AC Owners,

As a temporary 2001 AC 500 user (My Grizzly is in the shop for over 40 days now) I am concerned about the exposed rear drive shaft. I am mostly concerned because I am considering a permanent trade to the AC 500. I would think, having that drive shaft exposed and spinning 100's of RPM's is a law suit waiting to happen. I tow my kids around on thier sleds and was terrified to see the drive shaft exposed. If one of the kids sled ropes were to get tangled in there, or a tow rope was to break while pulling out timber and would get caught up in there I would hate to think what may happen to the AC and the people around it. Does this concern any one else???

Thanks Allen L. Grooms
98 Grizzly - Out of Service
01 AC 500 on loan

 

The short answer is NO. enough said!

 

uh008,

if you are worried about a rope getting tangled up in the driveshaft just fabricate a hitch extension--this would place the rope further back preventing the rope from being wrapped around the shaft and the rear tires (in the case of a sharp turn). in the least, use a chain or a cable with a positive hookup like a shackle or a hook with a clevis.

i grew up around pto shafts on tractors and i have heard of long haired people getting scalped and people losing limbs because of carelessness. unlike a pto shaft, a drive shaft of an atv can be stopped dead if need be.

if it were up to me, i would not pull anything alive with an atv by a rope because the object you are pulling will not follow your atv (like a chain in the sand) but will cut corners and is likely to tip and spill its cargo. but that's only my opinion, if you insist just be careful.

texascat

 

Never had anything get in it, and I was wondering about that myself. No honeysuckle, greenbriars, or anything. You would think that it would though. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I wouldnt worry about it. Do you worry about your pick up or rear wheel drive car. I think not, so why worry about the fourwheeler its the same thing.
mattty

 

Uh008:
I wondered about that myself, but to date, have had NOTHING wrap around, or get tangled up in my rear drive shaft. Even riding in really deep grasses and such, moving forward, backward, etc., it just hasn't happened yet. I do a lot of towing (if you haven't guessed that by now), with straps, ropes and cables as well, and even when backing up over the rope/cable/strap to loosen the tension for removing the line, I've still not had any problems. I HAVE had barbed wire wrap around my front cv joint protectors (thank god I had the protectors on there!) and even the rear axle before, but never the drive shaft.

So, to make a long story short -somewhat- I have to agree with the others, I don't think you'll have a problem. To go along with what TexasCat was saying, take a look at the picture in my Snow Pics section entitled Kimpex w/ lights -something like that. I made a couple tabs out of 1/4" plate steel, rounded the ends down smooth, then drilled holes in each end. Now, as you can see from the photo, I have my standard 2" ball attached at all times, and with the extra hole from the tab, I hook my clevis on there, and tow all my logs and such with. This might work a little better for your towing of the sleds and such as well.

On a side note though, I don't know about towing sleds in the light snow, but in the deep stuff that I was towing my logs in, take a look at that picture as well, you can see that the logs fall right into my track behind one of the tires, and stay there. Kind of acts as a guide channel of sorts. Lighter snow-not quite as deep, you might get a little more side to side action. I'm sure either a sled or an inner tube would be a blast for your kids.

Best of luck,

Mike

 

Well, in 2611 mile I have NEVER had ANYTHING wrap up in my drive shaft. I have had weeds wrap up around my cv's joints, in my brakes, and around my wheel hubs, but NEVER my driveshaft.

 

People are really sue happy these days so who knows maybe somebody will find a reason to sue Arctic Cat for the open drive shaft. If you was to build an atv completely safe it would cost the consumer mega bucks, hence out of most of our range money wise. In other words most of us couldn't afford it. Then the extra weight factor with adding all these safety options. Sometimes we the consumer just has to be rational about these things and do the best we can to be safe. There is also little carts with the right hitch attachments to pull behind atvs that are safe for pulling kids or people in.
I have owned my atv for 3 years now never a problem with anything wrapping around drive shaft.
Good luck with your choice and think safe.

 

Irichard:
Hey, sorry I'm late! Looks like you got the link thing to work though, so that is good. Once again, nice pics! I love hunting photos, always nice to see everybodies trophys and adventures, ya know.

Take care,

Mike