Everyone likes to talk about how good one brand of ATV is compared to another. Certainly, this can be measured on several factors including price, performance and reliability. The price and performance aspects seem to get a lot more attention in these discussions than does what's most important to me - reliability.

So, how reliable is your ATV? (Arctic Cat or others) I have three very new Arctic Cat ATVs with an average of about 500 very rough trail and mud miles on them. Absolutely nothing has gone wrong with them and, so far, all I've have done is changed the oil.

The questions are:

How many miles did you have on your ATV when you had your first problem and what was it? (If you haven't had any problems how many miles anyway.)

How hard do you ride and what type of riding do you do?

How serious are you about maintenance and what type of PM (if any other than oil changes) do you do?

This should be interesting especially if we get responses from owners of ATVs other than Arctic Cat.

 

Well I don't have very many miles on my new Rubicon yet (130). I have had one problem which was my own stupidity. While going though the Mud I hit it a little hard with a giant splash causing mud to spray everywhere. Needless to say the mud found the fan. The fan stopped working and all I had to do was clean the fan and now it's fine.

The three other ATV's I've owned are a 1995 TRX 300 2 wheel drive I've have had absolutely no problems with it. 1994 300EX I used to ice race with it and only striped the threads on the hubs again this is my fault. And I've owned a 1996 Polaris Xplorer which was a lemon, without going into extreme detail I'll just leave it at that.

BTW- I'm not anti Polaris, with my past experiences with them; I'm Pro Honda.

As far as maintenance. I'm about as obsessed as anyone could be. I've spent a lot of money on this hobby and I don't want any problems. I ride roughly 800-1000 miles a year and I change the oil once in the spring and once in the fall. Depending on total use and the type of use IE. lots a mud or water, I will change it somewhere in between. Not one of those miles I put on are easy miles. I'm usually towing or hauling something.

When it come time to purchase another I will seriously consider Honda. But, Polaris is looking mighty good too price and option wise. I just hope I don't get burned again.

 

I have a 99 ac so far I have come into one problem. One of the harden bolts from the drive shaft that connects to the front dif, well actually to the rubber thing inbetween the drive shaft and dif, was sheered off. But after a quick search in to bolt box in the garage it was fixed in a couple of minutes.
matty

 

I've had a couple of problems with my 1999 Arctic Cat 500 Manual shift model.

First the Thremostate went out causeing it to over heat BAD (had steam coming out of the top of the recoil handle) a few times. When I brought it in they found out the water pump seal had also gone south(probaly got mud in the radiator).

Another thing is that the Rear end went out on a mud ride. A bearing that holds the Pinnion in place went bad and was disengaing from the ring. This was probaly caused by the white (as in water filled) rear end axle oil, but me haveing pull offs, and jumping my Cat 6ft in the air could have also added to the problem.

Now it has stoped running. I think it's cause of the 5 seconds of muddy fuel that I drained out of the float bowl(drowned it twice and never drained if before). The Mechanic is waiting of a needle valve to get it(cloged with mud).

The first problem was at around 1250 miles(I have it on file in the shop I will check lata).

The rear end was at 1650 miles.

And I now have 2600+ miles on it.

All these miles are VERY VERY hard miles. I've drowned it twice, jumped my Cat, pulled 8000 lb trucks, mudded it in rack deep mud constantly, fliped her twice, etc.

I am a mud/trail rider. Most of my miles come running around town(back roads and cane feilds) but always hard miles.

I maintain it ok. Change my oil about every 300 miles, clean the air filter when needed, and change the rear end oil pretty often(never changed the front axle oil myself cause of the tool needed and how tight it always is but the dealer has changed it about 3 times).

IF my cat had Grease zerts I would like that. I'd like to see them on the front a-arms, steering post, tie-rods, rear suspenssion linkage, and drive shaft bearing.

I think that my rought riding and lack of maintaince(I should repack my bearings for as hard as I ride in the mud) is the main cause of my misshaps. Will this change my riding style? Nope, but I will try to increase my maintaince tho.

