All,

I would like to hear different people's setup for riding steep hills or even rock climbing. Obviously any bikes with lift kits are at a disadvantage I would think as well as big tires (maybe?).

Some of my issues are my front is raised 2" and I hadn't done anything with the rear setup yet except bring the stock shocks up to the highest setting to somewhat compensate for the front. Some other things, I do is make sure I have more weight in front, load up my front cargo box with tools and heavy items and not have too much weight on my rear rack.

What have you done to yours and what do you recommend?

Cheers,

R'

 

I have climbed some pretty big hills on my 700, and I just lean up over the bars, an I always use low and 4wd, I have been most of the way up a hill, and lost traction, and had to slam on the breaks, and while I held the breaks, I couldn't lean at all, so I had my buddy freewheel out my winch and hook it to a tree, I just pulled my self up, put I tried it again in 4wd. and it worked just great

 

I assume that you are only running stock?

R'

 

A lot of the hillclimbing ability is inherent to the ATV you are doing the climbing with, and then set-up can affect that somewhat. I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind with this post, but I've owned a number of 4x4 ATVs over the last decade, and here is a partial recollection of how they did.

650 Rincon: Felt stable on uphills, but could literally run right out of power and slow down to a complete stop, even with the throttle wide open, if the hill was steep enough. It leaned a fair amount on sidehills and the front was too soft and would dive on downhill offcambers, which would lift the opposite rear corner's tire off the ground. It had no engine braking to speak of at slow speed. Not a good mountain quad in my opinion.

Sportsman 500 HO: Big and heavy, and king of hard to manage in the most technical of terrain. Had more of a tendancy to rear steer when climbing hard with all the weight compressing just one rear corner. I rolled this ATV down the mountainside one time, and had to fork out $500+ to make the repairs.

Prairie 650: Great power, and would climb great, but did not do well on sidehills despite the SRA suspension. The front end was way too soft and that made it lean badly to the downhill side, especially on off camber downhills. I rolled this ATV as well, but it did $0 damage, and the only hard part was getting it off of me and back on the trail.

Grizzly 660: A good climber, and good at downhills, but too tall and tippy to be very comfortable on sidehills. Pretty easy to bust up the plastic floorboards on this ATV when rock crawling.

Kodiak 450: A superb all around extreme terrain ATV, but the 450cc motor could run out of power on the big climbs.

Grizzly 700: A fantastic all around extreme terrain ATV, with much improved center of gravity compared to the Grizzly 660. Still, it is a bit tippy feeling on the worst of sidehills, and the plastic floorboards can get torn up pretty easily in the rocks. Grizzly 700s have a tendancy to stall at just off idle throttle application, and that is a nuiscance when on a real scary section of trail. We've had two Grizzly 700s and they both do it. A poll on Grizzly Central showed that almost all of them do this.

Can Am Renegade 800: The best extreme terrain ATV I've owned to date. It can tend to have too much power, and it is really really easy to stand the front end straight up on a steep climb. You have to learn that it will climb about any technical climb at just 1/4 throttle, and once you figure that out it will go anywhere any other 4x4 will go. This quad feels much more stable on sidehills than any other 4x4 I've owned. And it especially feels more stable on off camber downhills, and almost never lifts the opposite sided rear tire off the ground when turning downhill. The suspension seems to keep all four tires on the ground better on uneven terrain as well. The visco lock front diff works good for hillclimbing, but isn't as good for rock crawling as a pure locker. The center spar frame is lower than the frame of other similar height ATVs, and it tends to drag its belly on rocks when on really technically tough rocky trails. Maybe this is why it is so much better on sidehills though, because it is tough to get any lower to the ground for sidehills than when your frame is on the ground.

In general, for the steep stuff you want a well balanced suspension that is supple enough to flex over uneven terrain and not lift tires off the ground. But you also want a suspension that is stiff enough not to wallow or dive on offcambers. Smaller tires (25") are better than bigger tires (30") on vertical climbs. The lower the quad the better on sidehills. Low gearing and good engine braking are a must. Going to be interesting to hear what others have to say. Have at it folks.

DV

 

2005 Scrambler will climb anything with a 2 inch swing arm extension hpd clutch kit, hpd pipe, aluminum wheels and razor tires.

 

Buy a Touring or X2....just kidding....sort of. The longer wheelbase of these models are great for climbing, give one a try and you'll feel the difference. I come from a rock-crawling background (jeeps not atv) here is my take. You need clearance, but with it comes a downside. I have Polaris HD springs to raise my front, have the rear turned up a couple of clicks, but run stock size tires. You are correct to carry extra weight up front, that is where the Polaris is light. On real extreme rock crawling some will disconnect their sway bars, this allows each tire to have maximum travel without wheel lift. I do not recommend this unless you are traveling slow, things get hairy if you go sideways on a off-camber hill while disconnected. I'm not going to knock the Can Am, it was between Polaris and Can Am when I was shopping (put the Can Am motor in my Touring I'd be a happy boy), but earlier Can Ams lacked sufficient skid protection on the center frame rail, you either needed to add a skid plate, or some put a wood beam inside the hollow frame member to keep from bending it. I think the problem has been corrected on the new ones. I choose the Polaris for the solid frame (no skid plate needed) and the heavy wieght, as I feel a heavier ATV is better for rock-crawling. Speed was not a concern for me, only low speed torque, and I preferred the instant all wheel drive that allowed a slow creep without spin or added power. It's all about transferring weight and knowing your limits....spotters are nice on the really off camber areas. Also know when to jump off, don't give it a death grip and ride it down, I've had my knee on the seat ready to make a quick exit.

 

I climb some big steep hills on the reclaimed coal mines here in Indiana. My lifted Sportsman will climb better than my buddies Outlander. I wasn't too sure how it would do with the lift and tires, but I couldn't be happier.

 

That's excellent advice. We're not talking about laying over a 200 pound dirt bike. If you flip a big fullsized ATV and it comes down on top of you you will likely get hurt and hurt badly. We're talking 600 or 800 pounds or more of ATV crashing on top of you. Worse is that given the position you're likely to be in when it flips over you're going to get folded up in such a way as to break your back. Most of the spinal injuries I've seen from ATVs are from flipping over backwards and they seem to either break up high T2 to C6 or way down low L3 to L5. Injure the spinal cord up high and you're dead or dead from the chest down like superman. If you get lucky and injure it down low you'll never walk or have sex again and you'll have to use bags instead of your bladder and bowels.

The point I'm trying to get across is that if you're doing hill climbing or really extreme terrain please, please, please be careful. Doctors can't fix spinal cords. Likewise wear a helmet since brain injuries suck as much as spinal cord injuries only in different ways.

 

I'm running 2" spring spacers, and the stock 26" PXT's

Also, think once you put this thing in low, it will just go and go

 

I'm running 2" spring spacers, and the stock 26" PXT's

Also, I think once you put this thing in low, it will just go and go