I have a 97 Sportsman 500, approx 1800 orig miles on it.

Quad won't charge the battery, but will run forever once it's running, either by pull start or charging the battery manually.

I have done the following tests:

Amperage draw with key off to see if there is something drawing power - tested good

Voltage test at approx 3000rpm - tested good

Here's where my dilemma arrives; because I don't usually drive around at 3000rpm, could it be that I'm not reaching enough RPM to charge the battery? Or is it possible that the stator is no good at a lower RPM?

 

you need about 1500 to 2000 RPMs for the charging system to kick in. i would try testing your battery. maybe it has a dead cell in it and will only hold a charge for a very short period of time. if your motor starts easily, it doesnt take all that much juice to get the motor going. so even a total of about 5 or 10 minutes of getting charged should keep the battery alive

 

Battery is almost new, approx 1 month old. Previous battery had been very low on acid/water.

I'm thinking that part of the problem is that I'm usually not working it hard RPM wise, versus electrical load: plow, winch, lights.

 

idle around 1200 r's volts 13 at 1300 i got 14.3 volts