I am looking at some ATV's that are appropriate for farm use. I am looking at used 4 wheel drive capable, willing to pull a 100 gallon sprayer, etc. with a cost of less than $3500.00. I am looking at a used Honda Foreman and thus why I came to this forum.

My question is, is there someone who can give me an idea how I can translate hours or miles a ATV has been ridden into the equivilent of car miles of which I have experience? Now before someone jumps in with the obvious "it depends" observation, I know there are a lot of other variables that play into condition as there are in cars but, how many miles/hours are on a vehicle is a good place to start in guaging how used is a used vehicle.

For example, there is a bike near where I live, a 1999 Foreman, that has 1800 miles on it. Is this a lot for an ATV generally? Can some of you tell me how many hours/miles you have on yours and the condition your ATVs are in? This will help me get a better feel for what I need to be looking for from a usage standpoint.

Thanks,
Dave in NC

 

Welcome to the forum.

If well maintained a Foreman with 1800 miles could have a lot of life left in it, or it could be trashed. Sometimes farm use ATV's will have many more hours than you would expect with the miles. My foreman had about 120 hours in 1300 miles, where a buddy of mine bought a Rubicon that had been used in orchard use that had less than half the miles, but more hours.

 

From a dealer's view, I can tell you that determining a "condition" on any ATV is pointless whether going by hours or mileage.

Take the example of an 18 year old mud bogger owning this Foreman in question.
He owns it only 3 months and has less than 50 hours on it. Chances are MORE likely that this Foreman is in a much more poorer condition than a Foreman owned by a farmer for over two years with over 200 hours on it who only used it to ride his fence lines.

Mileage is irrelevant and so are the hours past the 50 mark. Both measures are more for luxury items to sway buyers and to determine approximate maintenance schedules than anything else.

These machines have different uses for different people and I promise you that finding a GOOD used ATV is only accomplished from lucking up with a GOOD owner.
Treat the situation as if you were buying a muscle car and you will find a great buy.

 

Would 2000 to 2500 hours be about the life of an ATV? This is about what you would expect on average from a commerical grade ZTR without a lot of problems and a tired engine.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: KNOWSALOT

From a dealer's view, I can tell you that determining a "condition" on any ATV is pointless whether going by hours or mileage.



Take the example of an 18 year old mud bogger owning this Foreman in question.

He owns it only 3 months and has less than 50 hours on it. Chances are MORE likely that this Foreman is in a much more poorer condition than a Foreman owned by a farmer for over two years with over 200 hours on it who only used it to ride his fence lines.



Mileage is irrelevant and so are the hours past the 50 mark. Both measures are more for luxury items to sway buyers and to determine approximate maintenance schedules than anything else.



These machines have different uses for different people and I promise you that finding a GOOD used ATV is only accomplished from lucking up with a GOOD owner.

Treat the situation as if you were buying a muscle car and you will find a great buy.</end quote></div>

Thanks for your opinion but, I think your overstating the case. What you wrote regarding mileage/hours is true of any vehicle. Perhaps more for ATVs I'll grant you but, to say that hours/mileage over 50 is irrelevant is not a defensible position generally speaking. First of all, it does not take into account the possible scenario that one could find two similar ATV's, with similar histories, for example, same year, same type of usage etc. Secondly, it is certainly true that people vary in how well they maintain their vehicles. Nonetheless, on average, a person who has a machine with 1000 hours has much more opportunity to do damage to his machine than one that has in 100 hours. Lastly, useage, even careful useage does cause wear to a machine.

As said in my original post, hours are certainly not the only criteria but, are certainly a factor to take into consideration especially when reviewing descriptions in advertisements. This is true of cars, trucks, tractors, and ATVs.
If I completely discounted this factor, and by extension of your reasoning, age as well, what else would I have to go on looking at similar ATV's in cragslist, the paper and so on. It would be extremely difficult and inefficient use of time to personally inspect every ATV. The fact is, mileage/hours are a good place to start, as I initially stated, in accessing the value of a any machine. Buyers know this as do owners in that both will negotiate on that point, as will dealers.

However, I shall take your advice regarding looking at ATVs as muscle cars. That does make a lot of sense.

 

that is not many miles at all . i have seen oil field bikes in the shop with 15000 to 25000 miles on them and still running

 

As far as hours go 2500 would be a considerable amount of time on the machine, but I remember seeing a used foreman with miles up into the 30 thousands, and hours up around 2900. He said the motor had never been gone into, but it did have usual little things (brakes, an oil seal, wheel bearings). If you buy something with that many hours, though, you couldn't be surprised if it rattled a bit and used some oil, and if you needed to rebuild it in the not too distant future.

When I was shopping, I looked at a couple used Foremans. At that time, it seemed like ones that were in good condition that had similar miles as the one you are looking at were like $1500 or $1800 or so less than what a brand new machine could be had for, by the time you were done haggling- and often those used machines were getting close to needing tires, and the new ones seem to have a bit nicer suspension, and better (disk) brakes....

Looking at used machines I guess was kind of a stepping stone, to get used to the idea of spending a bit more...

Anyway, good luck with whatever you choose.

 

The trouble with "farm" use is that a lot of it is done at low speed, and a lot of the time that AIR COOLED engine is left idling...not good! 1800 miles of sport riding isn't the same as 1800 miles of mud bogging or putting around a farm at 10 mph. So, how was the machine you are looking at used????

A good example....A few years ago we had a guy in here who kept having warped heads on his fleet of farm Recons. He would replace them repeatedly (at my favorite local dealer) and a few weeks later it would happen again.

I inquired futher, and it turned out that he was a date grower in Indio Calif....where it is 110+ degrees every day in the summer (hell, it can be 110+ degrees at NIGHT!). I asked if his guys were truning the engines off when they got off the bike to do something, and he said no they just left them running so they didn't have to keep restarting all the time. That was the cause....and furthermore it had never even occured to him to run 20W50 oil.....

 

Back in the day I worked for a farm, and we used Big Reds to move swing pipes, general running around, and weed spraying.

Weed spraying often involved creeping through tall grass at like 1 mph for a few yards, stopping and idling while spraying a weed, and creeping forward a few feet again, often on 100+ degree days. For an air cooled engine with no fan, I was amazed we never had a problem.

The farmer I worked for changed the oil with Rotilla-T 15-40 once a year, whether they needed it or not, and until I worked there I don't think he even knew they had oil filters. He bought those things used, and I'd estimate they put close to 3000 hours on them that I know of...

 

When Honda used Japanese built OHC engines..... ahh,...the good ole days. .