Recently when I was reading the May issue of 4-Wheel Action the writer of the article comparing the Rancher 350Es and the Kawasaki Prairie 300 said.

"To put the machines' torque output to the test, we had them tow identical 825 pound loads for 45 feet. This time the Rancher sstqarted out in low but still had time to shift up and clock a 3.6 second ET (faster than the Arctic Cat 500 Automatic!)"

What is going on here?

I have a friend with a Suzuki 500 5spd manual and that things is a tank. (same drivetrain as the Cat 500) He can tow logs and trees that the Honda 450ES and Polaris Sportsman have difficulty with.
(Been there, seen that.)

So what's up? Did Suzuki/Cat give up power and performance with their design of the automatic transmission? I drove a AC 500 and in low range it felt like I could drag half of the county behind it. I am confused over this one.

I also remember the articles where the magazines tested the Quadmaster and they said that it lacked power in deep mud.

Are the ATV magazines suffering from the "Porsche Syndrome" that the automotive writers seem to have?

Are the manual 500s more powerful than their automatic counterparts?

 

First of all don't trust what you read in the articals, it seems to me the more money that a company spends in advertising the better report their quads get.
As for auto vs manual, the only diffrence is in how the power gets to the ground.
In a manual their is no slippage since it is all gears.
In most all autos (except the Honda Rubicon) you have to deal with a belt. It works well but can strech and slip, and is based on the principles of friction.
Any one that has been around racecars and or 4x4's will say that their is a great diffrence in the power, but this is due only to the designs of the manual transmission

 

I don't believe it for one minute myself. I was wondering is there is anybody out there that has a 500 auto that can do a pulling contest that can settle this once and for all. And if they are stretching the truth they need to be told so. I have a 500 manual and I am not afraid to put it up against any other 500 in a pulling contest. It might not get the load there faster but it will pull that load just as far if not farther. Who cares how fast you get the load there just so it gets there. It seems to me, the magazine only cares about speed, (big deal). I care about reliability which I am getting out of my machine. Hardly any maintenance whatsoever, and all the power I will ever need. I would have to see the pulling contest with my own eyes to be convinced that the Cat would come in last. Have a good day guys.

 

I can believe that, but only if I think about the gearing or ratio or whatever you call it with a belt transmission. Think about it. The cat was in low range. Well, I doubt thats going to be very fast anyway. The rancher has a super low first, but the other gears aren't near as low as the low range on the AC. If you raced them without towing for that same stretch with the AC in the same range, the honda would probably win anyway. They should have towed it in high range on the AC and then looked at what would happen. After you get the log going, it doesn't take near as much torque to drag it, and the AC has a buttload more power than the undersized rancher.

Then look at the difference. 1/10 of a second. Human error could even account for that difference. There are a lot of loopholes toward making one quad sound great and another sound like crap, and they must have looked for them to try and make a 350 look more powerfull than a 500. Good lord, the 450 doesn't even have the power of the AC. I will say that the Griz and Sportsman have it beat in that category, but not the smaller quads. Thats just magazine BS. Kinda like the sportsman tested like 54 mph while the scrambler hit 68. yeah right, there isn't that big of a difference, maybe some, but not 14mph.

The rancher is a real good quad, but thats a little overpraising of something just because its the hot new thing. Take the manual 500, put it in high, and do the same test against the Rancher. That should take care of that crap. Or even put the Auto in high. My low range is major low on my 99 500, and I wouldn't think that it would have a chance against a single range machine in any race. Put them both in high reverse and try it. Honda's single range reverse is absolutely sluglike. I know, I have one.

 

The magazine did not mention if you tie a Rancher to a 500cc 4x4 Cat it will drag it around like it was it's b#ch.I went to the stock car races the other day and they used 500 auto Cat to push start the cars ,I was impressed.