Greetings all. I have had my Brute Force for about 3 months now and have racked up close to 400mi. I have been good to it, doing all services, keeping the air filter cleaned, etc, etc. Lately, when starting the bike, I noticed that I hear a ticking noise from the belt cover. It even sounds like something is hitting something in there. Its very un-nerving to say the least. I hate strange noises in motorized stuff. Anyways... it seems to go away after I ride for a while, but damn.... I'm so freakin nervous that all of a sudden that sucker is gonna break and I'll be stranded who the hell knows where. Not a good feeling. I know that Nyroc has good belt info on adjustments and all that, but geez...why do our expensive quads have to be at the mercy of a $40 dollar belt? Who made that engineering decision? I'm not interested in "checking" it every 200 miles or whatever. The boards are loaded with "belt and CVT" posts. That says something??

So...where are the REAL transmissions for the big bores? Cant they scale down a Chevy TH350 or something? For all the hi tech gizmos, big horsepower, electric this & electric that.... how about a traditional drive system? Sorry to rant so much, but this is BS. The least they could do is offer a 5 speed on the bigger quads...I would have got one in a second. I'd rather shift and be able to sleep at night than trust some gimmicky automatic. Oh and forget the weight argument. Who the hell actually took weight into consideration when buying their quad? I bet noone or almost noone. So what if the Brute weighs 800 lbs instead of 600 lbs? Give me a real tranny and I'll trade you some weight back. So whattaya do? Take it to the damn useless dealer? Buy a bucketload of tools and pray that you don't ruin anything? How about light the thing on fire and call your friendly insurance agent and start over? ....Puhleeeze.

Oh well, after this I will never touchany motorized anything with a stupid belt drive. What a lame way to make an automatic. I feel robbed by Kawasaki.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

Have a nice day [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Say what you want about belt drives, but the current alternatives in utility ATVs are worse. I know three people that own Honda Rubicons, and two of them have had transmission failures. When a Rubicon transmission fails, you just screwed the pooch, and you're in for one very expensive repair bill. I personally owned a Honda Rincon, and that ATV had the all time worst transmission I have ever personally experienced. It was always in the wrong gear, felt sluggish, constantly shifted back and forth between gears if I didn't use ESP mode, creeped badly when in gear at idle, and in general just didn't work worth a hoot. It was the most frustratingly disappointing ATV I have ever owned, and we had dancing in the streets on the day I sold it.

I personally would rather have an automatic transmission on a utility quad, and a manual transmission on a sport quad, that is why I own a Prairie 700 and a DS650. If you want a manual transmission on a utility quad, then buy one (Suzuki). When it comes to belt drives, I have owned three Polaris ATVs, and two of them needed belts replaced, while one also needed the entire primary clutch replaced. I have owned four Kawasaki's with belt drives, and have never replaced a belt on any of them. I have owned five Yamaha's with belt drives, and have never even touched a belt on any of them. And the belt drive transmissions WORK BETTER and provide much better performance than the Honda alternatives do.

Just offering my perspective, it looks like we will have to disagree with each other on this one.

OuterLimit.

 

Thats cool, Outer Limit. I hear ya on the Honda...notice my post never mentioned the Honda being the right choice either [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Maybe I'm being a little "hard on the beaver..." I've hated belts in sportscars too... timing belts that is. Same problem there...whole vehicle is USELESS if a 50 dollar belt breaks or malfunctions.

It just seems they could do better and would want to do better. On top of everything else... they dont like water, mud or dust. Ummm... uh.... isn't that the terrain the ATV was made for? Am I supposed to save the belt and drive it to work on the highway and stay off the trails?

Perhaps I worry too much, but I'll be damned if I take any long trips far from home and risk getting boned. And of course, it wont fail a mile from home..it will fail at the worst opportune time.... like in the middle of the woods on a cold evening 20 miles from home.

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

 

I used to feel the same way. No bubber bands for me. But when I looked into it, the different brands are not the same. The suzuki and the yamaha, belt drives work totally different then the kawi and polaris.
The suzi and yami, have the belt, always in tension. It never goes slack, like on polaris and kawi. This is what causes the problems, the contant tightening and slacking, and the burn everytime it engages. On the kawi and polaris, you must use low, for going slow. On the suzi and yami, you only use low when you want to. The belts dont burn, or slip, when using high, at low speeds, like the other two.
Ever hear of complaints on the yami or suzi belt drives? Do a search. I gotta believe were just as hard on our quads as the kawi /polaris guys, but there are very few problems with our belts.

 

I tend to agree with you H/Buster. My 700 is in the shop for spring kit to fix belt slipping. This is due to the larger tires but non the less Suz and Yami seem to have better luck with their CVT systems. Having said this, Kawi quads seem to provide improved performance when the owner replaces the stock springs.
My 360 has not given me any trouble belt wise but I always ride in low for trail rideing. This gives me more control over the power band plus my speeds are kept below 50km.

 

Invest in a nice kevlar belt...

 

Just ride and have fun,you wont find many people that had a belt break on a Kawi. ya have to do a little maintenace on it but that is part of the sport. I've ridden snowmobiles my whole life(36) and don't think I broke more then maybe three belts and most of my sleds have had over 100 hp.

 

Kawi uses Kevlar belt. That's the white string like stuff in the middle of the rubber belt. They also changed the vendor. It changed from JPN to USA (written on the belt) or the othe way recently.

If the belt doesn't break, something else, something more expensive, will take the stress and will have to sacrifice sooner or later. Think of belt as a weak link or a fuse. You see those lawn edger blade is always belt driven? Similar concept.

 

Tis true. I got my '04 Grizzly 660 hung up while rock crawling, with one front tire tightly wedged under an overhanging rock ledge. I had it in low range with the front differential locked, and started slowly applying more and more throttle to unstick the Grizzly. About the time I was at wide open throttle, and none of the tires had moved, I started thinking "this thing has one tough belt drive transmission to not slip with this much abuse". The only problem was that right after I thought that I heard a really really loud BANG as a front axle shaft did the old hand grenade down the fox hole routine.

OuterLimit.

 

Oh...allright. I guess I'm being a little unreasonable here. I'll just keep riding and try and not think about it. Hopefully, it goes well for me.

I hope the new 26" wheel kiit I got doesn't add to the wear and tear too much!

I still say that someday, ATV's will have regular, car-like 3 speed autos that last forever and can take anything.

Mike