Ok, I was out in the snow banks this weekend and happened to notice something that seems wrong. When I get in some deep snow ir mud, my two rear wheels spin, but only one of my front wheels do! This may be by design, but it seems that "full time 4 wheel drive" means just that, not 3 wheel drive! I notice that if I brake then spin again, it seems that the other one wants to spin, but acts like power is not getting to that wheel?

Does this happen to anyone else?

Thanks in advance for any information.

 

New to the sport are you? Full time 4wd is actually 3wd at best, 2wd if one front tire comes off the ground!! Cat has 1 of the better systems but if you want true 4wd you need a front diff lock or Pol system

 

sxr6, yes I am fairly new to this. Thanks for the info..

 

I'm not trying to start anything, BUT, after all the discussing on the forums, I find it really hard to believe that the cats front limitted slip is as good as any other. I have spoke to many cat owners on this topic, and all have confirmed this when away from other cat owners. No one wants to admit it, but I have found it to be true. There may be some other brands that are as bad, but there are alot of others that aren't near as bad. I talked to alot of cat people before I bought my last quad, and most reported the three wheel action as being very often, and very frustrating. That was enough to drive me away from a new 500i.

 

Powercat,
Fulltime 4-wheel drive just means that you haven't got the option to select 2-wheel drive or 4-wheel drive. It is in 4WD all the time. Alot of the quads in production now have a 2WD/4WD selector. As for your question about the wheelspin, you have a slip differential front end. What you were expecting (all 4 tires pulling) would be true fourwheel drive, where all 4 tires are locked in, as opposed to the slip diff.

 

GreatCanadian, thanks for the information. I am really having a hard time getting used to the 5 speed manual anyway. So I am looking at the AC 500 Auto. That quad has the option for 2wd or 4wd which I think has true 4wd option. I really want an automatic anyway, the guys I go riding with all have auto's, and it's really hard to go through some deep water or snow with a manual.

 

Cat offers one of the best-limited slip 4x4 systems. Do a little searching on these forums, you'll find a number of individuals who own other brands and wish their 4x4 systems were as good as a Cat’s. Granted my 250 was a 01 (different front diff) but it performed remarkably well. There's a lot of hype put out by different manufactures to help increase sales.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

As for the Cat offering the best limited slip systems?I highly doubt that.My friend Chuck has the brand new 500i and its limited slip works no more effective than ANY other front limited slip diff.The tire in the air was still the one spinning while the one tire on the ground that needed traction was sitting doing NOTHING.How is that better than the rest of the limited slips?

Bill

 

i dont know much about utilities but a tip on how to get all the wheels spinning for a little is to just tougch the front brakes a bunch of times and it will make the one wheel that dosent want to spin put forth a little effort in getting through things. hope that helps some mudders.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I can't speak for the other systems, but I know that the non-sur track hondas (450, 400, 300), the yamaha's, and the non 650/360 Kawasaki's all have pretty similar limited slip systems. I do know that the regular limited slip 4wd on my 660 is not as good as my Arctic Cat was.

I don't mean the Cat will pull better with one tire off the ground either. It won't pull at all. The difference is that the yamaha system is quicker to slip out on you. Basically, it takes less to make it slip than the AC.

Most of my problems with the limited slip were always in dry climbing conditions where things get uneven. In the mud it does it too, but at least you have the option of rocking the quad hard to get the tires to catch here and there.

The yamaha limited slip is pretty bad, but thats what the second button is for. Plus it turns a lot better than the AC.