ORIGINAL: stubblejumper
Polaris is the most complicated and because of that they are the heaviest and require the most maintenance.
Oh really?
I've rode the Yamaha Grizzly, Kawasaki Brute force, Honda Rancher, and guess what....I'll take my Polaris Sportsman 500 H.O. over them all!! Best riding machine of the bunch, bar none!! They have the best automatic transmission system of the bunch, as well as the suspension. All the others feel very top heavy, and ride that way as well. You can't beat their AWD (all wheel drive) system either. Most problems with their belt drive comes from people being in the wrong gear range!!
You must be in Low range when pulling anything heavy or when operating under 7 mph. If in high range, while doing either, you'll burn up the belt!!!
So what ends up is people bad mouthing Polaris because they are in the wrong gear range then gunning the machine. Sosomething has to break, and I rather have it be a belt then the actual tranny. Some peole have no brains when riding a machine properly. And if you ride in water deeper than the crankcase, you must pull that small plug at the bottom of the transfer case and drain out the wateror it'll do damage to the tranny.
So I going to say this, most problems appear to be the person operating the machine. Again, I'll stand by Polaris over the rest.