I'm new here...the reason I joined was basically because I ran into a fence on my Rubicon. When I look at it from the front, the front tires are kind of pointing in two different directions. I'm not saying that one is pointing straight ahead and the other is pointing directly right or anything. Just that when one is pointing straight, the other seems to be facing outward (if the right tire is straight, the left tire looks to be pointing slightly left, if the left tire is straight, the right seems to be pointing slightly to the right). I'm wondering what the best and worst case scenarios would be. My dad (I'm 18 and live at home) completely freaked out on me and immediately proclaimed it 'unfixable' because 'the frame is bent.' But I have a hard time believing him because when he gets mad he tries to make me feel bad by making things a lot worse than they are (like when the transmission on my first car went out he told me it was because it was full of mud because he thinks I don't know anything about cars and so he decided to make me think it was because I went muddin'). Anyway, if it's the frame then I can get a new one but I'd rather look at cheaper to fix problems first before declaring the frame bent. Any help at all is appreciated.

 

Most likely the frame is not bent unless you hit it going full speed. All atv's as far as I know have one wheel that is pointing the other direction, it is called toe out. It is completely normal. Is that the only thing that looks wrong? If so, I wouldn't worry about the frame being bent.

 

My 250x is supposed to be toed in a little but it would not be noticable to the naked eye. It's less than 1/2". Anyway, it could be a bent frame but I would suspect the tie rods or A arms before the frame. Did you hit the fence with a tire or did you hit it head on in the middle of the front end? Also, when you say you hit a fence, do you mean a fence POST or what?

 

the frame is hard to bend. look for a bend a-arm or bend/damaged tie rod (the steering rod). these two aren't terrible, and something any decent mechanic can replace in your garage. it is possible that you damaged or broke the cv joints, thats probably worst case, more work more expensive than a tie rod. just get in there with a tire off and get a real good look, comparing both sides to see what looks wrong or bent.

 

depending on what type of fence it was and how you hit it, my guess is that you bent a tie rod or wiped out a ball joint connected to the end of the tie rod....i once swiped the front tire of my quad on a tree and it caught enough to break the ball joint off the end of one of my tie rods. when i took it off the ball joint was not just broken off the end, but the tie rod itself had a slight crest in it, so in your case...if you probably hit the fence with one of your front tires first and just put a "crest" in that tie rod, therefore making your steering look off. thats my guess....

 

get in there and look real good with the tire off. my guess (like the others said) is that the frame is not bent. that would take one heck of a shot for that to happen. are you sure it wasn't like that before hitting the fence.?.?.?.?.? it could be as simple as adjusting a tie rod. i had to do that when i first bought my brute force.

 

I hit the post (bent it pretty bad...). I'm pretty sure it was the left front tire that hit it, because I saw the post at the last minute and tried to turn to avoid it. I have a friend who can help me figure out what it is and help fix it. I just have to find an opportunity to take it to him. Again, thanks for all your help. I'll definitely look at the things you guys mentioned.

 

bent left tie rod .......educated guess.....lol
...ive bent lots of those by hitting trees......you can probally adjust it out ..or remove the tie rod beat it back straight as possible with a hammer and put it back on then adjust it ...new aftermarket tie rods are cheap if you dont buy new ends about 20.00 a pair