Two ways to give it just a little throttle to move. If the machine can not already do it there is a colored clutch spring that will give you the rpm engagement point your after. The other is put it in low range ,when I'm in low the bike crawls like a dozer and smoothly engages instantaneously at a very low rpm. When your crawling in low and hit a object like large boulders or a fallen tree you do not need to give it more throttle, it will just creep over the object at the same rpm like its not even there.

Not to many sledders or ATVers who play with these toys for year are ever happy with there stock clutch set up, most change the clutching to there liking after there first test ride, thats why there are so many spring color codes and different weights available to chose from.

 

The design team wants you to be in the powerband and make torque before trying to launch a 1500+ pound loaded Rhino off the line - a higher stall speed is required and is the trade off. Lighter springs equal engagement at a lower rpm and for every change here there is a change in the disengagement on spin down. Heat and dirt are the belts worst enemies. If you are willing to carry a couple of pocket fulls of springs on your next weekend adventure, you can fine tune the engagement curve for every situation that you encounter. A pocket full of springs for the cvt and jets for the carb should help to keep the motor breathing so that you can match the two anomolys on the fly. A pocket full of cams with different grinds wouldn't be a bad idea either. - Just kidding. Flame away . . .

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(1500 pounds includes the wet unit and typical additional operating weight)

 

It seems some have this incorrect belief that high rpm's are required to get a stock Rhino moving, not true. It is that way with other brands but not Yamaha, the belt is always tight if you did not know that already. Long story... blah blah blah, but Yamaha's CVT drives different that the others.
A stock Rhino will begin to pull at just a few hundred rpm above idle. There is no high stall speed, If you see one spinning 1500+ rpm before it begins to engage there is something wrong with that one unless it has been modified to do so. Taking off from a stop is more modified Jeep Rubicon than High rpm & performance snowmobile.

As for they wont crawl at low speed... You should ride one of these before you make that comment.

Again I like the idea of Honda's automatic in one, the ability to lock it into a low constant ratio is highly desirable. But it will take off nearly identical, until it shifts. And I doubt there will be a bunch of Honda's on top of a hill that CVT equipped rides would not climb anytime soon.

 

Can anyone explain exactly how a CVT (Rhino Ultramatic) transmission works? I understand it uses a constant-tensioned belt with variable-width pulleys, but does one pulley change width and the other follow as a slave? Or, are both pulley widths controlled, which would seem a complicated arrangement. From what I've read on this thread, the Rhino system, albeit still a "rubber-band" drive, is preferable to the Polaris PVT, especially if one wishes to putt along slowly at a low RPM.

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cvt.htm

This will tell you the basics.