I have purchased a 200 2x4 300 Arctic Cat. It has a rear mounted engine. I wasn't sure about it but the price was right. Anyway I love it! It rocks, the rear motor/differential means less places for water to get in. It feels very balanced.

So I am now wanting to sell my big bear and buy another Arctic Cat.

I need 4x4 on at least one of my quads. So history lesson please!

Was the 300 4x4 the only Cat to have a rear mounted engine? Did the differentials lock?

I am hoping they made a 400 or 500 that had the same rear engine set-up.

If the 400/500 didn't have, did they offer IRS similar to the 300? Did they offer foot shift with automatic clutch? or were the bigger machines all automatic?

So in a nutshell, I am looking for a rear engine, 4x4 foot shift. What years models are available?

THANKS GUYS!

 

No one Knows?

 

what do you mean by "rear mounted"?

 

The motor is positioned between the rear tires. Motor, Transmission, and differential are one unit. If you actually look at it from the side, it almost appears there is no motor.

 

They weren't really a rear mounted engine, but the old Bombardier Traxters sure looked different.

 

yes the 300 and 250's were the only two that had the engine mount further back. and i believe the later model 300's had diff lock but up to 2003 for sure they had open front diff.

 

the only rear mounted engine cat had that was either 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive that was really a selectable 2wd/4wd was the 250 and the 300s. I think only The 4x4 250's and 300's had high low and super low gears. 15 forward gears and 3 reverse gears. All were manuals(without the hand clutch) The 2wd 250 just had high and low gear,i believe. Its said that the older 300s that came out with 4wd had a differential locker in the front diff. but cat did not use them. You can make it a full locker though. Im not sure how exactly,but ive heard of it being done. This will give you 2wd,4wd(really 3wd,the 2 front wheels transfer power back and forth) and 4wd diff. lock ,all 4 wheels turn). They were all independent suspension, and the years that I know of were from 1998-2001-02 i believe 2002 had a model change and they started to get that jeep look in the front(i bought a 500i then). I can't remember for sure the last date,ill find out. The 400 and 500s were center mounter engines. I know most of this because in 1998I bought my first arctic cat 300(1999 model) and i had done ALOT of research and was the only one around here to have ever had or heard of an arctic cat atv. Now they are huge around here.

 

I believe the Suzuki Quadrunner 300 had a diff lock, if you're interested in one of those. it's the same engine, and rear drive train, but different plastics and framing around all of that.

 

yes the suki 300 had locking differentials,basically arctic cat used the same running driveline