Let us be transparent as possible about our 2018 Polaris Ranger XP 1000 riding experience.
While Polaris touts the Ranger XP 1000 as the “hardest working, smoothest riding Ranger ever built,” we didn’t do a lick of work the entire two days of riding and exploring with the new 2018 Ranger. We may have pretended like we were working for a photo op but the truth is we drove the Ranger XP 1000 a lot—all for fun—all over the 20,000-acre Honey Brake property in east central Louisiana.
We used this side-by-side to get to our duck hunting spot, to go alligator spotting and hunting, journey out to a hunting dog training session and to go skeet shooting. We rode it along levee roads, ranch roads and just about any other dirt road we could find. See, not a lot of work there.
While we may have been “pretending,” the Ranger XP 1000 proved its no pretender; it’s the real deal when it comes to class-leading features, power, handling and yes, work ethic.
All Over That
So if you want to talk about how the Ranger XP 1000 delivers when it comes to the recreation side of this side-by-side, well, we’re all over that. We didn’t find anything on the Honey Brake property that even remotely challenged the Ranger XP 1000. There were no rocky sections to crawl over or mud holes to wiggle through. It was fairly smooth sailing everywhere we went.
Because the Honey Brake roads are relatively smooth, sometimes long and straight and not crowded at all, we squeezed every ounce of power out of the ProStar 999cc inline twin—with its claimed 82 hp—every chance we got. While the new Ranger XP 1000’s horsepower is only a couple more ponies than the previous vehicle, two horsepower is two horsepower.
With the type of riding we did over the two days, we mostly kept the vehicle in the “performance” mode, just one of three offered at the push of a toggle switch on the dash. Along with performance, there is “standard” and “work” (which we rarely used) mode. Basically, the work mode limits the power output at the throttle for well, working situations like towing (an impressive 2,500 lbs. towing capacity) or hauling (1,000 lbs.) cargo in the newly redesigned cargo bed. Flip the switch to performance and the difference is noticeable. Stomp on the gas pedal and the vehicle goes and goes hard. The standard setting offers a nice middle ground between giddy up and go and work. Depending on which mode you choose, the engine modulates how quickly the throttle pedal opens the throttle plate, i.e., when in work mode, it slows down how the throttle is opened. When in the work mode, the vehicle is not going to take off like when in the performance mode.
While we appreciated the addition of a front stabilizer bar on the 2018 Ranger because of the cornering ability of the XP 1000 at decent speeds heading into and out of corners, the front stabilizer bar can also be an asset when hauling and towing as it will help the vehicle stay planted better.
