Driving a side-by-side is fun. When it’s one of your younger kids trying to get at the wheel of a sport ATV, though, you have to admit, it’s not quite as fun. Truth be told, having them commandeer the darn thing is nerve-wracking. You just never know when they’ll mess up and hurt themselves bad. If you want your kids to enjoy the same off-road excitement you do without the danger of letting their childish tendencies get in the way, you might want to check out the Polaris Ranger 150 EFI.
Designed for younger individuals, it’s a safety-focused side-by-side ATV, allowing you to let your kids loose on an off-road powerhouse without having to worry about them taking more than they can handle. Whether your kids want to drive supplies around the farm by themselves, race other kids for middle-school bragging rights, or speed around the desert like they saw on that Red Bull video, this should prove a whole lot safer than a regular side-by-side ever could.
The Polaris Ranger 150 EFI is an erstwhile normal-looking side-by-side, with two-seats, a roll cage, and a generous cargo bed for hauling gear and supplies around the farm, albeit with slightly smaller dimensions than your typical unit. It uses a 150cc engine, so this has about as much power as one of those moped motorcycles, which is enough to send it barreling through at satisfying yet manageable speeds. There’s no maximum speed rating, although we imagine it can go up top 35mph pretty easily (maybe more, depending on the payload).
Regardless of the actual top speed it can hit, you can electronically limit the available power through the app. Want your kids to go no more than 10mph? Just set the top speed on the app and you’re good. Don’t want your kids going further than the boundaries of your property? Not a problem, as it also has geofencing, allowing you to set the top speed to zero if it ever leaves your defined boundaries. Yeah, your kids got the key, but you still have full control from the app. You can even lock the engine if you want, requiring your kids to ask you to key in a passcode before they can start the vehicle.
The Polaris Ranger 150 EFI has an interlocking seatbelt system, along with nets on the sides, to keep kids firmly in their seats even after sudden stops or mishaps on the trail, with eight inches of ground clearance allowing you to drive over most obstacles with ease. Both the seats and the steering wheel are adjustable, too, so kids of different ages and heights can modify it to fit them perfectly. It’s strictly two-wheel drive, so it won’t quite get out of tricky off-road terrains the same way a standard ATV does, but dual A-arm suspension with 5.1 inches of travel out front and swingarm dual shocks with six inches of travel in the rear should allow it to drive through a lot unpaved paths pretty capably as well. Other features include tilt steering, hydraulic disc brakes on all four wheels, and a limited cargo capacity of just 50 pounds.
The Polaris Ranger 150 EFI is available now, priced starting at $5,499.