Hey again, my brother leaves his quad in 4th gear all the time it starts out slow but gets faster, if you ask me i think that will screw it up. i dunno much about quads but that seems bad...

 

I do that sometimes to..it may have some long term damage, due to the motor having a large "load" on it..how many cc's is he running?? My 454 pulls of in 4th gear pretty easy.

 

He has an arctic cat 300 2000 model

 

It mainly just puts a lot of stress on the engine having to turn a higher gear. Its not exactly good for the machine, but I haven't ever had a problem with any of my bikes that resulted from that. The bigger bikes will pull 4rth a lot easier than the smaller 300 class will obviously. I don't really ever start off in 4rth for any reason, but I do slow down to under 5 mph from high speed in 4rth and then start back up to speed without shifting down. The 500 pulls it out rather easily, but I should probably shift down. I don't think this is really going to hurt anything, unless you just did it constantly. I mean like 50 times a day for a year or something.

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Andy Bassham *(1999 Arctic Cat 500 4x4, 1989 Honda 300)*

 

Using too high a grear overloads the primary clutch, resulting in excessive wear of the internally expanding fiber-faced shoes against the inner surface of the clutch drum, as well as abrading the drum itself.

The secondary clutch also suffers excess stress from slippage.

Clutch discs, for the secondary clutch, cost around $ 50 a set; replacing the primary clutch will cost a couple of hundred dollars minimum.

Too high a gear overloads crankshaft bearings, shortening their service life; and stresses shaft seals, inviting premature leaks.

Lugging a quad by starting off or riding with too tall a cog abuses equipment. Why start off in too high a gear anyway? For example, would a stick-shift Corvette or Ferrari driver start his roadster in fifth gear? Same results: excessive clutch wear, excessive crankshaft bearing load, early seal failure.

Tree Farmer

 

It will make his clutch were out alot faster unless he is starting out in superlow.