I'm looking for my first ATV and I've looked at few locally. In my price range, I'm looking at atv's that are 4-5 years old. Most of them look and ride okay but I was wondering if there is anything I should look for in particular. I'm concerned whether some of them may have been in really deep mud or water or flipped over a few times. Are there any "dead giveaways" for ones that haven't been cared for? How about the hourmeter/ Odometer? I saw one unit that displayed only 20 hours but I swear the tires and body screamed " rode hard and put up wet" can these be reset?

Thanks

 

first off,are you looking for sport or utility.4X4 tend to have more wear and tear and more problems because generally go through deeper mud and holes. your sport atvs arent really made for it. depends on what kind of riding your gonna do man.let me know.....

 

I'm looking at utility 2x4 to use on a farm and gravel roads. Particularly, A Bombardier 330 and a Honda 400. I don't plan on getting in any deeper mud than you would find on a farm. I just didn't want to get stuck with one that had any gremlins.

Thanks

 

Yes, odometers and hour meters can be changed. You can always go to a salvage yard and get one or buy a new one. Mine went out and I had to replace it, but I kept the old mileage on hand to tell the person to whom it would someday be sold. A low hour/mileage machine will look it, so trust your first impressions though one that has been stored inside will naturally look much newer than one that has been left out in the elements.

To me the hours/mileage is not as important as overall condition because you really have no way of knowing how hard those miles/hours were.

You really can't tell much by the tires as many keep their originals to put back on at the time of sale and a new set of aftermarket tires won't mean much either.

If you don't feel confident in your ability to judge whether a machine is sound or not find a friend who is or take it to a mechanic who will look it over for you and it will be money well spent. There are a lot of good used bikes out there and some not so good.