[green hornet]

Is this worth 600 bucks?

 

[revrnd]

I've never had a problem unloading mine (loaded w/ firewood or sand). I imagine a helper to tip the box would be cheaper if you couldn't do it by yourself.

 

[HRTKD]

I've loaded a sand/gravel/dirt mix to the the top of the bed. It was very heavy and I could not activate the dump myself. I needed a helper. It also helpss to part such that the front of the Ranger was higher than the rear.

 

[revrnd]

I'm thinking if a person couldn't tip the box, would the "power unit" be able to tip the box w/o damaging itself or the mounting hardware?

 

[alloutdoors]

Kris, great question and would guess the capacity of a power assist would be around 500 lbs and suspect it would just fail/stall to lift if the weight exceeded the capacity.

As for the original question, I don't believe a power assist is really worth the $600 dollars and would find other ways to spend that same amount on my unit, e.g., winch, doors, heater, etc. vs. power assist dump, just my opinion.

 

[dadasaurus]

I have the Polaris dump bed actuator. Had it on my 800FS, and now on my 900. For me, and what I do, I think it's a great add-on. I have a long and very steep trail down to the lake I live on. When we bought this house the previous owners sons had an ATV that they drove up and down this dirt trail. There were very deep ruts all over the place. I decided to re-surface the trail with some 5/8 crusher run. Wasn't sure how much it would take, but by the time I finished it was just under 46 tonne. I had to work my way down from the top which meant dumping my loads while on the steep decline. Unless I shoveled just the smallest of loads into the bed, there was no way I could dump it manually. I can't say for sure how much my average load weighed, but I tried to put what I felt to be a reasonable load into the bed. The Actuator worked flawlessly. It was also much safer with such a steep trail to be able to sit inside the cab with my foot on the break while dumping. The other nice feature of the Actuator is that I could raise the bed partially and drive forward distributing the stone which meant a little less raking, which was definitely a good thing. Since then, I have found other times when the Actuator came in handy, and to be honest, I just find it kind of a cool mod (my little mini dump truck). As for the price, and if it's worth it, I guess it just depends on what type of work your doing with your Ranger. I just sold the Actuator off my 800 to another PRC member (It's currently en-route somewhere between Canada and the US). I read here on PRC where someone purchased the 900 Actuator off eBay much cheaper then the Polaris retail $600 and so I followed their lead and searched eBay once every evening for many weeks before finally a $600 OBO ad came on, I offered around half the asking price and it was accepted. Sorry for the long reply, but just wanted to share my thoughts on this, hope it helps. Here's a couple pics to give you an idea of my trail (also added a hand/guard rail with 2x10's and 4x4 posts, which worked out really well). If you look close in the third pic you can see most of the hand/guard rail winding down the trail.

 

[alloutdoors]

In this application, yes, I could see the power lift being a must. I do see you take the safety serious with that beautiful wooden fence, nice work.

I only wish more people considered the safety factor over the need to save a few dollars.

 

[dadasaurus]

Thanks Alloutdoors. One of the Rangers jobs in the Summer is to cart myself, the Mrs. and our son up and down to the lake to go swimming most evenings, so safety is definitely very important with such precious cargo. The hand/guard rail was an expense but certainly worth every penny. It's certainly nice to have it there just in case the Ranger every starts to slide sideways on the way up or down. Also, I got lucky and it is a great height for a handrail as well. There is a staircase, but I prefer us to walk the path, especially when our son is with us (if were feeling extra energetic and don't want to take the Ranger). Not to knock others work, but that staircase was not built the best. It is very strong, but the treads vary in depth from one step to another, and also, the risers vary in height. Considering it's 148 steps down, I don't want anyone taking a fall.

 

[mustangwagz]

whoa... hell of a house, walk way, and set of steps ya got... Id say you need a "Power lift" installed..lol

 

[dadasaurus]

LOL, thanks Wagz. After the 2nd time that I had to carry my son back up to the house on my shoulders cause he was too tired after swimming to walk, I decided, there had to be a better way.....then came the Ranger!

