Christmas Eve my wife purchased me a 2005 700EFI Dale Earnhardt Jr. Edition with TPI Series 7 Rims and the Mudlite XTR tires. We just moved to a new house that has about 7 acres or so of land but alot of it is wooded so Ive put about 12 miles on it just putting around the house. Last Sunday I got a chance to go ride with a friend of mine who just bought an 06 Kawasaki 650. His atv is alot smaller and has stock tires on it. We rode on about 500 acres of Land most of which was flat farm land a few trails. I love my atv it preformed great , i slaughtered my friend in the mud and was able to stay with him on the flat land. I estimate my top speed of about 62 , but I attibute some of the lack of speed to my larger tires. We rode for about an hour and a half most of which was about 75 throttle we put on about 15 mile or so when I checked my fuel guage. I was on about a quarter of a tank and my friend was still nearly full. My question is this: Why such the bad gas mileage? Is this normal in the 700efi? Did the bigger tires play a part in this? Just a curious question.

 

Va700EFI........
I also have the 05 700 EFI and my mileage isn't the best either........I probably get somewhere's in the neighborhood of 55 miles per tank........I guess you can look at it like this, these machines aren't made for mileage but they sure have tons of torque and power........Also another thing to be aware of is that because the shape of the gas tank the first half tank of fuel will go a lot further than the second half.......The tank is very wide at the top and very narrow at the base so be aware of that.....If you gonna go more than 40 miles I would bring fuel just in case....Supposedly the mileage gets a little better as the quad breaks in so I hear.........
John

 

With stock tires, but other mods, i can get between 60-70 miles on a tank in the summer. Thats hard trail riding... in and out of the throttle a lot, and averaging 25-35 mph. In low range or in the mud/snow the mileage is a lot worse.

 

You will loose gas milage from your larger tires obviously and your also running 5 to 6000 rpms all the time while riding hard

 

I have an 05 SP700EFI also and I was out one day with about 12 other ATV's all different sizes and manufacturers. In about 80km of mud I burned just over 1/2 tank and I was riding two up. A friend on an 05 Bruteforce 750 burned a tad more than me but he had a big tire kit on also. Most of the singles barely burned 1/4 tank. And I believe the big Cat burned about the same too.

 

Welcome to the forum!

Your fuel economy will improve after the motor is broken in. Everyone here is right, you can’t trust the gauge (it will go half a day on half a tank then drop like a rock) bigger tires, depends on the temperature, terrain, etc. I usually figure ours are good for about a 75 mile range but I’ve gotten as low as 50 after break-in winter riding. We carry spare fuel.

 

I may be wrong here (if i am let me know) but the mudlite/ITP wheel combo may be lighter than your factory wheels and tires, if not im sure its not much heavier, so im thinking they wouldnt affect your gas milage a whole lot. But with u comparing the milage to the Kaw 650, i bet the 650 doesnt weigh around 800lbs like your bike does. Also, your 700 has a 4. something gallon tank, what size did the Kaw have?

 

I get 80-120 miles to the tank, averaging 16 mpg, best recorded actual 27 mpg, on my 04 700 efi

 

All the guys I ride with have other brands of the big bikes....grizzly, rincon etc. and once that machine of yours gets broke in you'll get pretty much the same gas mileage as your buddy. Something I just thought of.....if your dealer put gas in that bike when you bought it they may have only filled it till the guage was showing full and stopped. It holds a heck of alot more gas after that. Go by what you see in the tank, not your guage.

PS Enjoy your new bike!!

 

Did you go with a bigger tire for one? IF you indeed have a bigger tire than stock then your mileage is not accurate. Anytime you go with a bigger tire that tire is making less revolutions than the smaller stock tire so your mileage is going to read less than it actually is. Also you are going to use more fuel because it takes more to get it to move. On trucks when you go with a bigger tire you do a gear change and speedo calibration to keep mileage and power stock. So your 15miles may actually be 20-25miles depending on how much bigger you went over stock.