The Polaris 800 will melt plastic. The manifold is to close to the body plastic and it will melt. I took mine back to the dealer and he said it my engine ran cooler then the other 800's they tested so it was a manifold problem. Polaris replace all the plastic and had the dealer put more heat tape on the back of the plastic but it melted again.

This may be ATV of the year but you farmers who spray and plow and brush hog or mow grass with this big powerfull atv will find out that the plastic will burn you if you touch it. You will find it melting after 2 hours of using your pull behinds.

Where is it melting? Do you have any images of the damage?

Bryan

The plastic melts on the Polaris 800 where the manifold touches the plastic on the right side. The manifold has a metal piece (looks like a heat shield) attached to it in that area. I see 2 heat shields bolted on the manifold. The plastic touches this heat shield. The plastic has heat tape on it where it touches the heat shield. There is no air space at all around this heat shield. It all acts as a heat sink and it heats up the plastic at low speeds. It just gets hotter and hotter.

The dealer has tested the temperature of my engine and he has deturmined that it accually runs cooler then the other 800 he tested. Not an engine problem.

The dealer has it now and he has taken pictures and sent them to Polaris. Polaris says they have had a few others melting and they are all ones that pull things behind them.

This has been going on for 3 months! I have lost the service of an ATV for 3 months and it only has 150 miles on it! 

I suggested that they reroute the manifold so that it has some air space between the plastic and wrap the manifold with the same wrap that the race car drivers use on their manifolds to keep it cool in that area. No response yet.

Well that just sucks! Thanks for the news, we didn't encounter any such problems with ours and we even felt it would make a good worker since it functioned better at low speeds.

Bryan

Polaris says not all the 800's melt the plastic but some of them will. It of course has to be mine as I traded my 700 Polaris in for that 800 a year ago and the 700 did not run well at low speeds at all. It was not the 700 efi which runs very well at low speeds. My 700 ran so poorly that I took it back to the dealers and they had to put different size jets on it. It ran a little better but was still running rough from 0 to 10 miles per hour. I had a friend that traded his 700 in for the 700efi and he says it runs so well at low speeds now and he is a happy camper. I bought that 800 efi and they run so smooth I was happy untill it melted the plastic. I will get rid of it and buy the 700 King Quad. Hope I am making the correct decision as this is my 3rd strike!

Bill

The plastic melts? I have a 2005 Polaris Sportsman 800 Twin EFI Hunter's Edition 4x4 and I have 202 miles on it and no plastic is melted. I have pulled a trailer behind it with a load of wood a number of times and I have no problems with the ATV. This problem may be only with certain Sportsman 800 models.