Excellent Bad Idea: Off-Roading A Polaris Slingshot

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When building an off-road vehicle, two of the critical elements you want include stability and ground clearance. To be clear, the Polaris Slingshot doesn’t really offer either attribute. Sure, on smooth pavement it probably won’t tip over, but try driving one over a rock or any uneven surface and those three wheels become a huge liability. Same goes for the low-slung ride height that normally allows what’s considered in some states a motorcycle to hug turns.

Learn about the dangers of overlanding through Honduras here.

There are other perhaps not quite as obvious problems for anyone who wants to turn their Slingshot into an off-road machine. Despite it being a completely bad idea, the allure of rocking it on a trail using three wheels is just too tempting for some people.

Polaris has carefully engineered the Slingshot to be stable as drivers rip through turns. The problem some have noticed is when owners start modifying them, like this one who added a luggage rack and loaded it, throwing off the weight distribution of the vehicle so it was no longer stable going through a turn at highway speeds.

For the 2021 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Gas Monkey Garage built an off-road Polaris Slingshot which is perhaps the best example to date. For starters, it’s lifted so the thing could in theory roll over obstacles like rocks, deep ruts, etc. without getting hung up. Tires with chunky lugs and deep voids help with traction on less-than-ideal surfaces, while a skid plate guards against underbody damage.