New polaris Side X Side- General

[blackdog2086]

You state that it's the young guys wanting speed buying cvt UTV's but in reality it's the power companies, construction companies, gas line, town municipal departments......they are buying these for work not for high speed playtime. I rarely ever see an RTV but the few times I do it's principle use it to haul a few to feed animals on a farm or for general transportation around property.

The companies and municipalities you stated buy CVT's for the same reason most everyone else does..........lack of options. Nearly every UTV out there is equipped with a CVT transmission. Name the brands where you can buy anything else? I'm not up on all the latest out there, but I can only think of Honda and Kubota and now the Yamaha YXZ 1000 (which is a pure sport machine).

Would you buy a tractor that used a rubber belt as the primary power source in it's drive system? I'm far from a scientist or engineer, but even a tiny brain like mine can easily find the flaws and weaknesses in this system as opposed to real steel gears or hydraulic pumps providing the power to the wheels.

Polaris, as well as Can Am and Arctic Cat began as snowmobile manufacturers. They saw an expanding market in ATV and Utility Vehicles and found a way to make money year round by using existing technology in their new vehicles. Belt drive systems tend to overheat a lot less in the winter months with cold air flowing over their casings then they do in the heat of the summer. Polaris (and others) have had to put cooling fans for the CVT in some of their high performance models to keep them from heat related failures.

Polaris is also in the process of trying to develop a new drive system to replace their CVTs, due mainly to reliability issues. If the CVT was the be all end all, they would leave well enough alone and just call it a day.

 

[ovrszd]

Yeah, like I said before, in 10 years we'll look back and laugh at the current systems.

If what you own now is serving your needs you bought the right one, regardless of color or brand. In my case my needs changed dramatically and now I rarely use the CVT UTV.

 

[WilliamBos]

The companies and municipalities you stated buy CVT's for the same reason most everyone else does..........lack of options. Nearly every UTV out there is equipped with a CVT transmission. Name the brands where you can buy anything else? I'm not up on all the latest out there, but I can only think of Honda and Kubota and now the Yamaha YXZ 1000 (which is a pure sport machine).

Would you buy a tractor that used a rubber belt as the primary power source in it's drive system? I'm far from a scientist or engineer, but even a tiny brain like mine can easily find the flaws and weaknesses in this system as opposed to real steel gears or hydraulic pumps providing the power to the wheels.

Polaris, as well as Can Am and Arctic Cat began as snowmobile manufacturers. They saw an expanding market in ATV and Utility Vehicles and found a way to make money year round by using existing technology in their new vehicles. Belt drive systems tend to overheat a lot less in the winter months with cold air flowing over their casings then they do in the heat of the summer. Polaris (and others) have had to put cooling fans for the CVT in some of their high performance models to keep them from heat related failures.

Polaris is also in the process of trying to develop a new drive system to replace their CVTs, due mainly to reliability issues. If the CVT was the be all end all, they would leave well enough alone and just call it a day.

Post the links to the Claims of polaris developing a new drive system. The snowmobile system is flawless and dependable as can be, like it or hate it, its not going away.

 

[ovrszd]

Post the links to the Claims of polaris developing a new drive system. The snowmobile system is flawless and dependable as can be, like it or hate it, its not going away.

If you are a Polaris supporter, that should sadden you. They will get left behind if they marry themselves to CVT thru the next few years. I don't see them doing that. They will develop a successor.

A snowmobile's loads on a CVT system are sooooooo much different than an ATV or UTV.

 

[Green Power]

I dont ever see them doing it, but it sure would be cool if they would throw a 5 or 6 speed manual transmission in the General, or any other side by side. Or even a traditional style automatic transmission.

 

[DK35vince]

A snowmobile's loads on a CVT system are sooooooo much different than an ATV or UTV.

Yea, my snowmobile has 135 HP and my 750 V-twin ATV has 50 HP.
I have well over 6000 miles on my ATV and the CVT clutch's have never needed anything.

 

[Copperhead]

Bobcat has hydraulic for the 3600 but the 3400 is CVT. Looks remarkably like the Gravely units.

 

[DT86]

Bobcat has hydraulic for the 3600 but the 3400 is CVT. Looks remarkably like the Gravely units.

What is the story on the Gravely? I remember something about them being front half of one and back half of another Polaris model.

I do remember they had the Prostar 570 gas or Kohler diesel.

 

[johncar]

I didn't have much success with my 2014 Ranger Diesel belt drive system for a work vehicle and I certainly never abused it IMO. I live in a warm climate, hilly terrain up to 30 degree slopes and never see snow, temperature averages of 30 degrees C are common up to 40 at times. 36 forecast today.
Anyway when using the Ranger diesel as just a people or material, equipment mover travelling at sensible speeds always in low range it worked reasonably well but with some clunky transmission slippage going downhill, that they, (Dealer/Polaris) said was normal, but without any explanation for the clunk??.
Any time I tried to use it for slow travelling type of work such as hours of spot spraying, pulling out long runs of fencing wire etc the belt/clutch system would heat up and make it impossible to shift the transmission without shutting down the engine and giving it a rest for 20 mins or so. Rear axle was popping out of the diff as well. My efforts to remedy this proved hopeless with my local dealer and Polaris AU. Immediately after I bought it new, they were not interested in helping me with it, just kept saying it is normal and a limitation of the machine.
The belt still looked like new and never replaced, worked fine while cool and the ranger was a very enjoyable vehicle otherwise and I liked driving it, but the crudeness of this system didn't make it suitable for my application as I believe that they require a decent amount of cooler air flow to work better. The other issues without a good explanation just made me worry.

So the term "work vehicle" is a bit loose as it depends on what type of work plus in what climate and conditions? So yes no doubt the CVT belt is successful for many, but not others.

I just became too frustrated with the Ranger Diesels belt system, transmission slippage, axle popping out etc., so for my purpose I had to take the fall of about $6K on the Ranger and traded it for a Kubota RTV-x1120D, hoping that the HST should cope better.
I have had the RTV only for a couple of months now and still early days but so far it has been generally superior as a work vehicle for my situation and a pleasure to not have to fight with the Rangers transmission and no other glitches. Heaps of low down hauling power with the RTV's HST and seems to run all day moving around at low speed with no issues.
Not driving on the open road, so high speed is not at all important to me personally although I find it to be quite adequate just the same.

To my surprise, Kubota head office called me this week as a courtesy to ask if all was well, and if I was happy with my RTV, which is good PR. Never got one call from the other crowd even though they knew I was having problems being very disappointing.

Anyway seems like I have my solution for now but yeah it will be interesting to see what they will come up with as a good all round transmission for these vehicles instead of what seems to be just a bit hit and miss from the ATV/quad bike system.
Sorry if I got a bit off topic.

 

[DK35vince]

So the term "work vehicle" is a bit loose as it depends on what type of work plus in what climate and conditions? So yes no doubt the CVT belt is successful for many, but not others.

They all have their pluses and minuses.
For a pure work UTV I would likely go with the hydrostat type transmission. Great for slow speed work, but not so great if you want to do any higher speed trail riding.
CVT- not as good for hard slow speed work, but much better if you want to use the machine for higher speed trail type riding.