1
mine did the same thing Polaris said no warranty. I never hit anything. It is deffinatley a safety concern
SAFETY CONCERN: 2013 Pro A-Arm Failure
- Thread starter winter
- Start date
T
Mine came apart this weekend. Lucky for me, I was in powder, and I wasn't thrown off the sled too hard. I ended up getting stuck, and discovered it when I went to pull on the ski to get the sled out. I had enough speed when it came loose to peel the ski back to the point that it broke the rear section of the lower a-arm off from the bulkhead. Also ruined my shock and bent the steering tie rod a little bit. Getting it back to the trail, then a 20 mile ride back to the truck made for an interesting end of the day.
I had a little over 400 miles on the sled, and have put it through the normal wear and tear that suspension will see...jumps, bumps, powder turns etc but I didn't hit anything directly. No dings or bends in the a-arm. There were some loose pieces of glue inside the silver pocket where the black part of the a-arm was fitted. If I remember correctly, I could also see some adhesive sticking out the small injection hole. However, it never seeped out between the silver portion and the black rod portion of the the a-arm.
Now for the best possible outcome to this disaster. I called my dealer and explained what happened. They did a quick check to make sure the sled is still under warranty, which it is since a it is 2 months old. No further questions and they said bring it in and they will fix it, site unseen. They said they were to order the parts yesterday after I dropped it off, and get it fixed ASAP since I "bought a new sled to use, and not look at." I guess I am one of the lucky ones who has a dealer that will go to bat for me and stand behind a product. For the record, my dealer is Fun Center Cycles in Durango, CO.
I had a little over 400 miles on the sled, and have put it through the normal wear and tear that suspension will see...jumps, bumps, powder turns etc but I didn't hit anything directly. No dings or bends in the a-arm. There were some loose pieces of glue inside the silver pocket where the black part of the a-arm was fitted. If I remember correctly, I could also see some adhesive sticking out the small injection hole. However, it never seeped out between the silver portion and the black rod portion of the the a-arm.
Now for the best possible outcome to this disaster. I called my dealer and explained what happened. They did a quick check to make sure the sled is still under warranty, which it is since a it is 2 months old. No further questions and they said bring it in and they will fix it, site unseen. They said they were to order the parts yesterday after I dropped it off, and get it fixed ASAP since I "bought a new sled to use, and not look at." I guess I am one of the lucky ones who has a dealer that will go to bat for me and stand behind a product. For the record, my dealer is Fun Center Cycles in Durango, CO.
So on a "good" a-arm can you see glue all around the shaft? Polaris has once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
T
I'm not sure if being able to see the adhesive squeezed out all around the shaft would constitute a 'good' a-arm or not. However, if it were me, I'd feel better seeing excess adhesive displaced around the whole shaft because it would seem there was enough adhesive applied during assembly to ensure contact over the entire surface area of the a-arm shaft and silver socket that it goes into.
D
D8 Crazy
Switch dealers! Kurt's Polaris would replace it no questions asked! That's why they are still in business. Thanks for the heads up and glad no one got hurt!
Switch dealers! Kurt's Polaris would replace it no questions asked! That's why they are still in business. Thanks for the heads up and glad no one got hurt!
Bent the shock too! Bummer. Can you imagine if that had happened on the trail at a high rate of speed. Instant over the bars yard sale with high potential for injury. Come on Polaris. Let's see you come out with a recall fix soon!
P
This is what happens when you move your engineers down the road and isolate them from production......yes....a great team of engineers and a great design....but very lousy control of production execution and quality.....then a dealer response eerily similiar to General Motors service writer.
I caught my lower left arm coming apart on the rear joint, spindle side. 331 miles, and no impacts to speak of. Local dealer warranties it no problems, no issues whatsoever. I didn't even buy the sled from them. (although at my time of purchase it was under different ownership)
Good dealership makes the difference.
Good dealership makes the difference.
