The Polaris Ranger is the most successful SxS product in powersports history. These miniature pick-up trucks are so versatile, so useful and so much fun – after having access to a Ranger youll wonder how you ever got along without one.
In an effort to keep interest and buyer enthusiasm high, Polaris regularly introduces new variants of the Ranger including the amazing mid-size line up powered by a 570cc single cylinder engine. Polaris almost always follows the introduction of a new Ranger 3-seater with a 4 or 6-seat model.
The launch of the fully enclosed, weatherproof cab kit for the XP series has been an incredible hit. So has the Polaris full roof kit – one of the companys hottest-selling accessories. Winches that mount in a snap because Rangers are factory prewired for their installation, has made a winch one of Polaris’ top-3 selling accessories.
There’s more: Snowplows are bought by a staggering number of Ranger owners who live in the northern states and Canada. Polaris builds Rangers set up so they easily accept Pure Polaris snowplow kits.
The amount of stuff you can add to a Ranger if catalogued would easily exceed the pages in this magazine.
Now, along with the ceaseless proliferation of accessories you can add to your Ranger, comes the most intriguing factory installed accessory to hit the off-road world.
Two years ago we tested the Polaris Northstar Ranger XP 900 with a factory-installed full cab that was heated – including heated seats and a bus-sized windshield wiper.
It was an immediate, season long hit here at Dirt Trax World HQ. The Northstar allowed you to jump in the cab on a snowy day in your shirtsleeves and spend hours plowing snow in complete, automotive comfort. Needless to say, the North Star is a huge success in northern climes.
If having a SxS with a comfortable, heated cab in the winter was good, wouldn’t a fully air conditioned cab be even better? Yes, my friends, it would be! Enter the Polaris Ranger XP 1000 HVAC; the first Ranger with factory air!
It’s important to understand this HVAC system is not an add-on, dealer-installed system. The complete AC compressor is built right on the side of the XPs Pro Star engine and is as compact a unit as youll ever see. The condensor is mounted below the drivers door. You have to really look closely to tell if an XP 1000 Ranger has HVAC.
This system was developed in tandem with a vehicle called the Rampage – a fully amphibious, tracked, 4-season army-spec Polaris vehicle commissioned for the Canadian military.
The Rampage uses a Pro Star 1000 engine and its design required a climate-controlled cab on certain variants. Thus, the Ranger HVAC project got a significant kick in the development process.
Clearly, there are other SxS vehicles with HVAC: The Kubota RTV has this option, too. However, the Ranger is the first truly sporty, sport utility vehicle selling at a mainstream price to come equipped with air conditioning.
The addition of AC to a vehicle that outsells every competitor by a wide margin, means a Polaris buyer has again been given access to an off-road feature not previously available at the MSRP level of the Ranger 1000 XP.
Think of the possibilities. In southern climates when summer SxS use slows simply because it gets too hot to perform farm chores or just to enjoy a recreational ride, the HVAC Ranger makes it possible to ride year round in comfort.
This is a Ranger XP, the definitive SxS. It can transport three people and a monster-sized load of gear just about anywhere, anytime. The XP 1000 is powerful, fast and nimble and taking a gang to a fishing hole couldnt be easier, even if the road is gnarly.
Polaris true 4WD with high and low range makes navigating the most ridiculous terrain simple. When it comes to ride quality and comfort there are only a handful of SxSs capable of covering rough, rutted, rocky terrain as quickly or as smoothly as this vehicle.
We gotta think showing up with a Ranger HVAC on a hot summer afternoon, when your friends are choking on dust and soaked with sweat, would be kinda cool!
We mean that literally.
