Have any of you Auto Cat guys soaked your belt yet. I am concerned about the large rectangular opening just above the belt housing(opening faces inside of the machine). I have no idea why Cat would put this large opening in the tranny vent and then continue to run snorkle up under the front of the machine. Obviously if you get into water up to the large opening the rest of the snorkle is useless !!!!! I asked the dealer about this, which only enlightened them to the fact that there was a large opening in the vent. I can cover it up, but was worried about the belt overheating. They must have put the opening there for a reason?
Mike

Mike:
My Dad and I were out riding on saturday in some pretty deep snow, and some water. I got high centered in snow up to my waist, and still hadn't hit bottom yet. The 'Cat was just sitting there, all four tires spinning. Had to dig it down a little till I hit some harder snow, then in 4 wheel, Low range, it just crawled right up and out, back to the top. Never once had a problem with the belt slipping. My Dad had the unfortunate luck of dropping into a small pond. Again, we were in the deep snow, and the bottom just gave out to the water below. He was high centered in nearly 2' of water, yet his belt never gave him any problems either. I winched him out and we continued on as if nothing ever happened. We rode nearly 40 miles, and I'd say that probably 30 of that was in deep snow, and parts where water was over the floorboards deep. We didn't have any trouble at all, and the 'Cat's performed flawlessly. I was really quite impressed. Unless you plan on running in very deep water, all the time I don't think you'll have any trouble at all.

Mike

I agree,I could not understand why they did not run the vent for the belt housing up higher,or at the same level as the air intake for the engine.I have not had mine in that deep of water yet.... however,some people I know did.They were in deep water/mud and the 500's with belts started sliping
and the machines with a manual trany had know trouble.I should note that they had both AC 500 auto and a Polaris 400.These guy's were in the water/mud for sometime,kind of competing for distance I guess.So they all got pretty wet and muddy.
It looks to me that the vent could be raised or modified in some way to help prevent water intake.
If you come up with a way to extend the vent up for the belt intake let me know,I may want to do the same.

I've been in water up to the vent and didn't have any problems with the belt getting wet. If you notice there is a rubber flapper there that will help keep water out. Remember---AC HAS A DRAIN HOLE PLUG that you can remove if you get water in the housing. I haven't seen that on any other machines but have seen other machines spit gallons of water out of the belt housing without a way to drain it!!!!

Here is an Cat-O-Matic with snorkels:
http://users.nlamerica.com/dixiebai/atv/html/lm1.html

Go here for the rest of the review:
http://users.nlamerica.com/dixiebai/atv/

Boner,
Thank for the link. I had my vent pulled off today and was thinking of a similar setup. Was not sure how it would work but looks good to me.Again thanks.
Mike

I just read the article at the front of ATV Connection. Polaris Mag vs. Suzuki Quadmaster.They talked about the automatic trans.vent in this article.Since AC has the same engine as the quadmaster it was interseting information.I do not know if the measuerments they used compare to the cat very well.
Anyway you may want to read it.

you dont need to raise it because the tube runs up and then back down you have to get in watter up to the top of the curve in the tube to get it wet it dont madder if you get watter up to it it will not get in have you ever put a bucket in watter and pulled it under upside down the bucket will still have air in the it under the watter it is something like that

Water in the belt ???? Well I got the chance to find out for myself today. My buddy and I were riding the Iron County Wisconsin trails today. I managed to bury the Cat half way over the Vent on the side of the tranny. I not only flled the tranny up from there but I also got water in through the tranny tube that runs up under the seat. You should have seen the water come pumping out of the tranny vents (and muffler)when i fired it up after winching out of the hole.I pulled the drain plug,more water. No water in the airbox or engine,which is good. The Cat was non the worse for wear. Myself on the other hand froze my arse and feet off after getting soaked in the water.The temps were in the 25 degree range when we hit the water. Thankfully it warmed up to about 35 degrees.Tomorrow I am gonna engineer myself some snorkels.I have to go and thaw out my feet first.
Mike

Mike,

As a fellow owner of a 500 Auto Cat, I am (and expect others will be too) interested in how your Cat does next few times you ride after this weekend's soaking. Do you think you could post again and let us know about how things go? Glad to hear you got back to the house OK and hope you can get "thawed out".

We were riding a couple months ago, and a buddy drowned out his 450ES. His daughter fell off, and got water over her boots. Luckily, one of the guys had a spare pair of socks and, most importantly, two plastic bags with him. We dried her feet, put on the dry socks, and then put the bags over her socks to keep from getting them wet from the wet insulation inside of her boots. I would have never thought of carrying the plastic bags for that purpose, but is a pretty good idea for keeping feet warm. For the remaining parts of the anatomy, though, things could be a bit tougher...