I've owned a 2002 Sportsman 400 for 20 years, still under 1000 miles. I've trail ridden it some, mostly use it around the yard to move empty trailers, haul firewood, clear snow off the driveway.

I haven't kept up with repairs, and I'm questioning if I should do some combination of repair it myself and have a shop do the hard stuff, or just let it go. Needed repairs include all the axles (boots torn), all the suspension bushings (disintegrating, age?), exhaust heat shield rattles, tires are worn but work for my purposes.

The good stuff is that it starts and runs, transmission works well, 4WD works. The alarming thing is when I have moved it around slowly I can feel something in the front suspension give, probably a bushing that is no longer there.

The part I don't like is that it is noisy (probably mostly heat shields rattling), I'm not sure how long the magnetic hubs will stay together when I'm pushing snow, and it doesn't start when it's really cold (I have to pour lots of hot water over the carb to get gas to atomize).

I could let it go and get a 10 year old Grizzly 550 for $4-5k. I know that if I don't fix what breaks I will be back in the same situation. A Grizzly should do everything my Sportsman does and more.

Any ideas on a course of action for the old Sportsman? Does it make sense to spend $1,000 on some repairs, and figure out what I can do myself? I'm leaning towards moving on... someone handy can fix up the old Sportsman in their barn this winter, and it will be a low miles older machine that has a lot of life left. I can have a newer, more powerful machine that starts with a turn of the key whenever I need it.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

A quick follow up question... saw an ad for a 2017 King Quad 400 4x4, and it has a solid rear axle. It seems like having the trailer hitch directly mounted to the axle might be less stress to the machine then having the suspension have to carry the trailer tongue weight, like an independent rear suspension. Does this make sense?

 

We have the information you seek on the ATV Connection homepage here:

https://atvconnection.com/articles/a...le-for-towing/

 

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