Looking for ATV recomendations!

[DarrellB]

Now I want to know

When we all going to get together and go riding? I know it's vurtually impossible to get us all together in one place but it would be a blast don't ya think.



I'm going to try and go riding for a little while this weekend. Starting to have 4wheeler with draws it been so long since I've been.



Can't wait to get good and muddy.

Darrell

 

[Rob Thomas]

Any thoughts on Air cooled Vs water cooled and should I have an oil cooler???



Also any other thoughts on alot of these electonically controlled shifters and such. I'm not sure about the reliability. How about auto vs standard shift?









Mac, I have an Arctic Cat 500 4x4, it's liqued cooled with an electric fan, which is a nice feature, just plain wouldn't have air-cooled 'onnacounta I do alot of slow hill climbing. and general slow travel through the woods. I also don't reccomend the eletric control fer the 4x4 engage, just another thing to get ripped off by a branch or anything else that might grab the wires. The AC has a "real" 4x4 lever to engage it, another nice feature. Like someone else posted, the auto has to be reved-up to move, they have a centrifical(sp?) clutch, like a snowmobile, makes to much noise fer huntin' IMO, also the belt will slip if muddy. I have a manual shift and love it, much better than the auto that freinds of mine have. But check them all out, the thing has to feel right to you, definatly check out the Arctic Cat, I love mine.



Darrel, I'll go ridin', when's the next time you''ll be in Michigan? We have lots of great trails here, come on up!



Later, Rob

 

[Diesel Freak]

Belt VS Geared tranies



Belts are great, especiially if you have the clutching tuned right. www.hpd-inc.com specialises in Polais machines and builds some screaming fast quads they do not slip unless you get water in the sheaves, and since the waterproofing on all belt driven machines has come along way in the last few years it is almost impossible to get them wet..... I have tried!



the bad thing about geared trannies in quads is that the engine and transmission share the same oil supply. This means that the top end of the engine (cams, rocker arms, piston oil controll rings, etc etc) has to deal with all the clutch and gear wear particles that are generated in the transmission. The only quad with a manual clutch that has separate oil supplies for the transmission and engine is the Cannondale



water cooled VS air cooled



it really does not matter... . watercooling allows the OEM to build a more powerful engine for the same displacement, but since you are looking for a 4x4 sport/utility machine most of the larger (500cc and bigger) machines are water cooled... some are even oil cooled. The oil resevoir on my Scrambler has cooling finns on it.



All quads are maintenance intensive regardless of the brand or model. It is hard to go wrong with any machine. I would recommend the Scrambler 500 (fourstroke) the Scrambler 400 (two stroke) or the Sportsman 500, another fourstroke. Take a look at the Yamaha Grizzly 660... . it is also another sweet machine.

 

[DarrellB]

Rob,

I'ld love to come up and go ridin but it looks like this year my vacation days are pretty much spoken for. I've only been here at work for 5 years so I just get 2 weeks vacation, but in 3 years I get another week and then look out. Maybe I can make a trip up that way next year to do some ridin and site seeing. I've always wanted to see Michigan, I've heard it's really nice.



I'll see ya at Muncie and we can trade wheelin stories. (I got some good ones )



Darrell