Hello folks!
First off, I am totally new to the whole ATV experience. I've only owned mine for 3 days!
This may seem like a stupid question, but I'm going to ask it anyways!

The manual says that low gear should be used for any heavy loads, towing, or hill climbing or when the machine is being run under 7 MPH. Ths makes sense, but what kind of damage will be done if we run it in "HI" all the time when out on the trails. This means when we are just fooling around and going about 10 MPH through some twisting trails. Once we get in the clear, you want to open things up and it seems like a pain to have to stop and shift from LO to HI.

What kind of routine do you normally use?

I plan to plow snow with it this year and of course would use LO gear for that.

Thanks

 

Welcome to the world of ATV and congratulations on your quad. You will not do any damage keeping your quad in high for trail riding. Slow speeds in high is not an issue. That is where it should be. I rarely use low gear.
You will find this site very helpfull. Ask away.

 

Congrats on the new ride. You'll love the X2.

A good rule of thumb... load=low gear.

 

Hey Rattletrap, welcome to the forum! The reason for using low under 10 mph is to reduce belt wear on the CVT transmission. The more load on the belt when in high gear the more wear it is going to get. (High speed= low load, Low speed= high load) The best rule of thumb is go with the manual. I use low for mud, rockcrawling, towing, and up and down steep hills. The 500X2 will have no problems shooting up or down hills in high. But, the EBS or ADC (engine braking systems depending on what year your machine is) do not engage unless under 15mph. Not needed on a long downhill straightaways but very helpful in a slow technical descent.

 

Welcome Rattle.

The manual gives you guidelines for when to use Low Range. They are not hard and fast rules, just a suggestion. I use Low Range a lot compared to my friends. You'll get a feel for when to use it and when it's not needed. I've watched my friends smoke their belts on Polaris, Arctic Cat, and Can-Am ATVs, while using High when they definitely should've been in Low like me. I've never smoked my belt.

Like I said, you'll get a feel for it. BTW, the Sportsman in Low Range can go just about anywhere, push lots of snow, and pull lots of weight without any strain.

 

one of the biggest reasons for low while going slow(under 5 mph) is to keep the belt cooler buy having the engine rpms up/ when your going that slow the belt heats up more from lack of air flow. and when your hauling heavy loads or playing in deep mud. this way you will never hurt the belt.

 

Thanks for the welcome, and thanks for the replies!
Basically, I was just worried about doing damage to the belt or causing premature wear.
I had been reading these forums for a while before making the purchase, and you are definitely right on about loads of information here!