Please educated me on the required/ desired maintenance on your utility Quad. It sounds like the MuD Loving wildmen spend as much time cleaning up repairing as they do riding. As I look within the specific Quad forums, there is a lot of "Quad flogging" leading to many broken ATVs. Do all of you end up quad mechanics?

 

Dusty-
Glad to see this post, after reading your last note under the other topic. I regret to see that type of thing, whether on this forum, or another. As for regular maintenance, I change the oil and filter every 300 miles on both my 'Cats, as well as clean the air filter thoroughly. I check the airfilter around every ride and clean it more often if necessary during the really dusty rides, just to keep up proper air flow. I've since switched to a Quaker state 4x4 blend semi-syntetic oil, and will now change every 500 miles along with filter. As far as regular maintenance goes, that's it.

Now, for what I've done as far as damage, replacement-that's a little different story. Shortly after buying my 'Cat, I caught some air on accident up at my property, landed HARD square on a stump with my airbox. As you can guess, the airbox wasn't designed to support a 650lbs. quad coming through the air and landing without damage like that. It broke the lower rear corner off. For around $17, I bought a brand new airbox from the dealer, replaced it and all has been well since.

Then, while camping with my sister-not sure how long you've been "lurking", but you may have seen the post a while back-anyway, in an attempt to save her from a soon to happen wreck while "under the influence" (alcohol), I took a "shortcut" trying to stop her, ended up dropping the 'Cat off about a 6' vertical drop strait down into a drainage ditch. I carry over 100 lbs. on the front rack at all times, and close to 200 on the rear rack as well, along with my *** weighing in around 220 lbs. Stack all this up on a 650lbs. quad, you now have around 1170lbs. dropping 6' at around 30-35mph and landing square on the front left tire. The result? Two blown ball joints, which kicked the tire loose, pulling the cv joint and axle from the diff., and taking out the 2/4wd shift lever in the process. I replaced both ball joints, and bootkit, as well as new shift lever, cleaned everything THOROUGHLY, intalled new parts and put it all back together, running good as new for about a total of $86 or so.

Other mods I've done are replacing stock 150 main jet with a 145 for higher altitude riding that I do, along with installing a NGKcr8e plug, instead of the stock "6". These were done for more power and responsiveness along with better fuel mileage. I've also adjusted throttle cable to remove all slack in the line, and most recently completed the "minehunter tranny trick" transmission mod, which involved removing the driven pulley, drilling a new hole at about the "1 o-clock" position and replacing spring to new location. This gives a TON of low end power, while maintaining top end at about the same. From my pics, you'll see I'm running massive 27" Bi/Tri Claw tires, which require a lot more power to turn as opposed to the stockers. As far as mud riding goes, I don't have any real good pics of that, but I do my fair share of rack-deep mud/water with no problems at all. Reason for this is I always use low range when running in any kind of mud and water, and combined with keeping the rpm's up a bit, I have had NO trouble with water in the tranny, or bearing problem like others mention. I think a lot of that "bearing" problem has to do with knowing how and when to use low range. Better safe and slow, then sorry and replacing bearing!

Why is this added info necessary for mere "regular maintenance"? Because when you combine my other riding habits mentioned here, with the simple fact of how hard I work my 'Cat while towing logs and such, as well as suburbans uphill in 2'+ of snow, full sized trucks and vans, toyotas lifted with chev 350's and 35" tires from mudholes, etc., I'd venture to say I abuse my quad more than most who just do an average amount of work. Any time you combine huge tires with heavy work, you're adding a huge amount of stress and strain to other components. My 'Cat has had no problems at all with any of this, in the 1,200+ miles I have on her now, and with over 900+ on the huge 'Claws. I'd venture to say that with all that, a mere oil and filter change at every 300 miles and air filter cleaning when necessary or every 300, is pretty impressive. Like I said earlier, the problems I did have were a result of my own sheer stupidity-not a flaw or bad design of the machine-no machine under those conditions would have made it without some form of damage, if not worse.

Anyhow, hope that helps a bit, Best of Luck with the decision, it's a tough one finding the "best" machine for YOU, and not wanting to spend another couple grand in repairs all the time. Whatever you choose will be the right quad for you, and that's all that matters.

Happy Trails,

Mike