Low range is necessary if you planning on pushing snow, pulling heavy loads, or going through serious sticky mud. You shouldn't need low range on any trails anywhere...you will lose traction long before you lose power.

Just sold my 2001 Kodiak with a never used snow plow last week. We got about 7" of snow here in Maryland the other day - figures!


/NotuRaptor

 

The low range isn't necessary, but it does help. I have had my Kodiak 400, which does not have low range, buried to the frame and I can still get the tires spinning with ease. If you are looking at putting bigger tires on in the future, pushing heavy dirt/gravel or if you do a lot of heavy pulling you may want a low range. You could still do all that without low range but it would be easier if you had it. I plow snow with mine and have no problem without the low range, and I haven't come to any point out on the trail where I have needed a low range yet.

 

Low range, IMO is a very nice feature, when i put mine in low it revs a lot quicker and the power is like a tractor. Also if you do a lot of slow speed running in high it will wear out the belt. But i'm guessing that the '03 400 has a re-geared tranny to make up for the lack of low range, i mean they wouldn't sell you a quad that would go through belts all the time if you used it for work, just wouldn't make sense!

 

[quote]
Originally posted by: RINCON
i like mine!!


con's-narrow, water pump leaks, choke freezes in winter.


Rincon, you mention choke freezeup on the Kodiak. Is there a cure? If so what? Where can I find out more? Friend of mine had trouble with his not restarting after a long ride and called me last night looking for help. About 15*F outside. We pulled the thing inside thinking we would look at it this morning. Since it warmed up inside overnight it fired right up this morning although it was severely flooded from the choke locking up yesterday.

 

Along with freezing up, the end of the choke cable (where it goes into the carb) gets full of mud/dirt/crap, and the spring rust's out inside the carb (at the end of the cable) and the choke will not work properly. When mine broke it broke in the closed position, therefor when it warmed up it would flood itself out, and i was getting terrible gas milage (go figure) I put a new spring in there, and cleaned it out with WD-40, and a pipe cleaner. Works great now, but sometimes it still freezes up in the winter. (sometimes i use a hair dryer-if it won't start, but if it will the heat of the engine will thaw it out)

 

The forward range in the 400 is the same gear ratio as the hi range is in the 450. I still don't think that is an issue unless you are planning on a lot of utility work.

 

I got 26" Gators on mine and i like having low, with stock tires in mud i left it in high. Stock tires require more speed to get through the mud, the gators work better by crawling though. The bottem line is a daul range tranny is better, but not everyone needs one, but i do!

 

My choke would also freeze up when temps dipped way down. After the heat of the engine warmed it up 3-5 minutes, it would be fine. It did get really corroded form getting wet, and was non functional, and it had to be replaced.

 

Now i know i'm not the only one!!!

When it's realy cold and the choke is frooze in the open position then it won't go at all (needs to be closed) so a hair dryer is needed[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]