We went on a awesome river bed ride yesterday. The river bed was mostly dry and varied between rock, sand, and some water crossings. Lots of fun! Anyway there were a few deep water crossings and one where we actually had to walk beside the quads (in about 3 1/2" of water) and float them across with one hand on the rear rack and the other hand on the throttle. Luckily my 650 never died while floating it through. I was a bit nervous going through this deep of water, but everything seemed to work great. The belt never even slipped. I was pretty impressed!

My question is what would I need to do if my engine quits while in too deep of water? What steps should I take to avoid damaging anything. Is there anything I should check today? Any simple mods to help drain out water?

Thanks!

 

3 1/2" is three and a half inches. Did you mean feet? 42 inches? 3'-6"? 3.5'? Sorry, I thought it was funny.

Don't rev it when getting water in the inlet. It can bend things in the motor (you don't want to have to rebuild it just for water). Just kill it or let it quit. You basically have to change the oil, and possibly take the plugs out and crank it. People make extended intake and belt vent snorkles so they can get in deeper without problems. Never let an engine sit with water in it. Change the oil and run it. Change it again if needed. Running it will cause water to evaporate and leave crankcase.

A wet belt slips That ruins the belt fast. If it gets wet, you have to push it, tow it, or winch it. If the belt gets wet, get it on dry land and just rev it in neutral to blow the water out. After that, push it on a flat surface to get it moving in low to avoid belt slipping. Drive a while in low without stopping will also help to dry it right out.

if you get water over the handle bars, the breather hoses for the front and rear diffs may get water. Just change the oil in those too. May need repeated changings to get all the water out. The water won't hurt most gearboxes right of the bat, but if you leave water inside and it rusts the bearings it is bad.

 

3 1/2" is deep because I don't have a real quad, it's a model toy quad. ; )
Thanks for the info. I'll check my oil tonight.

This was the first time I've gone through deep water, but my 650 seemed to go through it and run great the rest of the day. How about some other deep water crossing experiences? Anyone else have good (or bad) experiences in water?

 

We ride out at my grndmas farm most of the time and that is right on the lake. We also camp down there so we have a dock in the ater even though the water only gets to probably 2 and a half feet at the end of the dock... Evey now and then we take the Atv's out around the dock. Getting out is difficult if you dont have fourwheel drive though. The Trailblazer can go out around and then would get stuck getting out unless it turned around and went back the way it came.

We have also went to central minnestoa and went on a trail system called the soo line trail I think. There was a place called the sink hole and that is complelty filled with water probably 50 yards long. I was riding the trailblazer and i didnt feel like geting stuck so I looked around and say a side path I could take so I took it. There was some water that didnt look to deep but when I hit it the front went down and the back followed. I almost made it to the other side and if I had 4 wheel drive it would have made it...but I had to get off of it and it floated to the top...If I went through the sink hole I would have made it just fine...so I figured I was already muddy so I went through the sink hole 5 or 6 more times.