Just curious if anyone out there knows what the front toe-in should be set at on atv's. My first one purchased was a year old rancher which handled mean at speeds and turned out to be toed out about 3 inches. A couple months back I bought a new sportrax 250 which was a little squirrelly, so I checked it out and it was 2.5inches toed out! Another month went by and I bought a new foreman 450s and guess what, it was toed- out about 2.75 inches. I re adjusted all three to 0 toe-in and the handling improved dramatically on all three units. My buddy bought a new foreman rubicon this past weekend and while riding he noticed his wheels seem to stick out in the front. WE checked it and sure enough, it was toed out 2.5 inches. WE re set it to 0 and he said it now feels like power steering! What gives? I run a garage and frontend alignment shop for a living. I used to be employed at a Ford dealership and one of the pre-service procedures was to check alignment on all vehicles at delivery..I believe Honda needs to add this inspection to their pre-delivery as well. Does anyone know the recommended specs from Honda? Thanks alot.

 

Wow, those are way off.
Most of the 4x4 hondas have a toe out spec. Usually in the 0 to 3/8 inch, range.

 

Foreman- 35mm +/- 15mm toe out
1&3/8" +/- 9/16" toe out

 

A slight amount of toe-out or toe-in such as what you have found i can understand. A quarter to half an inch could help tracking, especially at speed. I still dont understand whey Honda is distributing their atv's so far out of spec. You should check yours just out of curiousity and see where it is set. An easy way to do it without alignment equipment is to place a small piece of tape in the center of each front tire with a dot on each one. Measure from dot to dot and then rotate the tires 180 degrees by rolling the machine backwards. measure now from the backside. What kind of readings did you get..This is why you see so many atv's with the front tires slick and rear still have tread. see ya

 

I can't agree with you more TRIPLELSTROKER. Believe me, it's not brand specific either. My Bomb was out 1.5"!!!!!! It's crazy that the factory is kicking these things out with those kind of spec's. Kinda makes me wonder what they did for crank to rod, piston to bore or any other spec you can think of. And the dealer does not check it either??? Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!

 

My Recon didn't seem toed out at all. Then I bought the Foreman and I thought there was something very wrong with it. The toe out is very noticeable. I do plan to adjust the alignment but right now I'm not really concerned. I'll be more concerned right before I buy new tires for it.

How does the Foreman feel in the corners with it toed in? Does it cut down on the turning radius at all?

 

After setting the toe-in to 0, it turns in just as small a radius as the rancher 350 does. Before it would push the front in super tight turns or turn around points and i would have to back up and try again most times. No problem now. Also it doesnt try to "hunt" when traveling at speed like it did before..Take the time to check your Foreman, I am sure you are gonna be pleased with the results. ITs like riding a whole different machine, feels lighter and responds so much quicker in the rough stuff. It also helped on forearm pump-up while riding.. it made a difference there, but the biggest difference in the effort of steering came after removing itp 589 tires and replacing them with the same size mudlite tires.

 

Actually on rear wheel drive vehicles its best to have the front wheels toed-in. The push from the rear wheel drive will spread the wheels causing a equal toe. On front wheel drive vehicles you want to have toe-out. The pulling motion from will pull them back to center again.

However, on small engines I don't think it really matters. Most of the time you can eye ball it with no problems. These engines don't make enough power to cause serious tire wear or front end alignment. Toe is most taken into consideration on on-highway vehicles and heavy trucks.

 

Honda does check there specs, My 05 Rancher AT 400 calls for a 9/16th" toe out in my service manual, this is supposedly to keep the machine from diving in when one wheel climbs up over a rock and comes down.

 

Is that 9/16" toe out total or for each tire? Mine is about 1 and half inch total. I got 350 km on it and is showing plenty of wear on the tires center lug.