Have been driving my new 650 for 4 months in high range 99% of the time, only to find out from
Arctic Cat that I should have been using low range 99% of the time. The letter states: Low range
is intended for off-road use and should be used when moving slowly and/or being used under adverse
conditions and when operated on winding trails/wet or uneven terrain. High range is intended for
higher speeds on hard packed surfaces. Arctic Cat is getting a Large Volume of complaints concerning
premature V-belt wear.
My owners manual stated:High range is for normal riding with light loads. The Low range is for
carrying heavy loads or trailer towing. Thus I almost always used High range.
Questions: Wonder how much belt damage I have done by using High range most of the time?
Why don't they have a belt that can survive High range?
How much more fuel will be consumed running in Low range?
Will there be more engine wear using Low range?

Also, went into Limp mode at exactly 100 miles- What a joke! I can still hear my buddies laughter
as the horse flies and mosquitoes chewed on me while I did the re-set crap!

 

Hi 1111111,couldn't get the name you wanted either?lol.You probably should take a shim out of your secondary clutch,if you havent already.You will go through quite a bit more fuel in low range,don't use it unless you have to,its a cover up so a/c can cover their butt for sending out the 650s with loose belts.I'm pretty sure the engine will handle the extra rpm's but with them extra rpm's there is extra friction and heat and that does mean wear.Again,don't use it unless you have to,just keep your belt tight and don't slip it.
There is tons of info here to help you all you have to do is look and ask.

I have very similar limp mode STORIES

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

 

It is no big deal. Get the belt adjusted correctly and ride. I was riding in low range when taking challenging terrain anyway. Heck, the thing will go 45mph in low range. The problem is when someone gets stuck and they open the throttle and cook the belt. For that kind of crawling or mud bogging, AC is right: use low range. My experience has been that this is a great machine with a spectacular engine and a good tranny, when adjusted right.

 

Once you get more miles added on, your MPG will improve no matter what gear range you are using.
Just get the belt adjusted correctly, the closer you are to the low-side of the belt adjustment, the better off you are, plus your engine braking will really improve.
I always leave my Cat 650 in 4x4L at any speeds up to 25mph. Low 4x4 is better than 4x2L, less slipage/heat in the 4x4L.
I already knew this b/c I have owned 2 Prairie 650s before this Cat 650.
With a total of 424 miles on my Cat 650, my avg gas mileage is now 16.8mpg & that is in 4x4L 40% of the ride & 4x4H at 10% & 50% of flying down the trails in 4x2High, riding in the elevation range of 7,000 to 10,000 ft.

 

Hello I Have a AC 650 and I yes have had the clutches rebuild by my Dealership they also replaced my belt becasue they said that the belt was no good and already out of its tolerances. I have been only on one trip with it and it did this to the machine. Good Luck! I am having overheating problems. Have you ? The dealer ship said that my radiator was full of mud however I have not been mudding with it yet I took it on a second trip after getting it back from the dealer rebuilding the clutch and I over heated 10 minutes into the trail! This is the second time I had to be towed off the trial because the AC broke down! So far I am not impressed!! and frankly a little
Pissed. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

 

Mine was overheating when I got it too. I had a faulty thermostat. Once that was changed, all was well.

 

Personally, if your belt is tight, then use high for regular riding. If you get into deep water (foot or deeper), mud, or climbing over fallen trees, use low. If your using a lot of throttle to get it moving in high, then you should have been in low. I found that after riding a lot in high, and going through water holes, you could start to hear the belt chirp a bit in high (so I switched back to low).

Just like any quad, if you think you can put it in high, stop in a foot of mud and pin it, you're sadly mistaken! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Oh yeh, reverse is high gear, so be careful of trying to back out of mud holes. That's where you're most likely to spin the belt.

My belt was slipping at 60 miles (just because it was delivered loose). So, I think Cat could have saved themselves the letter and the stamp if they tightened the belt before assembling the machine (or bitched at Kawi for shipping them loose. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

There is one thing that a lot of you guys are missing- its part of the dealer setup to check for correct belt tension. Its nothing new to snowmobile dealers- you have to keep a tight belt if you want good performance. But the sad bottom line is that 75% of the dealers have a high school kid setting up your machine who doesn't know a clutch from a sparkplug let alone been sent to a update or service school. The dealer is also looking at it from a bottom line stand point- they don't get paid anything extra by cat for going the extra mile on setting up the machine but they do get paid for the warranty when it comes back. Its something to think about when buying a machine- find a dealer who will take care of you in the long run and do things correctly...

 

Just got a new 500 TBX...What is limp mode??? Is it something I need to know about? I dont want to be going along at 100 miles and have it stop.
Thanks

 

i bought my 650 le back in feb never overheated but ive heard about some bad t stats after roughly 50 miles of riding i removed the belt cover and checked the belt deflection which was over an inch so i removed a shim from the secondary which took care of that after installing 28 in 589 m/ts i noticed there wasnt enough spring tensionon the secondary to grip the belt so i orderd the epi pro clutch kit which comes with weights,2 primary springs red and pink and also a red secondary spring after pulling the cover and playing with shims and springs i have found that the prairie 700 primary spring worked the best along with the red secondary spring supplied in the kit i now have 500 miles on my machine with the orig belt and when entering 2 feet of mud it is in low range if i juice the throttle all 4 wheels through rooster tails of mud roughly 15 feet in the air another thing that i learned from my friends that do grass drags with there snowmobiles is that the clutch faces get glazed and cause belt slip so they wash the clutch faces with a 50/50 mix of sulfuric acid and water every 4 runs so i tried this on my machine and let me tell you it works so every 100 miles i wash the clutch faces to remove the glaze what happens when the clutch faces get glazed is it acts like if you were to wax your car and its smooth and slippery well thats what happens to the primary and secondary clutch and it makes the belt very hard to grip by removing that glaze the belt grips very well i know this is a bandaid for now but it sure keeps the belt from slipping and for the little time it takes its cheaper than replacing belts