Anyone ever hear of this? Or seen an ATV with a 4-link set up or something similar? Just wondering 'cause after looking at the rear end on my Eiger, it would be simple to 4-link it and add a sway bar with disconnects.

 

Arctic cat ATVs had a rear 4-link system for a while, I believe it was called ACT suspension. Why would you want to tho? there isnt really any need to do such on a ATV. Now a UTV like a rhino i think would be kewl with a 4-link front and rear with sammy axles under it.

 

Ralph Nader's description of the Corsair would also do a good job of describing Arctic Cat's ACT suspension, ... "unsafe at any speed". Those things were scary, so do a better job with your Eiger than Arctic Cat did with their ATVs.

An ATV still wouldn't work as good at rock crawling as something the size of a Jeep anyway. The wheelbase is too short, so you can't keep the front end down on the vertical stuff.

 

In my opinion, It's all in the rider. I've got 07 polaris 800 sportsman and she'll climb well past my abilities. I can put 1 wheel on a tree put 4WD on and she'll go right up it. Here in AZ lots of Mountains and I try to get up all of em. I've gone over junk cars and even one good cadillac,It was a bet. Couple times I get high centered on big rocks reverse will spin quad one way and low spins other way till i get bite on something. scares me most times but nimble as heck. just gotta be able to hang on

 

I do stuff like this on my little SRA Rancher 350, and leave the guys in their $50,000 Jeeps sitting there with their mouths dropping: http://jeep.off-road.com/jeep/...eDetail.jsp?id=330535


Sure, I will hang up once in a while, but all I have to do is lift the quad up and reposition it....no big deal. Long travel suspension and IRS look good on paper, but being off camber on a sloppy top heavy monster with mush box suspension is risking your life! The little Rancher with its light weight, low center of gravity, and tight stable suspension is the ticket for me. I ride with guys who have huge big bore IRS machines, and they say that I "make it look easy".....that's because it is on the right machine!

 

I don't know why you would think the old ACT suspension was scary. Thats probably the most stable quad I've ever ridden. Uphill or off-camber.

 

Arctic Cat is just plain built to climb rocks, then and now. I wouldnt want anything else for the task. Check my pics.

 

Nice pics, but if you showed up at a rock-crawling trail in a truck with independent suspension, everyone would just laugh at you. And you wouldn't get very far. I know that ATVs and Jeeps/trucks are quite a bit different, but the advantage to solid axles(that twist side to side) in the rocks is that you can get stability, flexibility, and traction all in one package. The downside is that in the high-speed stuff it can't match independent suspension. I started this topic with the intension of maybe building a dedicated rock-crawler ATV. I also found that some early Honda 4x4s came with solid front axles.

 

IRS is far superior for rock crawling than a solid axle. You get way better traction to the ground with IRS. I think you are a little backwards in your thinking. The solid axle is BETTER than IRS at high speed trail riding (cornering ect).

 

I'm not talking about a solid axle that doesn't flex side to side. I'm talking about a four-link set-up like what is found on a Jeep, or the Arctic cat that the others were talking about. IFS and IRS cannot compete with this set-up in rock-crawling.