i'm thinking about buying a quadmaster 500 and i was wondering if any of you guys had been having any trouble with the auto tranny. i've looked at this atv for sometime now and really like the looks. i'm also curious as to the prices people have paid for it. any help would be appreciated.

 

I have a 2000 Arctic Cat 500 auto, same engine and tranny just have selectable 2 or 4 wheel drive. It comes with Titan 489 tires. The fender extensions won't rip off like on The Suzuki. Plus you get more ground clearance. I haven't had a single problem yet with mine and I have nearly 600 miles in the 1st six weeks of owning it. I paid 6238 out the door tax, license,and setup with a winch here in Idaho.

 

I have a '00 500 quadrunner 4x4, haven't had any problems at all with the motor or tranny. The only thing I don't like is the wide fender guards and mud flaps. They get the hell beat out of them. I have ripped one almost in half. They are nice to keep you clean, even when your ripping through knee deep mud, but prepare to re-attach them and probably tear them.

 

I have a 00 Quadmaster and think it's an excellent machine.

I have had a problem though, decribed in a past post. It has experience running out of gas symptoms on two occasions when the gas reached around half a tank. Others have also experinced this. Some have had the fuel selector replaced. I myself have had my dealer give it a good look over and they found nothing wrong. They said if it happens again they will replace the fuel selector. I have not had any reoccurring problems with it since the dealer looked it over.

I just read a 1000 miles torture test on this machine and it came through with flying colors. There was also a seperate long term test and again, a good review. I tested a lot of quads before I bought this one and felt this was the best long term quad for me. I have not had any problems with the fender guards like some of the Quadrunner owners. I've been through some very rough stuff too. I've been in water up to the racks on more than one occasion and have had no problem with getting the belt wet or slippage. The engine is an amazing, powerful, silky smooth running unit. I see why a number of quad reviewers have said it's their favorite big bore since it came out on the Quadrunner in 1998.

My wish list of changes:
The selectable 4-wheel drive is nice, much better than full-time 4-wheel drive all the time, but I wish it was setup as a push bottom like the Polaris or Yamaha.

I wish it had more ground clearance. 9.3 inches is good but the times I have been stuck it's because of a lack of ground clearance.

More up to date gauges like found on the new Ranger or Foreman ES.

True 4-wheel drive. I wish the King Quad transmission was on the Quadmaster.

That will do.

I paid $6600 for mine with a winch. I am glad I got the winch.

It's a great quad, I'd recommend it to anyone. Good luck.

 

I bought my 00 quadmaster last November and logged about 400 miles so far. No problems, however, some of us have posted a strange sound (downhill on the brakes in 2WD) that turned out to be normal (thanks for the explanation minehunter). No fuel problems here. The auto tranny is tried and proven (design came from snowmobiles?). Suzuki made some sensible improvements to their CVT design (end of shaft support bearing and "non-stop" pulleys to reduce belt wear). My favorite features are its compact design and great torque. It works very well in tight, rocky, steep terrain. The local forestry patrol (which can choose almost anything they want) uses quad runners/masters. Even after testing the Rubicon, some of the patrol I know still prefer the Suzukis. My experience with Suzuki motorcycles has been good. Great engines that last with little maintenance. Got mine for $6210 (with 7.75% CA sales tax!!) out the door with winch kit (don't like the Suzuki winch mount due to inhibited approach angle) and camo cover kit (highly recommended). I did have to re-jet for my altitude (7-10K') and I installed a K&N filter (also highly recommended). Personally, I think its one of the best quads on the market. I'm normally a strong Honda advocate, but I preferred the Suzuki engine and I like the semi-independent rear suspension over Honda's "live axle" for my type of riding. Good Luck.

 

 

Hey mntgoat, regarding the winch mount. I am not sure what kind they put on yours, but I did a custom job on mine and it came out real nice. The dealer put spacers on mine and I didn't care for it because the appoach angle was reduced. I took the mounting plate off and had about 2" cut out of the center of it. I was then able to remove the spacers and the winch mounts up and out of the way with room for the roller fairlead. I have a 2000 Superwinch on mine and after the custom work, love it.

Have you upgraded your tires?

 

Thanks for the feedback C4. I got the package deal from Suzuki, which I believe includes a factory mount for the SuperWinch. It's the same one pictured on Suzuki sales literature. It's not a mounting plate, but an entire "substructure" which sticks way out in front of the front bumper/frame. I ordered a Warn plate ($40, which tucks back into the frame) hoping I could modify for my SuperWinch, but no go, won't fit. At this point, I'm open to suggestions. Moose apparently has a QuadMaster/Runner plate for my winch, but I understand there's some difference between the frame/bumper between Runners and Masters and I haven't been able to confirm compatibility before I spend another $85 for a Moose plate.

 

C4, haven't worn out my stock tires yet, but they're going fast. Saw a new QuadMaster at Chapparel with 27" tires. Looks great and apparently has enough clearance. I'm leaning towards oversize when I go for replacements. Just not sure how big to go. Also concerned about weight and resulting effects on performance. Hope someone will post their experience.

 

Mntgoat, I thought that was the setup you might have. My mounting kit was from Moose I believe. It's what the dealer had. As I mentioned before. The mounting plate will fit but it sticks out so that it's even with the front bumper. When you put the roller fairlead on the mounting plate it just looks stupid because it sticks out beyond the front bumper. The only way to correct this is to use spacers or cut 2" out of the mounting plate. The dealer used spacers. I didn't like them so I had 2" cut. It looks great and fit great now.

Regarding the differnce between the Quadrunner and Quadmaster I am not sure.

Good luck!