 

[rowe doo]

Nice spread awesome path and safety rail and stair's from hell LOL.

 

[dadasaurus]

LOL, thanks Rowe Doo, 148 of the meanest stairs I've ever seen!

 

[rscook]

Wow nice walk way. I have been looking at this option for my 800 xp. My wife has a hard time dumping it. I have been pricing
on ebay and at my local dealer for one. If anyone sees a good deal let me know. Thanks. I will even bring one out of the
US and ship to Buffalo to a post office box I am not far from there and can bring one back

 

[revrnd]

I have the Polaris dump bed actuator. Had it on my 800FS, and now on my 900. For me, and what I do, I think it's a great add-on. I have a long and very steep trail down to the lake I live on.

When we bought this house the previous owners sons had an ATV that they drove up and down this dirt trail. There were very deep ruts all over the place. I decided to re-surface the trail with some 5/8 crusher run. Wasn't sure how much it would take, but by the time I finished it was just under 46 tonne. I had to work my way down from the top which meant dumping my loads while on the steep decline.

Unless I shoveled just the smallest of loads into the bed, there was no way I could dump it manually. I can't say for sure how much my average load weighed, but I tried to put what I felt to be a reasonable load into the bed. The Actuator worked flawlessly. It was also much safer with such a steep trail to be able to sit inside the cab with my foot on the break while dumping. The other nice feature of the Actuator is that I could raise the bed partially and drive forward distributing the stone which meant a little less raking, which was definitely a good thing. Since then, I have found other times when the Actuator came in handy, and to be honest, I just find it kind of a cool mod (my little mini dump truck). As for the price, and if it's worth it, I guess it just depends on what type of work your doing with your Ranger. View attachment 10208 View attachment 10209

Nice job on the "road". Your location reminds me of some of the cotages in the Apsley area. Mind you the owners aren't the type to get their hands dirty doing anything constructive (the local contractors make a fortune doing that kind of work).

In your instance, I can see that it would be useful. On the bold, I was wondering if that could be done. In my situation/usage, I'm w/ alloutdoors, I can find other ways to spend the 600 bucks LOL.

 

[dadasaurus]

Thanks Revrnd, I've always taken great pleasure in a hard days work, especially those jobs where you can look back and really see the difference your hard work made. Just wish I had not forgot to take before pics. As for the gradual dumping, it worked for me sometimes, and certainly better after I got some practice doing it, and worked better on the few flatter areas of my little road. The actuator will hold the bed right where you stop it, the tricky part for me was raising it enough to start the stone moving, but not so much as to dump it too quickly. This definitely took practice, and of course changed with how steep the area of the road was. It never worked perfectly, but did help some, and cut down on some raking, and any less raking was great

For Rscook, appreciate the compliment. For my searching for the actuator, I saved a search in eBay.com where I searched on the actuator part #. I would run the search every evening, only took a minute to do. It took many weeks (didn't track but I'd guess at least 8) when finally a $599'ish asking price came up with a OBO attached (there were always a few listing around $600, just took time to get one with the OBO). That's when I made my offer for about half the asking price. I'll admit I was surprised when it was accepted.

 

[dadasaurus]

Not sure where that shades wearing happy face came from, but that should read 8 weeks. Lol

 

[revrnd]

Thanks Revrnd, I've always taken great pleasure in a hard days work, especially those jobs where you can look back and really see the difference your hard work made. Just wish I had not forgot to take before pics. As for the gradual dumping, it worked for me sometimes, and certainly better after I got some practice doing it, and worked better on the few flatter areas of my little road. The actuator will hold the bed right where you stop it, the tricky part for me was raising it enough to start the stone moving, but not so much as to dump it too quickly. This definitely took practice, and of course changed with how steep the area of the road was. It never worked perfectly, but did help some, and cut down on some raking, and any less raking was great
.

I imagine it took the guys w/ dump trucks some practice before they got it figured out. LOL