It’s been two
decades since the RANGER 6×6 vehicle was introduced and revolutionised the
side-by-side category in 1998.
Mitchell Johnson,
son of David Johnson – one of the founders of Polaris in the 1950s – was
pivotal to the conception of the iconic machine and tells us more about how the
RANGER rode to market.
“When discussing the
beginning of the RANGER, we first have to think about the vehicle in the
context of what Polaris was doing at that time," he said. "In the
1990s, the Sportsman ATVs were Polaris’ only Off-Road Vehicle and was selling
well.”
Polaris’ reputation
for being one of the fastest developing companies in the powersport industry
held true, RANGER went from initial development to production line in just two
years.
“We had talked from
time-to-time about making a side by side ATV for a driver and passenger,"
he continiued. "Every Friday we had a staff meeting in the morning and
then in the afternoon, we’d go out and ride ORVs. We always took at least one 6×6
ATV to carry everything. We would try and ride around with one person sitting
on each fender to see what it was like.
"One day, Edgar
Hetteen [one of our founders] came to my office and said we should make a 6×6
in a side-by-side configuration, he loved the machine but wanted to ride beside
his wife Hannah.”
Major decisions
about the new model were all made as ‘gut calls’. The key in developing the
RANGER in Mitchell’s opinion was to keep the team and investment small.
During early
conversations, the main characteristics that the new machine had to have were
fairly clear.
“Good speed, great
ride and handling with excellent off-road capability, plus a greater payload
than any of the utility haulers on the market were all attributes we wanted the
vehicle to have," he said. "Most of all, it had to be a lot of fun to
drive and ride like the already popular Sportsman line.”
The RANGER is
testament to the Polaris culture – innovation and development, moving with the
times and trusting staff to make decisions. Even the name of the new model was
helped decided by employees.
Polaris celebrated
rolling the one-millionth RANGER machine off the production line in 2017 and
2018 marks two decades since the utility vehicle was introduced to the Polaris
line-up. Forming a key part of the Polaris product line, the RANGER is used all
over the globe for a variety of tasks – with the RANGER Diesel and RANGER 570
variants being international best sellers.
The RANGER legacy
gets stronger every year, with the RANGER XP 1000, the latest addition 2018,
setting a new industry standard and boasting over one hundred user-inspired
improvements. The model has class-leading power (82hp) and torque (61lb-ft),
industry-leading towing (over 1100 Kg) and ground clearance (330mm) – making it
the hardest working, smoothest riding SXS built.
