Today I completed the installation of a Stealth Exhaust system on my wife's 2002 Honda 4x4 Rancher 350 ES.

It's wonderful!
We ride mostly in Idaho's vast National Forest lands, enjoying the view, the solitude, mountain air, and the wildlife. A local Stealth owner bragged to me that he was seeing 10 times the game on his Sportsman than he did pre-Stealth. His ride was amazingly quiet, with about the same whisper-sound of a BMW road bike.

We haven't yet gotten "out there" with the Stealth, but the exhaust sound of the already-quiet Rancher is now nearly silent. I'm so impressed that tomorrow I'm going to order out a Stealth for my Foreman.

Check 'em out: http://www.atvstealthexhaust.com

 

We have a new 96dB rule here in Calif., and the rangers are going to run around with meters checking everybody. I am sure that I am no lower than 96, if that. Anyway, even with my loud bikes, I am constantly chasing bears, deer, and a bob cats (no mountain lions yet), down the trail. With stealth, I would have to carry a stick, to shoo the game out of the way!!

 

I looked at the web site you posted. Does it interfere with the storage box in back?

 

With the Stealth you get a lot of mounting-location options.

Best I can tell, the "Benz" is the only really competitive muffler, and it appears that since theirs is "tailored" for each model, as a one-piece unit, you don't get the options.
One piece = neater looking, simpler installation.
BUT = It looks like there are no locational choices to accommodate your possible boxes, etc., and it would appear that with no slip-joints, a good whack on the back of the Benz system might transfer a pretty hard shock to your existing exhaust and maybe your cylinder head ... ?

So I chose Stealth.
You can mount it with hanger-straps (supplied) down towards the trailer hitch. If you want a mounting location that the 80-degree elbow (supplied) doesn't line up with, you can use the flex-tubing that is (ta-daa) supplied in the kit.

You can do a "direct mount" -- straight off the end of the existing muffler. I didn't like that location 'cause of the possible shock-transfer from a whack on the rear of the system.

The photos on the website show a "High mount" on a Honda, up under what looks like a Moose brand extra-large rack-extender. I mounted our Rancher's Stealth just a bit higher than that, with the top of the muffler slightly higher than the main rear tube of the Rancher's rear rack, and maybe 1-1/2" to the rear.

Located there it is out of the way of any trailside boulder I might back into, not so high that it obscures my little Idaho license plate (ziplocked to the back-bars of the rack), but high enough that it does NOT obscure the tail light or the rear compartment door.

I got it really hot yesterday (too cheap to get the optional heat shield), and had no problem reaching under the Stealth, opening the compartment door, and congratulating myself for my conceptual genius.

Blame it on Petley -- he's the one who built so many blasted options into the kit. . .

 

it looks like they way they have it mounted on the back of those quads that you could easily accidentally walk up and burn yourself on it...

 

Yep. I was too cheap to order the extra-cost heat shield. I figure by the second burn, it'll look like a good add-on. If I don't burn, I'll save the $$.

I'm kind of counting of having good sense enough not to touch it when it's hot. We'll see . . .

 

Yesterday we road-tested the Stealths we installed on our Hondas.
The Rancher was very quiet, though the drivetrain and tire noise was noticeable because of the Rancher's inherently higher rpm's.

The improvement in the Foreman was even more dramatic. It usually has a low, chest-deep, round-sound rumble, like the big thumper it is. The Stealth quieted that to a whisper, and since the torque-monster Foreman can pull top gear at 15 mph, the drive-train and tire noise was minimal. Wow! Where's the Foreman?

We rode from the end of a one-way road, 80 miles from the nearest real town, and headed 40+ miles into the St.Joe NF mountains, climbing on single-track dirt roads & trails from 2170 ft to 6200 ft.

Usually in these mountains you see deer and rabbits in abundance. We did.
Seeing wild elk ("the ghost of the forest") from a vehicle is quite rare -- I've seen more wild bears from my trucks & quads than elk, and the elk you do see are usually heading over the next ridge, at least a half-mile away.

Yesterday we rode up on four ( !!! ) different wild elk, at four separate locations!
Two cows, a spike bull, and a mature bull with a rack the size of a DeSoto bumper!

We idled to within 50 feet of the young bull and one cow. The other two were a bit farther away, but let us within maybe 150 yards of them!

They all just stood and watched us, curious, stood until we turned off the engines -- they then trotted away, but not in the panicked "bolt" of most wild animals. Maybe the Stealth sound is so far outside of their experience that they couldn't get past it to let their other senses tell them what we were?

I don't know what that was about, but we're no longer wondering if we paid too much for our "new sound" !!

 

I have been looking into getting a system like the stealth. My questions are: Does the system hook up to the existing eshaust? And did you notice an increase in power after you installed it? What about price, abou how much did you pay for it ( if you don't mind me asking)?

Thanks.

 

(1) Yes. There are several options for connecting it to the back of your existing muffler (slip-on, bolt on, weld on) // (rigid connection, flex-pipe connection) // (several mounting positions) --
Check it out on their website:

http://www.atvstealthexhaust.com/

(2) The inventor/mfgr. says they dyno-tested the system. Slight top-end hp decrease ( about 2%, or 1 mph ), and slight mid-range increase, due to minimal increase in back pressure. I couldn't personally notice a difference, one way or another -- and our riding country is so vertical that I'd need a stopwatch & parallel tests to see that slight a change.

(3) Highlifter has the kit for $189+, Stealth will sell direct for $199+.
Other sources have it as high as $235. I ordered from Stealth -- they're closer to me (shipping). The kit has everything you need (extra brackets, clamps, etc.), and the muffler itself seems to be truly industrial-grade (military spec -- they sell to special ops, etc).

Tip = after you install, wipe it down (99% isopropyl alcohol, get it from a horse-supply place) and overspray with a couple coats of DupliColor High Temp "ceramic" flat black paint -- galvanized clamps & all.

 

Thank you for the information.