I can understand why a belt smokes if the wheels are wedged and can't turn. But if the wheels are doing nothing but spinning in the mud, why does the belt get smoked?

 

Welcome to the forum John. In my experience <u>it doesn't</u>. What are you riding?

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: JohnWI

I can understand why a belt smokes if the wheels are wedged and can't turn. But if the wheels are doing nothing but spinning in the mud, why does the belt get smoked?</end quote></div>

Welcome #2 John...

The Belt shouldn't smoke while all 4 tires are moving.. though you might be spinning them at such a high rate that it is getting quite warm inside that Belt drive area which might cause the belt to smoke. It also depends on how old the belt is... how clean the clutches are etc... It also depends on how the person rides the quad... example... trying to climb over a rocky section of trail in High range puts un-neccesary stress on the belt... therefore causing it to wear out pre-maturely - So I'd just pop it into low range [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

What kind of quad is it? Yami, Popo and AC shouldn't have problems with that as they have been making CVT transmissions for almost forever! (Snowmobiles)

I have heard of lesser [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] machines (non Yami, Popo and AC) having belt slippage / smoking problems.

 

Some of the Polaris machines slip the belt at idle meaning there isnt alot of tension on them, not like the Yammies anyway (which are known to be very good on belts.) When you put alot of strain on the belt it may cause it to slip. Tires loaded up with heavy mud are harder to turn then running them down a flat trail. If you practice using Low gear in deep mud, steep hills, and for towing heavy loads it will last longer. THe other reason belts smoke in the mud is that it could be getting wet. This could be from riding in very very deep water, or a bad seal on the box that surrounds the belt.

 

Sometimes, when the tires are spinning, they are still moving at a slower rate of rpm then what the engine rpm's are, hence causing the belt to slip and eventually 'smoke' the belt. This could potentially happen with high horsepower atv's.

-Krait

 

However, like Jumbofrank said, generally it doesn't happen.

-Krait

 

Thanks! I'm not on the bandwagon just yet, but I've been reading up. The only logical reason I could see was that the belt would get wet. Like I said, I understand if they smoke when the wheels can't turn and the clutch is spinning but the wheels are locked.

Kind of on the fence as to what are needs vs what are wants as far as quads go. I'm a sledder and while most speeds are 20-40, it is fun to let it rip! So the debate is 500 series or bigger? I have to say that the concept of an X2 is nice, I don't know if the 500 would do it for me? I see that Yami just introduced a 550 with EPS that does get me thinking. But then I'm like...what's a few hundred more dollars for the 700? And while all will mock me, I have to think about gas prices vs. How often will I exceed 50?

 

Part of the fun of big bore atv's is the low end power or torque, not always the top speed. I rode sleds last winter for work (albeit only Skidoo GTX's with 550 fan motors), but they still have more hp than a stock Outlander 650 atv. After spending last winter driving the GTX's around, getting on my buddies Outlander 650XT Max in the spring felt...kind of boring (just a little). Still a great quad with tons of snap and power, but I was just expecting a bit more. However before riding the sleds, the quad felt pretty powerful. Still does, just less so.

Rotax 550cc fan-cooled engine in Skidoo GTX's: 57hp at the crank.
Rotax 650cc liquid-cooled engine in Outlander 650's: 55hp at the crank.

Not much difference, but I felt it. I think the clutching might of had something to do with it as well, the sled lagged more at first, but hit harder after the rpm's built up. Of course the quad felt a lot lighter and nimbler than the sled, much easier to steer too!

Also the gas prices is a good point, I think what with rising gas prices quads in the 500cc range have a good compromise between power and economy.

Heres some horsepower comparisions for fun's sake:

Grizzly 550: 36.9hp
King Quad 450: 36.7hp
Outlander 500: 40.4hp
Grizzly 700: 45.6
King Quad 750: 49.6
Outlander 800: 61.7hp
Thunder Cat 950: 65.8hp

So the new midsize quads aren't a whole lot weaker than the smaller big bores.

Just wanted to give you a mention about the sled comparision since I know what its like, and I can only imagine what a sled with 150hp can feel like. Must be pretty insane!

My advice is go test drive them out if you can, so you can get an idea what the power feels like for a 500cc class machine.

-Krait

 

So did someone smoke a belt in the mud or was that just a hypothetical question?

A 55ish HP 750 class is going to use a lot more gas than a 35ish HP 500 class. Maybe you'll get 25 mpg on a 500 and 15 mpg on a 700-800. There really is a huge difference from what I've read on the forums.

 

hypothetical... just seemed that I read about it happening and I couldn't understand why.

As far as MPG, if the Griz 700 would get 18, I'd really have to consider that at the top of my list. I'm just thinking that 16-18 is about what I'd get on my sled, so I'd like to see at least that much. Granted, if I was rock crawling, I'd understand that it could drop way down. Trails are what I'd be doing 90%, anyway.

Although...if the Griz 550 or PoPo 500's were getting 25...??? I know it all depends on the conditions and driving style, and considering if I was to put on 1000 miles a year, the gas difference is, what, $85? Is it worth getting too upset about?

But to talk about torque...ASSume that you had two identical weight bikes... one is a 650 or 700 single, and the other is an equal size, twin...am I right in thinking that the twin will more likely have a higher top end, but the single would have both more torque and better economy?