. I had to buy a used crank with a good PTO end and use that. So when it does come time for a rebuild the 800 PTO ends are still available which kind of makes me wish I would have kept the 800 when I took my crank in to get rebuilt they had a few polaris 500 cranks sitting on the table with broken PTO ends. Polaris has problems on all their cranks not just the 700 & 800. it's just thier were way more 800's sold than anything so that's what you always here about it. lets aslo keep in mind that its not just polaris. 2 stroke motors, doesn't matter who's name is on it, are just not known for their reliability! If you really want reliability get a 4 stroke. but what fun is that......my new philosophy is buy it ride like you stole it and worrie about it when it brakes. You could hit a tree and total the whole sled quicker than you could break a crank, do you worrie about every tree you pass?
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