[ivar]

there was a long thread on here a couple years ago with among others, a ski resort owner having a real horror story with his 550 fleet. If I remember correctly, one of the problems being poor heat management on the 550 in the edge body, cooling fan sucking hot air from the exhaust pipe area.
And there apparently was a "rental fleet kit" available, consisting of air ducts to provide cold outside air for the cooling fan

Then, one of the rental fleet operators in town got 550's with more than 20k on the clocks. Why some has good luck with these while others have the opposite, I've no idea.

Myself, I'm leery of these, and don't feel comfortable recommending them to new sledders asking me for advice for an affordable sled

 

[ivar]

if you top up both the gas and oil tanks, the sled should use about 1qt for a tank of gas.

instead of raising the needle 1 full clip pos, you may put in a needle shim that raises it 1/2 clip.
As for the percentage of failures, I'm sure Polaris got data for warranty claims etc, but good luck getting anything fromn them...

 

[ivar]

not 100% sure but I thought the edge tanks were 11.8 USG / 43 liter?

 

[ivar]

pretty effed up how a trail model burns down mid-range, 25-40mph

from what I read/hear, midrange / low speed burndowns are pretty common on these, -> to me it sounds like underhood heat, leading to poor cooling is a big part of the problem

 

[ivar]

+1,

Ive seen way to many ads here like "Nice 550 for sale. 2000 miles, new engine at 1xxx..."

 

[ivar]

.. they just needs new pistons every 10k miles