Ask the Editors: Was There Ever A Manual Clutch 4×4?
As close as you’re going to get.
A few but remember this – there has never been a 4×4 ATV with a manual transmission exactly like your Warrior – which is a left bar-mounted clutch lever and left-side foot shifter combo.
You may have heard the late 1990s Arctic Cat 500 (454cc) 4x4s labeled as manual transmission, they in fact lacked the bar-mounted clutch lever and instead required its user to shift with a combination of heel and toe to shift the gears (roll the foot forward and click down for one direction, roll the foot back to the heel for shifts in the other). It still used a wet clutch design, however, making it closer in user experience to what we now call semiautomatic.
Semiautomatic 4x4s were the rage all through the 80s, 90s and into the 2000s for 4x4s until fully automatic CVT systems took over. With a semiautomatic transmission, you still shift up and down the gearbox with your left foot, the only difference is the clutch engages automatically when you let off the throttle or in some cases the clutch engages thanks to the activation of the foot shifter all in one motion. (We talk about one of the many ways they accomplished this here.) This keeps the machine from stalling even if you come to a stop in gear and makes performing a shift simply a matter of letting go of the gas, clicking up or down a gear, then getting back on the throttle.
The Wolverine 350 is a great example of one of few sporty 4x4s using a semiautomatic system. If you’re willing to go well-used (especially in the 90s), finding a semiautomatic 4×4 will be a breeze as most of the manufacturers still offered them. As time went on sport and race quads got the fully manually transmissions, 4x4s and utility quads got fully automatic CVTs and the semiautomatic like you’re looking for went all but extinct.
As for considering the Grizzly, Yamaha never offered one with a semiautomatic transmission. Meaning fully automatic is your only option here. The last 4×4 Yamaha made with the semi-auto setup was the Big Bear 400 (prior to that the Kodiak 400). The largest of the foot shifted semi-auto 4x4s was the Honda Foreman 500 (TRX500FM1), which held onto foot shifting as recently as 2019.
