Brought home new Prairie 700 yestarday, got 20 miles on it now. I love it. I was reading the manual and it says the Belt Light will come on when you get 100 miles on it and it needs to go to the dealer for adjustment. The dealer told me this would cost about $175 to do this and what ever other service it needs at the time. Is adjusting the belt a big deal? Can I do it myself? Also the dealer says I have to take it back for a valve adjustment but I can't remember the milage that I'm supposed to do this. Is this also a big deal? And is this something I can do at home. Is there any other maintenance idems I need to be awhare of ? Now I get to install the winch tomarrow. Any hints about that project? Any help would be appreciated, Thanks

 

Congrats, Never had the belt light come on or had my valves adjusted and i have nearly 1400mi on my 02'650.The winch install is a piece of cake.Not sure which winch you have but i have a 2000lb warn and i mounted the solenoid under the rear fender.There is some aluminum brackets there and it is an ideal spot.Good luck.

 

hey there,

congrats on the new ride. As far as the belt thing, i suggest getting a servive manual. I had the 100 hour light come on and i reset it(using my service manual) and checked the belt. The 50 dollar service manual will help you do many things on your own and save you much money. To keep you belt in best working condition. Keep it in LOW gear as much as possible. My little rule of thum is keep it in low when going 20 miles an hour or less. The low gear keeps the belt tight and doesnt wear it out as easy and let it slip. You will love your prairie just like me even though yours has 336 more cc's than mine. owell.

 

Dandy1,

One I see is you may have misunderstood. The belt light will come on at 100 hours not 100 miles. Depending on where or how you ride sort of a rule of thumb is around 10 hours =about 60 miles that can really vary though since if it sits and idels it racks time. Someone else there mentioned the manuel, best 50 bucks you will spend. If you take one to the dealer for everything it will cost you a fortune to own one and operate it. You can buy a manuel at the kawasaki web site.

 

That maintenance manual is like the BIBLE for your quad. You can do everything yourself with that manual or everyone on this awesome site can help ya. We have faith in you!! Later brothers!

 

Dandy1 that is 100 hours.the 02 650's did not have that.The manual is a good thing but also I would get familiar with NYROCS site.Belt adjustments (if needed) are easy.Once you make the tool and do it once it's a breeze.It's about a 30 min deal for me now but now that it's et up tighter it's also not as frequent.If it's et up on the low side of the spec it takes a while.Riding in low is very good advice.
02 650 camo

 

Thanks Again for all your help and advice. My son - in -law and I got the installed the winch today and it took about 4 hours for me to figure it out. Hey whats up with the EASY SCRATCH PLASTIC, I new it would get some scratches on it but it looks like its 2 yeras old already. You can scratch it by just running your hand accross the body anywhere. Is this normal and a sample of Kawasaki Quaility? I'll be glad when its all scratched so I will all match. Thanks again! Dandy1

 

I personally believe they are all that way.My 2000 Kodiak was red and it seemed to scratch very easy.
02 650 camo

 

The plastic is pretty soft on all Quads and does scratch easy something you live with. Although the camo models have a different plastic and don't scratch like that. My new BF650 is camo and stays looking pretty good, have a red plastic one that looks like a 1000 cats ran over it with claws out. You can actually use some fine plastic polish and remove many of the fine scratches but if yopur going in the woods not much use.

 

I use STP sun of a gun on all my quads. I soak them down in the stough and let them set for a few hours or overnight then I wipe them down. Its a good Idea to remove the seat when you do this, and armorall is not the same thing. This also helps in cleanup after a good mudd ride. Plastic polish works ok but to get that new shine back I have not found anything better than STP.

My 2002 P650 does not have the belt minder feature but I had 0 problems in the first 1200 miles or so of hard riding. I had the dealer replace the belt at 1400 miles after pulling an oversized load causing the belt to heatup and slip. I think that was my fault since Pulling a 1000+ pound load over 35 miles of mountain trail tends to be hard on any belt drive, and I slippped it enought o glaze the belt so it was cherping from then on til I replaced it. I have about 650 miles on my Twin peaks and no belt adjustments or problems of any kind. The Dyna CDI box eliminates the belt minder so it never came on.

I had the dealer adj the valves sevice both diffs and flush the coolant, and change the belt all for about 225.00. you might check around at some other dealers for beter prices. Keep in mind the Artic cat dealers and the SUki dealers all sell the same powertrane that you have and are experinced in working on the kawi V-twins and the Kawi drivetrains.