Drive Shaft Service Bulletin

[frog]

My only issue with how this is being handled....
They know there is a problem. The supposedly "good" replacement shafts will go ONLY to dealers with broken shafts. This is a mistake if I am interpreting the bulletin correctly.
Of course dealers should have priority access to replacement shafts, but the focus SHOULD be on getting an improved shaft to those that have NOT broken.

From my past experience I beleive that Polaris has a small amount of known good shafts in stock and want to keep those on hand for the unfortunate ones who end up breaking their shaft because they are riding their sleds. I believe that the issue is not with the initial design of the shaft but a vendor problem. Shafts were assembled with not enough adhesive or the mating surfaces were improperly prepped before being glued together. Once it is dertermined that the issue is specific to a certain vin range or if it is going to be affecting all vin ranges thats when we will see an actual service bulletin. I believe that Polaris is doing the right thing and protecting the customers who have broken their shaft by assuring them that a replacement shaft will be available. I would be wrong if a guy like me in MN wanted to order a shaft to have on hand just in case while a guy in BC couldn't ride cause they were not available because the rush of orders completely depleted the inventory of good shafts. If an inventory of good shafts were plentifull I could care less who ordered one but, until that is a reality I beleive the shafts should remain saved for those who break theirs until a service bulletin or inventory says different. Be patient, just a couple more weeks and we should see the end of this PIA.

 

[PowderMiner]

I think that it is an assembly problem as well…

Due to the fact that in the test sleds, at least the ones that Mountainhorse and Coyotegirl got to test on the unveil day see their pics looking at the one with the log in it…

They seem to be coming apart differently. Some seem to peel, some bulge, some twist clean and that is from the limited photos. The concern to me is that might indicate more than one specific problem; like the glue gun shooting blanks, uncured glue, less than specified metal thickness, etc. This is the cause of my anger toward Polaris at this and the real fear I have with failures occurring in time.

I may have a perfect one, but the possibility of being the first one, in my group, heli-ed or towed or ruin a day or trip for something other than me breaking it, well it gets me all worked up! Probably cause I know Polaris will make the changes to the next batch and next year while leaving me with a potential time bomb. I feel they need to validate the part that is on my sled or I promis to buy another brand next time… (not easy for me to think about)

I would have rather got my sled on the 22nd of December rather than the end of October in order for it to be reliable.

 

[whoisthatguy]

You guys that are saying "just ride it like you stole it if it breaks warranty it" you forget not every person who buys these sleds have the fortune of living 2 hours away or less to ride..... I can't just drive 1500 miles and if it breaks just say
HEY no big deal its a warranty fix ill just drive home another 1500 miles than just head right back out there no biggie...just sayin there's those of us who heading out to ride in the mts is a BIG deal not just a weekend ride or hey I got the day off let's go....

Find a wet grassy field and test that baby out. Don't drive in the same grooves twice in order to keep the mud down in the tunnel.

 

[SSABMUD]

My guess is that if everyone is installing the 2012 steel shaft in their sleds that will make polaris look bad, so hence they put something stupid like this in the bulletin. try to get people to believe that this 3 piece aluminum shaft is the greatest invention ever. the 2005,2011,2012 shaft has a big oil seal collar on it to back up the bearing, there is no way the bearing is going to seize to it. and the belt pulley has a steel insert with splines molded in where it slides on the shaft, just like a chaincase gear. steel on steel.....its been done this way for 30+ years in snowmobiles. a chaincase does have oil in it, but if anyone is worried....put a dab of anti-seize and smear it on the surface....problem solved.

Anti seize....I put that sh t on everything. As for Polaris saying it will seize, yeah right. If the were to give me a new 2013 shaft for free, I would still not install it. I would bet that this shaft will not be in the sled next year.

 

[bigdave]

I know this doesnt say much but i did do 36 miles today 5 trail in 25 pretty hard riding and 5 back to truck....no problems so far...not to say it wont fail but mine held up for the first ride and i wasnt babyin ether...just saying

 

[SSABMUD]

Wish you good luck.

 

[RMK935VA]

I know for a fact that the prototypes tested last year had the bonded driveshaft in them. Many of those sleds logged over 2,000 hard miles without the drvieshaft breaking. Therefore, I think that it is safe to say that it is a manufacturing problem versus a design problem. Nevertheless, I would like to see Polaris aggressively doing something about this issue versus doing what they are currently doing which is not much.

