Polaris Junk !

[backcountryislife]

Thank goodness this thread didn't get deleted, NOW I know there's a problem with the driveshafts!!

If the owner has never heard of the problem, but you're on snowest & know about it... friggin harass him until he gets a collar so YOU don't have to deal with the fallout. $1000 heli ride could have been avoided with a $70 part.

 

[apex55]

when you buy a new sled you take your chances you know there is issues with every new sled the question is are they gonna stand behind their product i think polaris is on it what more can you do other than that its an awesome sled

X2
Wonder how much testing went into this design before they brought it to market?

 

[mountainhorse]

Quite a bit... Plus an extensive Demo schedule.



.

 

[m8magicandmystery]

well i have to look at the other side of the coin here...the broken shafts do make a wonderful cookie cutter if its a clean break...

 

[FriscoProx]

From the pictures posted here and other threads, it looks like the majority of the drivers torque is loaded on to the three shaft ridges. Unless the shafts are made several gauges heavier or gusseted\braced inside the tube, the aluminum is not going to withstand that much stress directed at such small surface areas.

The three drivers are the most rigid part of the shaft and transfer stress\flex out to the weakest points where the shafts are breaking. If you compare these shafts to older steel hex shafts, the older shaft load is even distributed and the shaft\driver surface area is maybe 4 or 5 to 1 even though the new aluminum shafts are much larger. And the collars are just band aids. Polaris recognized the weak point and put the collars there, but that's just going to move the shear point 1/8" in or out from the collar.

Conclusion; the new shafts are junk.

 

[R44guy]

From the pictures posted here and other threads, it looks like the majority of the drivers torque is loaded on to the three shaft ridges. Unless the shafts are made several gauges heavier or gusseted\braced inside the tube, the aluminum is not going to withstand that much stress directed at such small surface areas.

The three drivers are the most rigid part of the shaft and transfer stress\flex out to the weakest points where the shafts are breaking. If you compare these shafts to older steel hex shafts, the older shaft load is even distributed and the shaft\driver surface area is maybe 4 or 5 to 1 even though the new aluminum shafts are much larger. And the collars are just band aids. Polaris recognized the weak point and put the collars there, but that's just going to move the shear point 1/8" in or out from the collar.

Conclusion; the new shafts are junk.

Frisco, I completely agree with your opinion and conclusion! Honestly I have been a Polaris guy my whole life but after the lack of 800 Polaris engine cylinder wall design changes, quick drive belt failures, and driveshaft issues it was enough to change my mind so I traded my 13 ProRMK for another brand.

My heart goes out to all of the guys who have had these issues because it sucks to have a tripped ruined besides having to tow one out and having to pay to rent another machine. This is for sure a disappointment and it sort of makes it worse to have someone call your new machine a POS when it is the best stock production sled made.

Obviously best is not the best word to describe the sled when it is broken but it is hard to believe it is the best sled if it is broken. Some of the driveshaft collars have proven not to be effective enough to stop some of these failures from occurring so the jury is still out but one of the aftermarket wide collars looks to be the most promising. I also think that the forums make this problem paper to be more common then they are but obviously the failures are real and are appearing to becoming more common.

I also want to thank and credit Mountain Horse for letting this thread continued even though it is not real informative and it does border on bashing but we are all old enough to read through the pissed of haters but lets be honest if this happened to you or your good friend you were riding with would you feel any different?

 

[markd7]

markd7

Hey Guys: The thing broke and face it stuff happens. We AC Ski doo and Polaris learn from there mistakes and go on. Its unfortinate that it happens to the one thing that we have fun on on our days off. And then in difficult areas to get the thing fixed. Look at it this way if it was our job to ride these things in the places we do would OSHA even approve of our actions? and if our machine breaks down during our job (riding sleds) we would get a day off. In a different life we used sled for our line of work and I had to fix them. I hated every one that came up to the North Slope they all broke down. The best one we had was a Scorpion Whip. It had suspension that could take -40 and a good motor. The worst was a Ski Doo.
Man makes machines and machines break down. The Space Shuttle was built by the smartest people in the world and it broke down.
My motto now is after a break down if no one got hurt and it didn' cost more than a million dollars it isn't so bad...
MH

 

[Hawkster]

It's not always bashing , it's something that needs to be heard . It is a machine that is being asked for from the majority of customers that don't participate on forums , the ones that do are making bandages or fixes .

In a way their missing the boat , people are wanting to push the limits and go places they haven't been able to before with the old iron . Maybe it's because people are naturally lazy and always looking for the easy way out .

The space shuttle is buildt by the lowest bidder just like everything else . It's the manufacturer that is in charge of QC and their not doing a very good job . Is there some reason why reliability is becoming a smaller window of reality while greed is out of control at the expense of other ?

Flickable ?? They haven't road a snowhawk have they ?

 

[harrysmith500]

Hey Guys: The thing broke and face it stuff happens. We AC Ski doo and Polaris learn from there mistakes and go on. Its unfortinate that it happens to the one thing that we have fun on on our days off. And then in difficult areas to get the thing fixed. Look at it this way if it was our job to ride these things in the places we do would OSHA even approve of our actions? and if our machine breaks down during our job (riding sleds) we would get a day off. In a different life we used sled for our line of work and I had to fix them. I hated every one that came up to the North Slope they all broke down. The best one we had was a Scorpion Whip. It had suspension that could take -40 and a good motor. The worst was a Ski Doo.
Man makes machines and machines break down. The Space Shuttle was built by the smartest people in the world and it broke down.
My motto now is after a break down if no one got hurt and it didn' cost more than a million dollars it isn't so bad...
MH

This is awesome!!!!