My friend has a 2003 Arctic Cat 400 4x4 manual......I rode it the other day OMG this thing handles really really bad I mean it's just really hard to control....it's got a bunch of power way more than my Rancher 400......anyways on to the problem maybe it's with all arctic cat's or maybe it's just his....but humor me for a second.....the best way I can describe how it handles is if any of you guys work in a ware house or any place that has a pallet jack and have stood on the forks or the jack and pushed it along almost like scooter and put both hands on the handle and just kind of turned the handle back and forth very qucikly and see how sketchy that feels well that's how my friends AC feels LOL.....Just wondering if any of you guys experience the same thing or what??? Is there any way to fix it? We adjust his preload on his front shocks on our last trail ride and (went from as soft as they would go to 3 clicks up from that) it seemed to help or so he said. Anyways sorry for the long post and kind of crazy detail of how it handles but just looking for alittle help lol! Thanx
Chris

 

hey team lmao i have never heard an atv handling compared to a pallet jack, for i know exactly how a pallet jack handles and it just feels a lil top heavy or whatnot and unstable. one major thing though is that you are used to a honda so the arctic will feel a lil weird to you. my parents have 450 honda foreman's and they feel weird for me to drive one thing i found out is i did a lil switching of the tires on my 650 put the stock tires on for the first time and i couldn't stand it felt real skatey if that makes any sense but i put my aftermarket tires back on and it handled like a dream same with my parents fourwheelers both have foreman 450's i sold dad a pair of 27 inch itp 589's and it handles way way better then my mom's with the stock tires when it comes to a 400 i would seriously consider mud lite's in a 25 or 26 inch beings it is a manual you could get away with 26's pretty easily and maybe check out the front end alignment but i do remember how the stock tires are on my 2003 i had last year and wow they sucked

 

While you are checking alignment you need to check the tie rod ends. If they are bad then the alignment will never be right. Has it always been this way? Did it just start, you know like right after he drove it off the trail into a downed tree or some rocks? If he bought it in this condition, you need to find out what the pervious owner did to it. It aint right and is fixable, easier to fix if you know what caused the problem.

 

There's more to it than it just feeling different from my Honda........He knowes it too......it's like it's got a mind of it's own......My suggestion to him also was to put bigger tires such as 26" or 27" 6 ply's and also maybe a steering stabilizer. I used to have a Arctic Cat as well it was a 2000 AC 250 I remember it pushing a little but it never handled like his mine still drove pretty good. Also he bought this bike brand new last summer and it's been that way since then?

thanx

 

i would say check the front end alignment one of the easiest ways i did it was what i did to my buddies 660 grizz after he did 400 dollars in damage to it with the darn winch anyways that is a different story. i drove it down the highway got to about 30 mph and dropped the handlebars just to see what it would do and it pulled to the right so we adjusted it cause i knew the right side was adjusted correctly maybe both tires tow in or something giving it a squirly feeling you can tell by having the handlebars straight and then look to see if one or both tires veer off in a certain direction good luck

 

it will hold a straight line........but if you while going that straight line u hit a rut big or small or a rock or tree stump or anything like that nothing huge the bike just automatically jerks the handlebars out of your had and goes either right or left depending on which tire hit the obstical*. And while make a turn like maybe a wide sweeping turn that you are taking kind of fast maybe around 20 or 25MPH all u have to do is turn the handle bars slightly and they automatically turn the rest of the way for u LOL and don't come back.....my honda and any other atv I have ever rode will come back straight it's just weird.....LOL

On a side note to the last my buddy and I had been riding we had been talking trash all day long to each other bout how much better my Honda was over his and he would come back and say how much better the AC was....by the end of the day we had came to two conclusions the rancher 400 with 26" Mudlites was better in the mud (thanx to the tires no doubt) and pretty much most of the trails cause it just handles better period.....and the AC is faster and more powerful than the Honda......we hooked both bikes up for a tug-of-war man that AC pulled the rancher about 20 feet with no problem!! It was in Low range I don't understand why Honda doens't put a low range in their bikes [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

kind of got off subject but thought u AC guys would appreciate that bit ! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

All the pulling contest proved, was which one had the best traction, not which was the better quad. Tires and weight are the biggest factor there.
Make sure the tires have the correct pressure. Check for bent or loose steering linkages. If a tie rod end was bent, or the joint was loose...it would handle bad. Check the toe in adjustment. Measure the width, accross the front of the tires, and compare it to the rear of the front tires. It should be slightly toe in.
Bigger tires will only make it more of a handfull. sort out the problems before adding bigger tires.

 

i would check the steering block and the rod that goes down to your tie rods sounds like something might be binding up i dunno i guess i would have to drive it i usually have about 5 pounds of air in my front tires if all else fails bring it to a dealer and tell them that thing is screwed up and to make it safe

 

Loosen rear shocks and take air pressure out of the fronts