Specialized Bicycle Company had a frame breakage problem with a top end mountain bike that they came out with a decade ago or so. This was a $5,000 bicycle and they had sold about 7,000 of them. Less than 20 bikes had experienced the reported problem before Specialilzed took a very proactive approach and recalled all of them for repair/replacement. It had to cost them a lot to take that approach but it reassured many customers who might have jumped brands on their next purchase if Specialized had not done what they did.

I would like to see Polaris do what Specialized did in the case above instead of taking the low profile position that they have done so far. My suggestion to Polaris is that they study what Specialized did in the case above and quickly craft a similar response to their customers who own 2013 RMK PRO 600s and 800s. Short of doing that, they risk alienating many loyal customers and losing many potential future customers. They also are allowing the continued viral expansion of negative comments about their product which may or may not be justified. If they (Polaris) are reading these threads, I hope they read this one soon. Their attorneys are giving them bad advice and their managment are not doing the right thing for their customers or their shareholders.

 

[fatcat65]

i like the posts that are making light of the "serious riders" here that are worried about messing up their whole trip because of a very slight risk of failure.

do the "serious riders" realize that they can have an endless list of things that may happen to screw up their trip that arent even remotely close to be related to this failure ie. shredded belt, hit a rock and bend tunnel/a arm, taking a wrong line in a chute and end up in a tree well or smashing down some rocks???

"if its my fault its no big deal, if its the manufacturers fault they owe me BIG TIME!!" lol

what a bunch of whiney people. maybe some peoples parents should have whooped their kids a$$es a little more so their kids would have more to do than post 10,000+ plus times in a snowmobile forum.

 

[mrquick68]

i like the posts that are making light of the "serious riders" here that are worried about messing up their whole trip because of a very slight risk of failure.

do the "serious riders" realize that they can have an endless list of things that may happen to screw up their trip that arent even remotely close to be related to this failure ie. shredded belt, hit a rock and bend tunnel/a arm, taking a wrong line in a chute and end up in a tree well or smashing down some rocks???

"if its my fault its no big deal, if its the manufacturers fault they owe me BIG TIME!!" lol

what a bunch of whiney people. maybe some peoples parents should have whooped their kids a$$es a little more so their kids would have more to do than post 10,000+ plus times in a snowmobile forum.

I typically side with the frame of mind that says "take responsibility for your own actions." Oh wait, i still do! If i break my own chit, shame on me. If i buy a $12k sled (used as designed) and the driveshaft has a HIGH risk of breaking because said company made a mistake but won't address it - shame on them. It appears Poo is addressing it though (aka bulletin), so we are headed in the right direction.

I'm no worry wart, but if i'm pounding some moguls on the trail back to the truck at 70mph and the shaft lets go? I've got no interest in eating that kinda chit because QC and testing weren't done properly. That's not whinning my friend, that's straight up concern.

 

[m8magicandmystery]

i like the posts that are making light of the "serious riders" here that are worried about messing up their whole trip because of a very slight risk of failure.

do the "serious riders" realize that they can have an endless list of things that may happen to screw up their trip that arent even remotely close to be related to this failure ie. shredded belt, hit a rock and bend tunnel/a arm, taking a wrong line in a chute and end up in a tree well or smashing down some rocks???

"if its my fault its no big deal, if its the manufacturers fault they owe me BIG TIME!!" lol

what a bunch of whiney people. maybe some peoples parents should have whooped their kids a$$es a little more so their kids would have more to do than post 10,000+ plus times in a snowmobile forum.

hmmm...ok, to make this fair comparison, next time you buy a new toilet let me know and i can crap in it at the store before its delivered. Its gonna get crap eventually right..??...so whats the problem..??

 

[fatcat65]

hmmm...ok, to make this fair comparison, next time you buy a new toilet let me know and i can crap in it at the store before its delivered. Its gonna get crap eventually right..??...so whats the problem..??

PERFECT ANALOGY!!! thanks!

I typically side with the frame of mind that says "take responsibility for your own actions." Oh wait, i still do! If i break my own chit, shame on me. If i buy a $12k sled (used as designed) and the driveshaft has a HIGH risk of breaking because said company made a mistake but won't address it - shame on them. It appears Poo is addressing it though (aka bulletin), so we are headed in the right direction.

