I appreciate your comments, I am a 23 year old "newly concerned" atv fanatic that is looking out for other riders. I and my father have been riding for more than 10 years and this is the first accident I have encountered. I appreciate your support and value your opinions. Keep it up! Thanks. MO

 

i only brought up the suing because Zukiracr mentioned "prosecute to the fullest" and Zukiracr i also never said that the axle breaking was "HIS" fault all i said is that if the problem was visible why would anyone get on that quad?? Ralphster5 my comments were not directed to you, you never mentioned legal action. i hope for your sake that you have a good insurance company and you don't have to get in touch with a lawyer your dad doesn't need that, it will only make recovery time longer and harder for him, hope everything works outs.

 

Ralphster,


Hope your dad recovers. Spring is around the corner and lots of riding to do.

I just noticed that you're also from MN. Looked at your profile and noticed your last name. Would you happen to have any relation in Wadena, MN? The reason I ask is my mother-in-law has the same last name (maiden name) and lived in Wadena. Her mother and a couple brothers still live there.

 

I am sorry to hear your father was hurt. I think the real issue I am reading from the posts here is that folks always try to figure out whos fault the accident was without realisticly knowing the truth. It could be the operators fault, who knows, 25-30 MPH around a corner IS fast. Since the A/C has an independent rear suspension when you are sitting on the ATV the suspension compresses and the rear tires will point in at the top. The axles do not support the ATV. The axles are turning on a shaft with CV joints on each end and unless it sheared completely in half and out of the CV boots on each end and lodged against the frame etc. it would be unlikely to cause an accident. If your father was going too fast and the ATV rolled the impact could have broken the axle. But the fact remains that none of us were there and therefore don't know what really happened. The only thing we do know is that this poor guy is hurt badly and his ATV is wrecked, both of which are very unfortunate. I get a kick out of people who talk about legal action but ride an ATV. These are the same type of idiots who rode 3 wheelers, got hurt because of their own actions, and then sued causing a ban on those machines.

 

Arctic Cat axles are known to shear off when they break, I have had 2 shear on me. At 25-30 miles and hour if you loose one driving wheel, the machine will loose control and in turn causing an accident. I'm I wrong in this explanation?

 

Since you have had two axles break and shear off you must be awfully unlucky! What year make and model of machine did this happen on and were you running oversize tires on them? The IRS machines of which the 650 is seem to be pretty reliable as I have not read of anyone breaking one yet. The axles that generally have been breaking were on 2002 and earlier or non-IRS machines. From what I read it is caused by oversize tires couple with aggressive driving.

 

I am trying to make a point with my question, is my explanation right?

 

i lost one too, however the reason was the brake caliper fell off and wrapped around the tire, hence the back tire locked up causing me to hit a tree (because i didn't have brakes), i didn;t roll over, and that is with the tire LOCKING UP which is a lot worse then just losing power. if the back tire hadn't locked up i don't think i would have lost control (i was in 2wd) if in 4wd i dont think that i would have even noticed. at 25 mph i think that the driver would be able to compensate for the sudden loss of power to the one wheel. I drove the rest of the weeked with the axle hanging off the back and in 4wd, thing drove just fine, so i can not fully agree with your explanation.

 

Sorry to hear about your dad. While I don't know what happened, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a broken axle that caused this. If the tire was tipped in then something was tweaked on one of the a arms, the frame mounting points, or the shock.

Zukiracer250, if you break an axle, then there's no more power power to that wheel, the rear is a spooled diff so the other tire keeps going. This should not make you go out of control, it would be just like driving something with an open diff.

 

It would not be like driving with an open differential. Only ONE wheel is pulling, if the the left rear axle breaks, then that tire will have ZERO driving force, therefore all of the driving force will go to the right rear tire. At 25-30 MPH, if all of the power goes to the right rear wheel in a left turn, the bike will turn even harder to left, possibly out of control.