My local dealer got mine covered by Polaris when the dealer I bought it from told me it was highly unlikely. A good dealer is hard to find.
D
iv seen the sway bar attachment point debond and slide down the control arm as well as have seen 2 different sleds have the carbon frame break where its bonded to the aluminum frame on the upper left hand side.
I ride a Skidoo XM, but my buddy wrecked his A-arm a couple of weeks ago in Grand Mesa. I actually did the same thing the day before him. My only comment is that the Polaris actually thought about the rider who is going to tear up his a-arm and made it easy to swap out with all the bolts accessible on the outside of the sled. My damn Skidoo has to have the hood and entire exhaust removed just to get at one of the A-arm bolts. Same issue though - the rock caused the adhesive on the aluminum cast part to separate from the metal tubes and it also bent the shock. Luckily the tubes stayed inside the casting long enough to get it back to the trailer. Although the Polaris a-arm is alot easier to change out, the part was $250 vs. the skidoo part at $155. Mainly due to the all steel structure of the skidoo a-arm like most other a-arms and Polaris's use of the cast aluminum with the ball joint and adhesive attachment. Pretty expensive part if its not going to hold together when needed.
F
Auto collision repair shop use panel bond to glue panels on automobiles. I have seen pull tests where the metal will tear before the glue will ever let go. Proper prep and cleaning of surfaces that mate is key.
O
we have 3 of them come unglued. 3 different dealers and no warranty
Again... IMO,
This is not an engineering problem...
It is a "consistency in quality" control and production management issue... on the 2013 PRO RMK's the majority are not having problems with the a-arms...But there are a Significant number of people that are.
Great engineering, and... from the track record this year... not enough consistency in quality-control or production management.
.
This is not an engineering problem...
It is a "consistency in quality" control and production management issue... on the 2013 PRO RMK's the majority are not having problems with the a-arms...But there are a Significant number of people that are.
Great engineering, and... from the track record this year... not enough consistency in quality-control or production management.
.
C
x2
only possible way(s) I can see to properly manufacture glued slip joint would be:
1. to have sufficient tolerances to allow for desired glue / bond thickness (e.g.. ABS / PVC pipe & fittings)
2. adheasive film applied to parts and then activated (e.g. thermal)
3. injection of adheasive under pressure - would require end of tube insert to be capped
4. press fit or combination press / thermal action
5. mechanically fastened
either way QA seems to be lacking
Don´t know if I totally agree with it, not being a construction fault.
When that happend on my friends machine he got it temporary fixed with a bolt straight thru. Just until he got he´s new Zbroz-kit, when he removed both sides he could empty out like 1dl water out of each A-arm.
Probably because of this:
Snow goes in turns to water, freezes up, melts in the garage, freezes up out in the mountains and so on. And everybody knows that frozen water expandes and have the power to destroy/crack metaltubing, radiators etc.
There is no drain-hole on the lowest part of the a-arms so why the hell do they make that kind of weld with a hole? :face-icon-small-con
Plain stupid engineering in my book.
Last edited:
V
Looks like a good spot for some black RTV when the sled is new (or summer dried).
So I too have had an A-Arm seperate. No hit that I am aware of and it was the back of the a-arm that seperated so if it was due to a hit it would most likely be the front tube. Anyway the dealer said that Poo will now warrantee these but all must be sent back for inspection. Mine only had glue showing on one side. The dealer agreed that the upper weld hole is letting water in and could be contributing to the problem. They were so nice to silicon these shut on my sled now but when I asked them if they rolled the sled on its side to drain the water first, I got that deer in the headlights look.
Add another to the list. :cheer2:
Had 2 13 Pro's both pull A-arms this weekend for no apparent reason. One was mine and the other my good riding buddy. No collision or tree's hit.
Sleds are heading to the dealer, Hopefully covered!
Sleds are heading to the dealer, Hopefully covered!
Similar threads
