The first thing I am aware of they did to cut weight was to downsize the battery. I have also seen photos showing changes were made where the swing arm connects to the frame replacing a heavy cast steel section with a tubular steel section - like you I would love more information on this.
Yep, when they added the fan shroud and muffler heat shield to the SlingShot, Polaris downsized the battery at the same time to maintain the weight..............
Bill
I have a 2016 and it came with the smaller battery, but not the fan shroud or muffler heat shield - if I understand it correctly those were not added until they did the 2016 1/2 changes
Some areas they actually increased size. The lower chin wing brace has been made stronger and larger compared to early models.
Hoops were also reworked in 2017 and have larger openings than the earlier versions. Do not know if this translated to reduced weight but if it did it would be very little. More than likely ballanced out with the addition of SlingShade mounting points.
2016 1/2, (maybe the '16 too), they greatly reduced the size of the side panel supports/bracing, located directly under the side panels, in the interior top portion of the side panel- lightened the load, and guaranteed if you put any weight on the side panel, you would get star cracks in the paint, at a minimum.
We had our outer panels replaced under warranty on our 2015 for cracking so this has been a problem from the beginning. After the newpanels were installed I went in and modified the brackets so to hopefully keep it from happening again. We also did this as a reminder:
Bill
yep. I'm about to put in a warranty claim for several pieces of bodywork. The side panels have started to "crack and star". And the back deck has some weird wavy look starting to appear. I looked under it and nothing is even close to it. I guess heat may have warped it a little. I'm sure Polaris will want many photos. It's a good thing I got the 5 year warranty....
