Just want to share my experience, to see if anyone else had the same problem, and possibly to warn unaware riders to it...

I live in Serbia (Europe), and just purchased a new Outlander 650 Max 2 months ago from a local dealer. I must say that I have some expirience with the ATV, but much more with the snowmobiles...

Some friends of mine and myself decided to take an offroad tour from Belgrade to a nearby ski resort which is about 250 miles away. We were planing on going all the way offroad using dirt roads, forest tracks, un-paved roads etc. which are not hard to find in this part of Europe... We were on our way at approx. 7am, and were riding all day except one hour break we took to lunch around 3pm... We were driving almost any kind of terrain and were going from 5mph average speed to 60mph average speed depending on the terrain. When we arrived to Kopaonik (ski-resort) sometime around 8pm same day, we filled up the gas tanks on the nearby petrol station and headed uphill. Just as we started a mild climb I felt a strong shock, quickly followed by the second one, and some loud noise of grinding and smell of rubber. At first I thought that I've picked up something from inside the wheel, and stopped immediately. Since everything was all right with the wheels, I've started the engine, placed the shifter in H and nothing happens, it was just revving as if it were in neutral - my gearbox was gone...

Somehow I manage to tow it to the nearby road where we loaded it on a trailer and took to the dealer. When they opened it up they found out that the V-Belt (part no. 715900030) inside the engine/gearbox compartment (the plastic cover on the left side) had disintegrated, and sent the warranty claim to Brp/Can-Am.

Brp/Can-Am has refused the warranty claim with an explanation "It was driven for a prolonged period of time at either very slow or very fast speeds, and the V-Belt had disintegrated from the extensive heat and mechanical stress". With their refusal I've ended up in paying 280 euro (~ $365 usd) to repair the ATV.

Nevertheless I don't mind paying for the part, if it was my fault. But I was not informed by the dealer, nor by the Can-Am trough the user guide, educational video or warning labels that I should not ride the ATV for prolonged period of time, and failing to do so could result in damaging the ATV which is not covered by warranty. If the warranty does not cover such incidents Can-Am is obliged to specify the maximum recommended riding period, and recommended pause time between the rides in order to avoid such incidents from happening, because if someone gets stuck on a trail by himself away from help, it could escalate to potentially dangerous situation.

I wish you pleasant and safe riding, and be aware of this problem.

Danko

 

Good afternoon,

Thank you very much for that information. I, too, have a 2007 650 Max and will keep that incident in mind.

 

Very interesting, see you later pals!

 

The situation is probably the same with Outlander 400/650/800 since they all have the same V-Belt transmission... And possibly other models are affected, if they have the same type of transmission...

 

this would be the cvt belt and no your dealer should have told you that warranty will not cover the belt because it is a normal wear and tear item but still it shouldnt have broken like you said unless something got into the cvt that would have caused it to break

 

But is it normal for it to break after 120hrs of usage?

I did ride the ATV for almost 12 hours non-stop that day and covered about 250 miles, out of which the last 30 miles were ridden at a bit faster speeds (50-60mph) almost for the whole 30 miles...

If that is what's supposed to happen with the cvt belt after 12 hours of riding, that's fine; but I think that at least we should get some warning that such thing might happen, and what to do in order to avoid such accidents.

I am planing on taking some longer routes trough harsher terrain than this plain forest/trail riding, and now I will be thinking twice about going with the Outlander on such routes... If these cvt belts are such issue then I will certainly go for a chain transmission...

 

I wouldn;t worry about it. Dvukovic. you probably just got a bad belt. I've been reading the forums on the outlander for over 2 years.. I;ve never seen this issue pop up. I would treat it as an isolated incident.. just bad luck.

 

I happened again [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

Now, I rode it for only about 30 minutes, on a paved road, no stress at all, maybe 30-40mph and bang... CVT belt broke again... First time at 120 hours, this time at 230 hours...

I'm going to sell this piece of crap and by me a proper ATV, and I'm sure as hell it won't be a Can-Am...

 

No problems here with the outties/gades belt systems. The issue is very low compared to other brands. The only belt problem i can think of is water leaking into the CVT.

 

The belt issue is just 'icing on a cake' for me... I had way to many problems for these 200 hours that I am convinced that Can Am isn't worth of owning... I had more problems than my friends with Chinese made ATV's...

And there is the issue of warranty. For the price I paid for this ATV (~18,000 USD) I could buy a nice car and have 3 years warranty on it. For every problem I had with the ATV warranty didn't cover it, I had to pay it by myself. And I had a lot of issues:

- CVT belt broke down
- Rear brake caliper fell off (had to buy new one)
- Engine stalls after 2 hours of riding on the mountain (they did something with the electronics)
- Rear brake blocks completely for a few seconds after breaking
- Lost all brakes going downhill on a black ski slope! (hidraulic line broke by itself, fortunatelly I was in low gear and managed to pull it to the side and stop it)
- CVT belt broke down again

All of these were the occasion where I had to take it to the service, and I took it 3 more times for regular service, so that makes 9 trips to service for 230 hours of riding and 4 mounths since I purchased it. (actually 3 months, since it was at the dealers service shop for 30 days for the first CVT belt change).

Sorry but that's not my idea of quality product.