I just saw a couple incidents with Artic Cat ATV's that I thought should not have happened. And I was wondering if there is an actual reliability problem with any other part on the new quads that people have noticed?

I went to a Poker run in Perry, GA with a few friends. We had Polaris', Honda, Yamaha, and an Artic Cat. The Artic Cat 454 4x4 looked like it was in bad shape. Think it was a couple years old at the time. Anyway, it had a striped rear gears in the shaft drive to rear axle tranfer, whatever you call it. I know it's not a diff cause it's a locked axle. It only had front wheel drive because of it. I don't even know why he brought it. I just figures it was abused cause it smoked bad too.

And just last weekend, we went for a ride locally and had 1 Honda, 4 Polaris', and 1 '98 Artic 454 2wd. After about half way through the ride, the rear gears started to strip on the AC. He said he takes well care of it and services it often. Anyone know how much this costs to fix it? I'm just curious. Is this a common problem? He had about 2000 miles on it. I would think they should last a lot longer than that. Gees, I've seen a chain and sprockets last longer than that. Anyone had a simular problem?

WillieB - '99 Scrambler 500 4x4

 

Can't say that i've ever had a problem. My uncle's 98 454 was jetted too rich from the factory, but a simple turn of a screw fixed that.

One guy has a 500 with paint problems, but nobody else here has anything wrong. I've got 850 miles and nothing more than a burnt out gear indicator light. my brakes are still perfect too. Mainly, the only problems anyone here has had are rider inflicted kinds. Such as, those caused from wrecking or something like that. I think that they are built very tough, though I could always find out differently in a couple years. Only time will tell, but so far, Arctic Cat has proved that after the 97 Bearcat problems, they have made as sturdy a bike as any one else. The other day, I rode a guy's Sportsman 400. I had always assumed that it would ride a lot smoother than my AC, but found out that it wasn't any better at all. It just seems that way going slow on level ground because of the smoothness of the transmission of the automatic. When I got it on the trail, there wasn't any advantage. The other advantage of that polaris was that it turned on a dime. On dirt roads at high speeds, it felt squirrely though. I had to put it in AWD for fear of sliding the rear end around and killing myself. It was fun for a while, but I wouldn't trade him. It was a quick bike too, but the top speed wasn't anything to go nuts over. I thought that 400l 2-stroke would be faster.

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