I was wondering how bad is the limited slip on the cat. I have owned a 99 450 and 2000 kodiak and by for the kodiak front end was terrible, seemed like the least little bit of mud you got into the thing would slip, so I was wondering is the 2003 cat front about the same as the 450, better or worse. Thanks

 

It will be better than the Yamaha and Honda. It is very similar in design to the Rancher and Rubicon. It also works about the same, of course it is no locking diff but very good.

 

Ditto... A little break pressure helps in most situations.

 

I have a 500i and it does ride through everything as long as I can keep all four tires on the ground. I've seen post in other forums that state, "you can tap the brake and get the front wheels to lock." I think that's not going to solve each problem. When one of the front tires get up in the air, you have no chance to get four wheel drive. The airborn front wheel will only grab when you get it back on the ground. This is due to free wheeling of the spindle, when the shaft is spinning from differential. The wheel that's on the ground is doing nothing because all the energy is transfered to the wheel that's up in the air. The beauty of four wheel lock is that the front is always pulling even if one wheel is up off the ground. There are drawbacks to both systems. I like the AC Limited Slip. I have a Suzuki with four wheel lock and it's nice but I don't need it very often. I've taken the AC through some nasty stuff some other fourwheel drive vehicles couldn't make. Maybe driver error, I'm not sure. We will be doing more testing, this spring, of all the quads we use in our group riding. Guess I'll post in the months ahead, what our opinion is on the outcome of rider or equipment fault. Be patient...
Chuck

 

Mind you i know nothing about AC or atv's, so this response maybe stupid.
Why cant you you split the front brakes up on 2 levers? one left the other right. Lock up the one in the air to get power to the ground. Just curious

 

Zookin,

Splitting the two front brakes works. I tried this last spring on my 2001 AC500. The first time my bike 3-wheeled, a bit of pressure on the wheel that was spinning and the front end locked up! I didn't cut any brake lines to do this. The only mod I made was blocking off the right side banjo fitting with a fine thread bolt & crush washers. This way I could return the bike to stock in little time. I do not recommend this mod as braking characteristics will be affected. I'm used to the new(and awkward) braking system now and do not lend my bike out to anyone for this reason.
Here's a pic showing the 2 levers. The one I added on the right is a Yamaha master cylinder! => Levers

 

gerrbear,
Did you have to do any mods to put the 27" tires on? Do you still run the split brakes? Checked out some of your photos, sharp looking AC ya got.

 

Zookin,

Yes I'm still running the modified brake setup. Aside from the spring spacers, the only mod I had to make was to cut the, humm, not sure how to describe it, but there's a lip under the front wheel wells where the ATV's colored plastic joins the black fender extension.
This "lip" would hit the tires every now and then when bottoming out. So I cut/grinded it off with a miniature grinder.
I still have a lift kit sitting in my tool cabinet which I have yet to install. I'll probably install that before the spring thaw.