RS Venture Owners - Please Give Me Feedback

[Jack_Shaft]

hi
I have been for little more than 12 years with Polaris, my last two sleds were touring and i put 15 000 miles on each (4-6000miles/year)

I have switch to the yamaha with high expectation and i have been deceived

On the good side, the motor as you know is handsome. The power band is great and the fuel usage is very good. The look of the sled is really the best in his class. The seat is really confortable.

On the bad side. no storage area, passenger hand warmer very weak, slide wear unacceptable, track noise very loud between 50-60mph.I ride 100% of time with a passenger, the rear just not accept the load of a passenger without bottoming. I only weigth 150lbs and my wife 115. It was a major issue here in quebec. Yamaha pass the heavy duty spring on warranty. With all crank at the top it is not too bad but far from my old polaris. The steering become heavy too when you crank up the rear to get your suspention travel... ski lift increase as well...

On the mecanical side, the rear cam braket break (Springs bite in the track and scrap it), jackshaft break. bearing scrap, suspention bushing wear too fast... My last Polaris were less wear for 2-3 times this milage...

I think yamaha will work on many of those issues for 2006.... but my 2005 experience is disapointing. I expected more quality for the money...

i have 4300 miles done

Alain

Alain, I have read and fully understand your post, but I believe that you are in the minority with your abundance of problems to report with the Venture.

If you managed to get 3 times the mileage from a recent Polaris Touring sled before you ran into the amount of trouble you encountered with your new RS Venture, you are a unique case. In our service department, we have over 40,000 km's logged on RS Venture's this year in some of Canada's harshest winter conditions (wayyy North of where you are, son) and the Polaris maintenance that we see here on a regular basis far exceeds what we have seen from the RS Ventures. Personally, I have about 3000 km's on a demo RS Venture that many, many people have driven in just about every condition imaginable and it has not as much as squeaked this entire season.

At 3500 km's, you saw some water in your ccase... did you run on some sloppy trails? Did you encounter any water holes during the early season or Spring melt? Did your dealer give your sled a good checkover at 1500km's or so? He should be able to catch these things quickly and service your sled in order to avoid any long-term damage.

Once again, I am boggled at how your Polarises have shown so much better quality over your RS Venture. It has been our traditional experience that the Yamaha 4-stroke product (RX & RS) has been superior to any other sled on the market with regards to durability and longevity.

With everything that you have said, are you really disappointed with your RS Venture?

-JS

 

[towing]

Hi Jackshaft
Far of me the idea to convice anyone that the RsVenture is a bad sled, i only share my experience with this product....

I am moderator on the yamaha section of a pretty popular french forum here in quebec, and actively participate to the french yammis forum also. This give me a pretty good sample of RsVenture owners, many that i ride with.. and it give me a pretty good problems report history also...

Talking reliability and premature wear: Bearings.... No i don't encounter slushy trails or water holes.. it is a yamaha desing/ poor bearing quality issue. All wheel bearings in the track are shot after my first season of 5000miles (8000kms), the drive shaft bearing let enter moisture on speedo side and is not greasable, and few owner had chaincase bearing failure. By comparison, with my last polaris (2002) i replace wheel bearing only(not the entire wheel like yamaha one) after 2 seasons 16 000kms and only check drive shaft and jackjaft bearing that were ok to run our 25000 km, the were greasable.

I had a unexplicable jackshaft breakage, just in the bearing near the secondary.. nothing justify this problem. Two friends of mine had this same failure and i kwow a total of 5 case via the forums... i am a touring rider and pretty soft on the mecanics and never had anything like this in the past.

i had the chance to avoid an other issue, the cam support of the rear suspention spring can break and completely fall from the transfer arm. 3 friends of mine experience this one. I had the chance to re-inforced this braket before it break. I don't understand why yamaha did not make a safety recall on this one yet, because when it happened, the springs bite in the track and lock it.. imagine if it happen when you take a curve at high speed or when you cross a road.... By the forum report, i am aware of 8 cases of this.... if yamaha do nothing with that this summer, i will post a detailed message on this. Not only that it scrap your track, it is a safety issue and somebody could be injured.

The last problem i have now is that my clutch faces have a pretty deep groove in it after 8000kms. I clean my cluths on regular basis, only use yamaha belts and follow my RsVenture shop manual maintenance and adjustements.... it will be fix under warranty but we don't know why it happened. By comparison with my old polaris, faces were ok after 25000kms, only shim it and replace a rollar at 17 000kms on the primary and nothing on the secondary. Take 2 belts on the polaris to did the 25 000 kms, take 2 this year on the venture...

Nothing in all issues i had can be avoid by dealer service....if you find one, please tell me...

O.k. enough on the negative side... I bud of mine who is a 15 000kms / year rider and that ride a new venture each year tell me that: This Rsventure is the sled that i more hated.. it is also the one that more loved... this sled is really fun to ride and have many quality. With mecanical update it will be a very great sled.

