Yup. I'm not fooling around. I'm doing everything right off the bat and not little by little here n there. I'm taking out the perfectly good stock piston and putting in the +1mm arias 10.5:1 piston. Then it gets a 250s cam. One of my homemade mufflers. New clutch with bigger springs. A lawnmower battery to power a front and back winch. Already got most of the under-armor on and have all of the bolts in the tires. Everything is stainless, so no rust to worry about... and stainless is tough stuff. When it rolls out of the shop it will be the ultimate go anywhere machine without using tracks or explosives lol

Just tooling around I've already seen places on my property I've never seen before... and found 3 metal poles I didn't know I had that I can use for a fence around the garden. About 6-7yrs ago a bulldozer pushed all sorts of trees and dirt into a huge pile along my property line. I'm crawling all over that and haven't been stuck yet (except when that tree went thru my a-arm). Its mind blowing the places it will go. And it just has 25 inch tires! 24 in front.

I'll see about pics tomorrow to show off the low center of gravity, but I won't have finished pics for a while.

Here's a vid of a guy pulling a dump truck
I have no doubts it will do it. I pulled my truck really easy while the truck was in 2nd gear (it only weighs 4000lbs). I could probably pull it with the brakes on if I could get it moving somehow.

Another one
That truck weighs 10,000lbs at least.

650 honda rincon and a sportsman 500 being yanked out of a mudhole by a 1989 suzuki 250..

 

Its custom made. Its a chunk of billet aluminum that he said his mechanic turned on a lathe for him.

 

ok thanks

 

huge thread - not sure is my search feature has the ability to cover it all. I have the Clymer and getting the lt230s service manual but I was wondering if anyone has a detailed DIY guide with pics on how to rebuild the top end.

if so please PM me or send me email - rbskls@hotmail.com

thanks

 

The service manual has everything you need to know... except stressing not to put too much RTV on the valve cover. Very thin is all you need. It can squeeze out on the cam bearing.

I'll be tearing mine down this weekend to bore it out and replace a cam.

 

I never actually used rtv on the valve cover. Never leaked. It depends really how well the cases are machined. I always made sure that I torqued everything correctly and I never had a problem with leaks, might be luck. Only time I ever had a leak, was when I didn't have a top motor mount on my lt250s engine, so the vibration caused the top acorn nuts to back out, causing oil to leak out the spot where the stud went through, thats it. I always just wiped off any old oil and grease to prevent small pores for oil to go through.

 

I've heard of gasket surfaces sealing without gaskets or RTV. I think there were some old cars made with no head gaskets. I always use RTV by default though. Maybe I don't need it, but I don't want to have to take it apart again because I didn't use it. One experiment I did want to try one day is to build one without valve seals. I don't think they're necessary. But I won't be doing that on this 4x4 model because the angle the head is... just in case I'm wrong lol.

Two of the nuts on the top are supposed to get RTV too according to the book. Mine usually leaks there before anywhere else on the top end.

 

Ok here are the pics of tires on the ground.

250ex on the left. Notice how much higher the frame is above the tire on the 250 than the 300. Notice the engine is lower than the tires on the 300. The 300 is compressed... its sits lower, but has more ground clearance! I've never seen another quad with this geometry.



They are roughly the same size. The 250 is 38 inches wide and the 300 is 42. The 300 isn't going to get pinned between trees like the 700 does at 52 inches.



Here's a closeup of the compact design

 

This is the steepest hill I could find on my property. Cameras suck for showing how steep hills are, but this is a 45 degree angle and pretty much steeper than anything you would want to climb on a quad (jump yes, but not climb slowly). I can climb it at the speed a winch cable would pull me, stop in the middle, then start up again real slowly and never spin a tire or fear flipping over. I've never seen any other quad come close to this kind of control.

 

Got into some trouble here lol

Down in a hole, bigass log in front, briars to the right,,, can't go forward because too many live trees poking me... can't go backwards because can't go up the hill made of loose earth while also trying to get off that log.



See the log has me pinned... can't back up the hill. Front wheel off the ground and frame resting on the log. Back tires digging a hole while fronts are doing nothing.



Clawing



Finally made it out







Without the bolts digging into that log I probably would have to be pulled out





Damn honeysuckle