I have been reading around the net in various forums and such and it seems that there is a general consensus that jumping and wheelies are considered abuse on a utility quad, namely my Brute Force 750. However, burying it in mud or next to submerging it in water do not constitute abuse and are rather "design features" of the machine. I kind of see that the other way around. I am not knocking those of you who like to go mudding...just aint me. Hard hole shots, wheelies and air are me though and that's why I bought the most powerful utility I could find. I understand a sport quad is best suited to those three practices but they aint much good for my huntng, touring, snow plowing, ...etc. So what's the verdict here among owners of liek machines, am I abusing my new BF or no???

Thanks and God bless,

-BunnMan

 

Good topic, this is an ongoing issue amongst quad owners. Here is my take on this very subject:

- Jumping a utility quad or blasting over giant rocks all day long could certainly fall into the abuse category. The utility quads are not really made for jumping and hence, the suspension systems are not built for it. Despite what many may think, it is NOT Kawasakis fault that you bent a tierod on your Brute because you *think* it's OK to hit 15 foot jumps. You wouldnt jump a road bike would you? Of course a quad is different than a road bike but the concept remains the same. So, I would say that hitting anything but the smallest jumps would be abuse.

- As for Mud and water? The issue here is just how deep is the water and mud you want to ride through? The Brute "water in the airbox" problem only seems to affect certain people. Ya know what that tells me? That tells me that some people are simply asking too much from their quad and are hitting 4 foot water holes at 30 mph. Sorry but if you are consistently burying the 4 wheeler in 4++ feet of water and/or mud, its your problem if the quad develops problems. You cant blame Kawasaki for your "brass *****" and Rambo mentality. The manual clearly states that the deepest fording water depth is about up to the hubs! So, you driving through the creek all day in 4 feet of water would qualify as "do at your own risk" riding.

Of course, when things go wrong and it is clearly a bad design or poor worksmanship then by ALL means we quad guys have a right to answers and good service and the facts show that this is not always the case. The Brute has certainly had it's share of "issues" and I should know because I have one. The fact is that I suspect that half of the complained about problems are user-induced. Sorry, but I see how people ride when I'm out there and I watch what they do to these things. It's amazing that some of the quads even run anymore.

I know, you're thinking "what am I supposed to do, drive the thing on the highway?" Your wondering if I'm some dweeb that "pussies" my away around the mud instead of through it. You are wrong...my attitude is simply that if the water or mud is obviously 4 feet or higher...I'm not driving through it. If that makes me a wussy, then so be it. Or, if I do drive through it and the bike gets mud in the airbox, I wont come on the ATV forum and whine about it. I'll just clean it and start riding again.

The bottom line is that YES a quad is an off road vehicle and YES they are designed for rough terrain. YES, you should be able to hit mud or water with them. However, dont whine and complain that your belt is slipping when you just drove through the middle of the lake or if your shocks break because you think your Jeremy McGrath on 4 wheels.

OK.... I'll shutup now [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I think of abuse on the side of lack of maintance more than being hard on a machine. If you choose not to maintain your machine then there is abuse but if you properly maintain it I would say well used. If you play hard you pay hard. Some people feel my machines are abused because of the km/hours I rack on mine, and in my pov they are well used and very well maintained. You will know when you are hard on your machine, your machine will tell you ie. when you are in high and you should be in low feeling. A normal jump and wheelies are not abuse in my pov. It's like the mud thing the more you are in the mud the more you could expect something to go wrong... so the more you are in the air the more stuff could go wrong. You can tell if a machine is abused only by the why it is driven and looks together. Like me you can not expect a ATV to stay in showroom shape with out small dents in the rim and scratches on the plastic with 21,000km on the machine, however if you had only lets say 200km on a machine and my ATV looks newer than yours well..... I have no problem with small jumps some big jumps are hard on the machine and you LOL.

 

I totaly agree with you s2mikey & kawi650[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]