Alain

 

[Jack_Shaft]

Towing:

I respect your opinions on what has happened, but I have two comments for you:

1) After 8000km's, if you need to replace suspension brg's and driveshaft brg's, you are in the "norm" maintenance wise, as far as I am concenrned. Brg's have a hard life in snowmobile applications.

2) If you actually managed to get a recent Polaris drivetrain to last for 16000 km's without needing a full clutch rebuild, no less than two driveaxle brgs and all of your rear suspension brgs (twice), I would like to know your secret. I have rarely seen a 600cc + Polaris primary make it past 3000mi without needing a full rebuild and the suspension / driveaxle brg's are usually right there with the primary clutch. However, if you can make one last for 16000km's, all the power to you.

At the same time, I hope that your comments on the durabilty issues make it to Yamaha for 2006/2007 so that these areas of concern can be dealt with.

-JS

 

[62crusr]

Towing, I can relate to your experience. I have a 2002 600 Polaris with 14,000km on it and the clutches still look like new. In fact I have never even touched them. My RS Venture on the other hand will be getting a new primary under warranty as the faces after 3600km have deep grooves at the lowest point where the belt contacts at idle.

I have yet to experience the cam support breakage issue but I had never considered it as a safety issue. Thanks for the heads up.

I too have had alot of reliability issues and annoyances with my Venture. Worn through limiter straps, warped and cracked idler wheels, premature slidder wear, grease fittings that squirt grease out the side, clutch rattle, belt squeal, fogging gauges, track howl and now a crack on the inside of the track between the cogs where the idlers run. My dealer has been good about doing everything under warranty but it is definetly a pain in the @#$ having to take the sled in ever few weeks to get something fixed. My hope is that Yamama will come through and offer the owners some proper fixes, not just swapping in the same old unreliable parts.

Even with all these issues though I still really like this sled. In terms of looks, comfort, operation and performance I think its the best touring sled out there. I do plan though to write a letter and send it off to Yamaha shortly a give them some feedback they desparately need.

 

[towing]

hi 62crusr
i hope that yamaha will have some updates for us at fall to improve reliability... lets see..

for your track, is your problem looks like this...

Alain

 

[maddogjeff]

Hondo, could you tell us more about the poloris wheels you put on. How many, size, placement. Picture would be great.

 

[hondo]

My dealer replaced the entire set of Yamaha wheels with Polaris wheels. According to my dealer the Polaris wheels outside diameter are slightly larger, I think he said 1/4" total and 1/8" on either side. This extra space keeps track separated from the slides (less track pressure on the slides) thus creating less slide wear. On the first set of slides I got 1,350 miles. The second set 400 miles in good snow conditions. This was totally unacceptable, especially for extended long distance trips.

My dealer knew I had some extended rides planned to the Gasp'e region of Canada, 1,200 miles plus. After complaining to Yamaha and my dealer, Yamaha allowed $150.00 for a set of snow wheels. My dealer decided to go the extra mile a satisfy a customer by putting on the Polaris wheels. The marginal snow wheels are installed 9.5" forward of the rear axle bolt. This area had the most wear. the Polaris wheels in my opinion helped reduce the track noise too. Something to consider. Since the fix, I have over 3,900 miles on this set of slides

It pays to be persistant with both Yamaha and your dealer. It helps a bit more when you have a dealer that will work with you to resolve problems that arise.

madogjeff: Did you get my email?

Hope this helps,

Hondo sends...

 

[62crusr]

Towing, mine is no where near as bad as yours yet, but now I now what to expect in another with more mileage.

 

[towing]

OUPSSS!!!
it is not mine !!! i put this picture from the rx forum to try to identifie the kind of default you get.... sorry for the confusion

The link to this discussion is here... It come from an rx1 2005 that not had high mileage.... i don't hear about other cases like this.

http://www.ty4stroke.com/viewtopic.php? ... ocked+rail

As for my track, it still look good after 8000kms. I fully clipped it to get rid of the slide wear and it work for me. The only complain i have on the track is about the noise. If i have to replace it i will try something else because of this noise.

Bye
Alain

 

[rums54]

To hondo and others: Thanks for all your responses. As you may have noted from an earlier post, I've gone ahead and ordered a 2006 Venture. Hondo, your comments on reducing track noise sounds like a fix I'll go with if Yamaha hasn't addressed the problem in the '06 models.

I also ride motorcycles so, when I've had time, I've been checking out the Goldwing forums ... haven't checked here for quite a while. It's good to get back and note all the activity on this forum even when the season is over.

 

[hondo]

rums54: Glad to help. What I understand the 06 Venture windshield is 2" taller. Nice upgrade.

It would be nice if Yamaha followed through on the hyfax and track howl issues. If not you have a back-up plan.

I think madogjeff is going with the wheel fix as well.

It really worked well for me.

Take some time and work with the suspension to find the settings that suit your riding style for single, and two-up.

Hope you enjoy the Venture as much as we do.

I'll be looking for a post to see how the season is going for you.

Take care,