PROJECT POLARIS PREDATOR
Our Top Trail Mods

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It seems as though the time for the Predator has come and gone. Still there are still thousands of these units throughout the country. Perhaps you have one in your garage right now. While Polaris has replaced the Predator with their new Outlaw 525S, the Predator still has lots to offer for its owners. The Predator offers good handling, super smooth power and excellent brakes. We put a year of abuse on ours. Our Predator has seen it all from the sandy terrain in Ocala Florida to the soft mud at the Big Rock ATV Park in Maysville, KY. We’re here to report the trusty Polaris never experienced a mechanical problem greater than a punctured tire. Our verdict, - it’s a very dependable and quite capable machine for the aggressive trail rider, but we can make it even better for minimal dollars.

Predator Problems

The Predator 500 may no longer be manufactured, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good trail machine. We think with some help from the aftermarket we can make it even better.

While we felt that the Predator was a good all around trail machine, it did have a few problems that held it back. Our biggest complaint in the handling department was the rear shock. The “Anti Squat Rear Suspension” system found on the Predator was designed to prevent unwanted wheelies under hard acceleration. We found this system performed well through the bumps, but did more harm than good elsewhere. Polaris basically created a rear end that would not squat under hard acceleration. Since the rear end of the machine couldn’t squat coming out of corners, the machine’s center of gravity remained high. This caused the rear end to get unstable before the front -- sometimes resulting in completely unexpected two-wheeling.

Perhaps an even bigger problem was the strange air box design found on the Predator. Under the easy to remove lid lives a paper-lawn-and-garden-filter covered by a foam pre filter. Trust us; this should be the first thing you address on your Predator.  A Paper filter can’t be cleaned and we doubt that it did a good job of either flowing air or preventing fine dust from reaching the intake.

This Pure Polaris/White Brothers E2 silencer was installed in hopes of gaining more torque and better top end. It features aluminum and stainless steel construction and has a removable spark arrestor. It also has an extra long body to help keep noise levels reasonable.

Although it wasn’t considered a “problem” the Predator’s midrange power sometimes held the machine back a bit on extremely steep hills when there was little run at the bottom. The Predator’s bottom end wasn’t very impressive even by 400cc class standards; however it would run at a lower RPM much happier than most 450s. For slime-ridden technical tails and steep cliff-like obstacles we wanted more grunt out of the machine. On top the Predator signs off gradually so it’s necessary to keep the Predator in the sweet spot of the midrange in order to utilize its power to the fullest. For a 500cc machine we knew there was more top end lurking in the motor. We just needed to figure out how to get at it.

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