You guys are not alone in riding in high gear most of the time. I think we all do for the same reasons you guys mentioned. I know I should have used low on many occasions but never had a low power or lugging issue so I just keep it in high. When trail riding I have used low on a couple occasions in some sloppy mud hill climbs where I needed grunt but even with two adults and a few hundred pounds of crap in the back it seems to have enough power to not bog down, but I probably should be using low to save on belt wear......that is what got me to thinking about this subject in the first place.

 

It's not so much about not having the power to climb the hill or get through some slow area. It's a belt cooling issue. The CVT cools best when it's turning faster. When you are going slow in high gear the lack of revolutions means the fins that move air are going slower, meaning the belt isn't getting cooled as well either. It's heat that kills belts more than anything else. Big reason the makers spell out when we should be putting it in low gear.

 

Hadn't thought of that, makes sense. I don't plow snow or pull a trailer or even haul a lot of cargo on mine. Mine is just a toy. The heaviest thing I've hauled in years is a cooler. Sometimes I'm caught in between. I'm going slow enough to use low but any second I might want to go faster than low will allow you to go so I just use high. Or if you're in a group of people and you know all of them are riding in high gear as I was last weekend (2 of them were on foot shift Hondas) and you don't want to get left behind. Of this group I had the fastest quad and could have easily caught back up though. Honda Rubicon foot shift, Honda 300 4x4, Polaris Sportsman 400 and my Brute Force. I have said before I wish there was a way to shift from low to high on the fly but the way cvt transmissions are designed, there just isn't. I would use low more often if I simply didn't have to stop to shift to high. A lot of the time I am riding alone though. I can get up to about 30 mph in low though, which is fast enough for pretty much most trail riding. But I don't like to go more than 20 mph. That seems to be the speed where low is too low and high is better.

 

Yep..when I had my praire I had the same issue...problem is now on the Kymco the low range runs out about 25, if you hit 29/30 it hits the rev limiter and 25 can be just to slow at times unless your in some deep goo. Like you I wish there were a way to shift on the fly then I would find myself using low much more often. And yes I agree with the heat in the belt theory. During some slow trail riding in high I noticed the engine temps climbing and switched into low and everything cooled down.

 

It's the rocky hill climbs with football + sized rocks, deep snow, towing, and any situations where you have to go slow to pick a line through or around things that I've gotten in the bad habit of leaving it in high. If figure it's got the power, so it's fine. But, when I paid attention I noticed the CVT cover getting hotter than if I had dropped it in low. I can go over 30 in low but I hate the excess noise at that speed.

 

I think a lot of the time its as simple as I don't want to stop to shift into low. I might need low for a short distance but then after that, conditions would dictate I need high. On a smaller displacement machine with less power, low range is necessary many times to conquer obstacles. The more power you have, the less you think you need it. Its just easier to leave it in high and not change. On the Grizzly I had recently, it was hard to get it to go into low anyway. Sometimes it would only go partially into gear and you would hear all kinds of grinding noises. At least the Brute Force clicks firmly into each gear. The shifter on the Grizzly 660 was not a good design from day one. I remember a big-bore shootout way back in 2002 which was the first year of the Grizzly 660. The testers noted how the Grizzly was notchy in its shifting even then. And it was a brand new model. Though at the time, only the Prairie 650 and Sportsman 700 had more power. Honda, Suzuki, and Arctic Cat only had 500cc machines to bring to the party at the time. How times have changed since then.

 

Now that you mention it, I did run my Sportsman X2 500 in low a lot more. Again, I have the power now to leave it in high, but I'm not doing the belt any favors.

 

Yep....when I had my Praire the shifter was easy to put into gear once you got the handle on pushing that stupid button. However on my Kymco the shifter is a real PITA. I have gotten used to the notchiness so it works better for me but still a real pain, expecially going into low. The factory says it is that way because the shift forks are spring loaded so it can't jump out of gear and it also is supposed to force itself into gear if not all the way into position. It does do that though...if your off just a little it does snap into gear at the first movement. Still wish they had low to high shift on the fly!! From what other have posted it appears the heavier SxS does not seem to add extra wear to the belt, something I was curious about, but many of the posters seemed to be getting about the same mileage as the ATV guys. Mabey they are just increasing the quality of todays belts!!

 

I assume on SxS they simply put a beefier belt on them to compensate for the extra weight. Your Kymco is one of the lighter SxS though, there are some 4 seaters that weigh twice as much. The Gator 825i 4 seater my uncle has weighs right at 2000lbs dry weight. Add fluids, a full tank of gas and a full load of passengers and some cargo and it could reach 3000lbs, that's as heavy as a car.

 

Your right there even though it weighs about 1200 wet with the accessories you can tell how much heavier it is than my older Praire was, and that was a heavy ATV for its time! Hard to imagine wrestling a 2500-3000 lb machine thru the woods. I know the Praire had a heavy duty belt on her when compared to other makes and there belts but havenot saw a belt for mine yet. Been thinking about getting a spare just to have on hand. Would like to plan a trip to Hatfield/McCoy next summer if I can put together a small group to go, and looking for extras I might need to have on hand.