I'm no worry wart, but if i'm pounding some moguls on the trail back to the truck at 70mph and the shaft lets go? I've got no interest in eating that kinda chit because QC and testing weren't done properly. That's not whinning my friend, that's straight up concern.

whats the chance of shredding a belt going 70mph down the trail compared to this drive shaft issue?? prolly about 50 times more likely from what ive read here on snowest. if i was you i would sell this dangerous contraption before the belt lets go and sends you a$$ over tea kettle into the pucker bushes

 

[friscospices.com]

Fatcat65 maybe your parents should have kept you in school so you could post paragraphs and sentences with correct spelling. Oh wait by the tone of your comments maybe you are still in school or should be. Your parents must have been wonderful role models and kicked you a$$ regularly. Obviously your spankings didn't help, for you to come on here and make fun of people and there concerns and think its just a joke. But there is some young man on this site who scraped up enough for a down payment on a new sled this year and budgets his money so he can plan a couple trips out west. I hope your estimation of a slight chance is correct for him. I will beg to differ, there are going to be many more failures, more than 60% of the owners have not even ridden yet. So take your 2 cents and go read something other than rants from people who's parents should have kicked there a$$'s more.

 

[fatcat65]

Fatcat65 maybe your parents should have kept you in school so you could post paragraphs and sentences with correct spelling. Oh wait by the tone of your comments maybe you are still in school or should be. Your parents must have been wonderful role models and kicked you a$$ regularly. Obviously your spankings didn't help, for you to come on here and make fun of people and there concerns and think its just a joke. But there is some young man on this site who scraped up enough for a down payment on a new sled this year and budgets his money so he can plan a couple trips out west. I hope your estimation of a slight chance is correct for him. I will beg to differ, there are going to be many more failures, more than 60% of the owners have not even ridden yet. So take your 2 cents and go read something other than rants from people who's parents should have kicked there a$$'s more.

thank you frisco! how am i making fun? my A$$ kicking portion of my post was a light hearted and sarcastic general comment, not a personal pointed attack as you did above... im surprised that you can gaze into your crystal ball and know exactly the percentage of riders that have had their machines in the snow already. you could make a lot of money starting a psychic friends phone line.

im sorry to think with logic and weigh all the different things that can happen to ruin someones trip. but then again im an optimist, not unlike a few of the members that have chimed in to this thread.

i will work on my grammar too, as most people WERE able to understand exactly what i said in my above posts.

 

[friscospices.com]

My prediction of many more failures will be way closer than your, "very slight" risk of failure comment.

 

[Prayn4snow]

2013 Pro-RMK Drive Shaft Service Alert from Polaris

This is the latest from Polaris on the 2013 Pro Drive Shaft that I have heard. I do not work for Polaris in anyway. I rode Polaris for 12 years in Alaska, but moved to Michigan a couple years ago (Don't ask). During that time in AK I snow checked a new Polaris every year or two. I have had some awesome sleds and yes unfortunately a real clunker (900RMK). Over those years of pounding rocks, stumps, mountains, ditches and everything in-between the Polaris's have held up pretty incredible. That said, we (Crazy group of Alaskans I had the privilege to run with) have towed out every make, model and size sleds out of the back country in Alaska. I can tell you truthfully that All of the major manufactures have had some sort of failure whether its motor, chassis, drive line, electronics, or fuel injection issue, especially on a new chassis. This Drive shaft failure has really had me interested. I have been ready to buy a new 2013 Pro-RMK for a few weeks but have been watching this issue closely. All the dealers I have been to haven't heard of these problems because there hasn't been enough snow to ride here. Finally today after pressing them for weeks for some sort of update I was printed out this Service Alert Fax. Before anyone flames me, I am currently riding an Arctic Cat M-8 for one reason "Dealer support". I have owned every make sled since the 80's and traveling for 20 years with the military so every where I went "brand loyalty" wasn't top on my list, "Dealer Support" was. There I said it. I know that this is a serious issue that I think Polaris will get figured out. In the mean time we the consumers need to help them by giving information (photos, broken parts) quickly to the dealers so they can get it to the manufacture. I think all the manufactures are making incredible sleds right now out of the box. I used to spend thousands each year on light weight/stronger this or that for my sleds. So I give credit to All the manufactures for listening to us consumers on what we want/need from them. Sorry about the soap box, it has been a couple years since I have been on here but time I opened pandora's box again.
I am still......Prayn4snow

 

[Prayn4snow]

Sorry, having trouble loading doc. Any suggestions?

 

[KSH]

 

[m8magicandmystery]

Originally Posted by m8magicandmystery
hmmm...ok, to make this fair comparison, next time you buy a new toilet let me know and i can crap in it at the store before its delivered. Its gonna get crap eventually right..??...so whats the problem..??

PERFECT ANALOGY!!! thanks!
QUOTE]

well i personally would want to buy that toilet in new clean condition if im paying new price.....and i think the purchasers of new sleds would rather be the first to crap in their toilet rather then have the manufacturer crap in it..

so i don;t blame them for wanting someone to clean up the mess..

 

[Prayn4snow]

Thanks!

 

[snowmobiler]

red x