[craigepo]

I have had a Polaris UTV for a couple of years now, and it has been a beast. I bought an 800 CC motor, which will get close to 60 mph on flat ground with one rider. I built a small ford on my place a couple of years ago, put 19 full sandbags in the bed. Squatted the springs pretty well, but the motor pulled the load out of a creek and up a good hill without a problem.

I pull a 48-inch rotary cutter, or a 40-gallon sprayer with the polaris. 800CC has no problem at all with this.

Elk hunted with it in Colorado this year. The all-wheel drive worked really well. Got hit with about 8 inches of snow, and never did stop that thing breaking trails on top of a mountain.

Only mechanical problem I have had was a loose hose clamp on the radiator hose. Once I found the problem for the leak, no more problems. The thermostat kicks on an auxilliary fan at 204 degrees, so the machine handles hot weather work pretty well.

I had an arctic cat prior---not a very good machine. My experience has been the Polaris is head-and-shoulders over the arctic cat.

Edited to add: that 800CC polaris is probably too much machine for a 13 year old. Not enough bubble wrap in the world to keep him out of trouble.