I'm a new rider on an 03 Trailboss. I read topics where people refer to shifting while discussing automatics. I know my car auto shifts from 1,2,3 but can't distinguish shifting on my quad. What shifting is taking place on my quad with it's PVT? Perhaps I don't understand how the transmission works as part of the drive train?

 

That is a good question because it does sound funny. When you take off normally the clutch moves together and as it engages the belt the quad begins to move. The quad will continue to move and raise the engine RPM's until the force of the primary clutch overcomes the seconday. When that happens the secondary clutch begins to open and the belt starts dropping. The primary clutch keeps making the belt rise in the sheaves. That is what we call the shifting phase of the clutches. There are so many different combos and ways to tune the clutches that it can be different for any combo of motor,pipe, etc., and the shifting can be made to happen at a very low or high RPM or anywhere in between. I hope that might help clear it up.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

The auto transmission in your car uses a series of planetary gears and clutches to shift. It does indeed have gears. (go to www.howstuffworks.com for a better description). The PVT uses a drive and driven pulley to change gear ratios. As Bubba said, the transmission senses engine speed and can vary the diameter of the drive and driven pulley. When the driven gear is small and the drive is large, you have a high gear. When the drive gear is small and the driven large, you have a low gear. Since the transmission can seamlessly vary the diameters of these pulleys, there really is no 1-2-3-4 gears like in your car. You basically have an infinite combonation of gears.

 

you don't have 1,2,3,4,5, as well,at thumb response you have the whole powerband of the engine on tap ALWAYS where you want it upshift/dowshift the clutchs,you can then have an unlimited ranges of speed at only a given rpm...so it give a lot of cruising speed issues....

 

Thank you all for the responses to my question. It has helped me to better understand discussions when people refer to the shifting of their PVT's.