Fuel use on Kodiak 450
 

Hi,
Can anyone help me? I have a 2005 Yamaha Kodiak 450. I recently bought it second hand. It has had 800 hours use. I use it moderately, mainly on country lanes at approx 30mph in 4wd mode. The bike will only give me 60 miles on a full tank of petrol, is this right or do i need to get it looked at?
Any help would be much appreciated.

I have a 2003 Kodiak 450 that I use on my trap linem and I get about 72 miles per tank of gas before I have to go on reserve. I carry an extra 2 gallons of petrol just in case I run out but I never had to use it so far.

Do you need to be in 4wd mode?? Like the other guy said.. I always carry 2 gallons of gas no matter how long I will be going out!
I have gotten 70 miles from a tank before

Ok, so it sounds as if it ok? I don't always need 4x4 mode, but sometimes i cant always stop to swap between 2wd and 4wd mode. As i'm told you need to stop the machine to swap modes because it damages the machine? is this right, or can i just change while i'm moving?

You should be able to shift from 2wd to 4wd and back as long as you slow down. They say that's why the 4wd button is on the same side as the throttle. You must leave off to use the button. As far as the fuel usage goes, maybe someone put on an after market air filter and had the carb rejetted. I did that on my old 450 nad lost a bit of gas mileage.
Buck

Ok, thanks for all the help.:)

My 1998 kodiak just drinks the gas like its nothing. How many gallons does the tank hold 2? If thats about right 35mpg! thats terrible. It's a relitively small atv, and to think that alot of cars can get that doing an average 50 or 60 mph oposed to 20 or 30mph And thats a car with a 4 cylinder instead of a 1 cylinder!!!

I've never checked MPG on my '07 Kodiak 450 but I gone on some pretty long rides in some pretty rough terrain with it in always in 4WD and also with the diff. lock on lots.

On these rides the two other machines, a Honda 400 and a Polaris 450 both had to refuel before me. All three of us carry small gas cans along on these rides.

So I think the 450 Yamaha get as good or better fuel mileage as any ATV in the same size range. Besides comparing it to a car which is on level smooth ground and has very low rolling resistance isn't fair.

If you want to play you have to pay. I bet my Skidoo 600 only gets 6-8 MPG since I'm on the throttle alot but I don't really care since it's a toy and I'm not driving it to work and back.

Pelato, how are you determining that you're only getting 60 miles out of a full tank, are you fully running out of fuel, or looking at the gauge? That sounds close to normal though..I have gotten 75-80 miles out of tanks when I was just cruising in 2wd or trail riding. Sounds like you are close to normal though, if not a bit low.

They only have a small 4 gallon tank so 70 miles is not that bad really.