Went to the dunes last weekend with new 650 DS. Dune riding is different than trail riding on my outty 800 for sure. I did a few hill climbs. Learned quickly that shifting down in to first on a climb means digging a big hole. Fortunately I am big enough that I can just pick it up out of the whole. I see why this ride isn't great for little guys.

At any rate, I was practicing U turns at speed at the top of smaller dunes. Way back in ATV safety class they taught us this move to use in the event you are going up a hill (with some inertia) and you conclude you aren't going to make the climb. You keep your body weight up hill the whole time while you do the turn. This means that your body weight goes to the outside of the turn when you are at the apex of the turn. The idea is to keep the quad from rolling. Again, this was more of an emergency procedure than a play procedure.

When doing the turn on the dune, it wasn't an emergency procedure. The objective was to shoot sand all over the place and fishtail around the turn. I found that keeping the body weight on the inside of the turn (or downhill at the Apex) spun the quad a lot faster. Seemed to make sense. Of course, I was on a dune that wasn't steep.

Is this the correct way to do this? I'll assume it will only work if you are going fast enough that centrifugal force keeps the bike from rolling down hill and that is the point. Thoughts?

 

The DS is so stable because of its width, I think you could be anywhere on the quad. I have never rolled my DS over on the hill turning. About the only place you would not want to be while turning is over the rear end and if you want to throw a bunch of roost try moving youe weight forward - it will be easier to spin the tires.

The biggest thing to remember is once you have a feel for the quad you will know after hitting the hill right away if you are going to make it or not. If not do the turn when you still have a little speed left.

My 2 cents !!!

 

What size and type of tires are you running?

20's will get you stuck more often. . .
Taller side-wall haulers will want to go straight. . .

What tire pressure are you running?
More pressure and the tire will break-free and you may be able to break the back end loose and spin the quad around.
Less tire pressure and it will just want to bite in and you'll have a tough time breaking the back-end free and turning quickly.

I never had much luck spinning the back-end of the DS around. . . more of a passenger on a nice comfy ride.

 

22 inch paddles at 3 or 4 psi. I also slightly changed the gearing to give a little more torque and a little less top speed (it is still fast enough I don't think I've had it in high gear yet).

I was out again yesterday and was very pleased that this quad could get my 350 pound self up some of the stuff it did. I still plan to do the conversion to more displacement though. I've yet to complain about too much power in any toy.