 

I have a 2000 500 with 800 miles of hard mud, woods trail breaking miles. 3 oil changes, 2 front/rear diff changes, frequent air filter cleanings. Pulled the radiator twice for mud, is basically it for normal maintenance. I have replaced all brake pads, of course plastic rivets, plastic bumper caps, 1 front driveshaft bolt, couple of exhaust shield bolts. My cylinder was replaced by the Arctic Cat Engineering department under warranty, at which time they installed a new piston and rings (700m). The cylinder was replaced because of porosity in the casting. All in all I have been pleased with the 500, the only thing I would improve on is the high-low shifter, (or just get rid of it all together), awkward to say the least. Best of all no $2 electic switching or shifting over engineered component is going to keep me from getting home. Of course this is just my humble opinion.

 

I have 2,000 miles on my '98 454. I ride it fast and hard, slow and easy, through gooey mud and deep water and drag trees through the woods with it.

I have never had any trouble with it.
I am a maintenance machinist technician by trade, so I am a fanatic when it comes to preventative maintenance.
If I ride in deep water/mud, the front and rear diff's get changed. Yes, it is a pain in the a** but you know what they say...
"pay a little now or alot later"

If I could afford to buy a new one every year, I probably wouldn't care, but I plan on keeping this one for a very long time.

I purchased the AC service manual for it and basically follow it pretty close. A few things I do more often than it says to, just for peace of mind.
My last toy was a Honda and while I believe Honda's are bullet proof, mine was not and Honda didn't want to hear anything about it.
Anyway, that's another story.

I am happy with my AC.

Ron

 

I have 2,000 miles on my '98 454. I ride it fast and hard, slow and easy, through gooey mud and deep water and drag trees through the woods with it.

I have never had any trouble with it.
I am a maintenance machinist technician by trade, so I am a fanatic when it comes to preventative maintenance.
If I ride in deep water/mud, the front and rear diff's get changed. Yes, it is a pain in the a** but you know what they say...
"pay a little now or alot later"

If I could afford to buy a new one every year, I probably wouldn't care, but I plan on keeping this one for a very long time.

I purchased the AC service manual for it and basically follow it pretty close. A few things I do more often than it says to, just for peace of mind.
My last toy was a Honda and while I believe Honda's are bullet proof, mine was not and Honda didn't want to hear anything about it.
Anyway, that's another story.

I am happy with my AC.

Ron

 

About 1600 miles and no problems. That really doesn't count for reliability though. They should all do that. Seems like a good track record compared to the dozens of 500 mile failures you hear on this forum, but I'll have to have it 5 years at least before I can make a solid claim as to its reliability.

My 89 honda has been unstoppable for 11 years. Thats something to compare to. That and about a million other hondas that held up well. You can get a feel for how good something is put together though, and the Arctic Cats seem to be as strong as any other. I don't see any downsides to them being reliable, not in a big time way at least. Nuts and bolts are going to fall off of anything, and minor things will happen, but as far as major parts going out, I think the AC's are a close second behind Honda, and that is because Honda has been making the best for so long, you have to give them credit. Sure there are honda's that have problems here and there, but for the average, they are the best. Same thing on the flip side for Polaris. They make a lot of good ones, but they also make a larger percentage of bad ones than any one else. Their problem, they made a lot of bad ones in the past, so they have had to dig their way out of a hole. They are getting better. Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawa are about where they always were. Very good.

Reliability played a big factor when I got my AC. I wouldn't have paid that much for it if I wasn't sure it would hold up. It only took a little over a year to decide so I guess I had my homework squared away pretty much on all available models at the time. The AC ended up being the choice.

 

I have a 2K 500 autocat, 1600 miles in ten months. I ride mostly in the High desert and Rocky Mountains. I haven't had the slightest bit of a problem yet. I have pulled trees off the trail and done a lot or rock climbing and as of yet I don't even have any sqeeks.

 

Well, since you said any brand, here I am. I have about 3300 miles and 260 hours on my Xplorer with no troubles. Got 600 hours (no odometer to measure miles) on the Honda 300. The Honda is used for mostly just driving around, the Polaris gets the harder use, being the 4 wheel drive. Don't do much real muddong, though. It is an atv, not a submarine.