Thread: Quad bikes

Originally Posted by XR500

Just looked up the press release for Aussie. Its for NEW quads only (thank fuck).

Problem being these regulations are made by people who never ride quads: certainly not 4 hours day every day of the week. Just like the Coroner in the 1990's who recommended quads all be fitted with seatbelts!!! I shit you not

Any tool will bite you if you don't concentrate on its operation. Quads must be actively ridden. Actively riding also permits the rider to bail a whole lot easier than the rider who in reality is just a passenger (sits all the time).

Quads replaced horses in a lot of situations. Horses killed and maimed an awful lot of farmers. But the job couldn't be done without them. We have changed our farming practices to the point where a quad is a necessity.

What really grinds my gears is when those in authority go on about the damage inflicted by quad accidents, the next day they'll be silent on the biggest killer around. Poor road driving skills and decision making among the populace.

Ghengis Khan put studs on his riders seats so they could never sit down.

This would probably save more people than roll over protection.

Yip. Size and weight have grown incrementally, to the point where they are seriously heavy.

A 2 wheel drive old suzuki sports quad weighs 116kg

The latest Canam 2 seater(in line) quad weighs 365kg

Your 'average' 500cc farm quad weighs about 315 kg

There's no crawling out unaided from one of those if you tip it in a difficult location.

Mini tractors have far more flexible uses, and are no fun to do doughnuts or race your mate in, so end up being a bit safer.

But for hauling you, your camp gear, rifle and meat in and out of, say the Tongariro forest along rudimentary quad trails nothing really comes close to a medium sized 4x4 quad.

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

Lads,
I’m going to get a new quad in the near future. It’ll be used as a meat hauler, I will work it hard. I’m hoping the collective wisdom of the forum can point me in the direction of what the best one for my needs will be. More to the point what to avoid. I’m aiming to spend under 10 grand. All thoughts, feedback or tips welcome.

Are you in a position to try out demonstrators ? It could give you an indication on which one to go for. I had to do that down country as nothing in Auckland, as a result, I’ve just got me a Yamaha 450, it was cheaper that the Honda/Suzuki’s out there but for what I am using it for it matched the fit and price range, wider wheel track and I found it had more than enough cc (421) for me but it wasn’t under 10k and I did throw a farm kit on it.
I’m hoping to get into trail rides for quads/sxs, nothing extreme but for good fun etc. As I’m new to the scene.

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

Lads,
I’m going to get a new quad in the near future. It’ll be used as a meat hauler, I will work it hard. I’m hoping the collective wisdom of the forum can point me in the direction of what the best one for my needs will be. More to the point what to avoid. I’m aiming to spend under 10 grand. All thoughts, feedback or tips welcome.

Easy

750 Kingquad

Originally Posted by Tussock

Easy

750 Kingquad

Correct, nuff said.

Originally Posted by Tussock

Ghengis Khan put studs on his riders seats so they could never sit down.

This would probably save more people than roll over protection.

Got yelled at by the box once for riding standing up (flat ground). Reckoned I was raising the centre of balance too much and I was gong to tip .
My daily driver is a honda trx500 manual non power steer. Bit like an old Hilux. Bullet proof but as basic as hell. Hate the solid rear axle. Like riding a see saw. Ride is rough as hell. Expensive because of the honda badge.
Also ride a 1000 ads Most days. Awesome machine. Near enough a truck/ tractor. Bit scary fast and very heavy. Has taken over from the Hilux or trailer or the farm but at about 35k new bloody expensive.and thirsty
Can am are a bit fragile for my liking but fast as hell and well priced.
Yamaha seem to be a great all round farm bike but are big and heavy. Might be hard pulling out of abog. Very good ride on them.
Not had a new Suzuki for a while but always liked them. Good value for money. Never had any issues with them. I think often over looked. Smoothe ride.
Depends what you are looking for really. To shoot from. Just to get to camp. How many people gear. I would want 500cc min anyway

CVT transmission. Nothing else comes close.

Certainly more cruisy than a manual transmission, but are not that keen on deep water crossings. CVT housings are not renown for being watertight, plus water can get in through the air cooling passages and bingo! no drive Had to pull a mates big Yammie with CVT out of a river crossing with the ultimate waterproof non electronic can handle the steepest of terrain quad: a horse

Originally Posted by XR500

Certainly more cruisy than a manual transmission, but are not that keen on deep water crossings. CVT housings are not renown for being watertight, plus water can get in through the air cooling passages and bingo! no drive Had to pull a mates big Yammie with CVT out of a river crossing with the ultimate waterproof non electronic can handle the steepest of terrain quad: a horse

Not the Suzuki. I'm in a river channel which floods. I've spent days operating it like a boat. Roads turning into swift flowing rivers where forcing up stream results in jets of water squirting out of the plastics. No dramas.

Originally Posted by Tussock

Not the Suzuki. I'm in a river channel which floods. I've spent days operating it like a boat. Roads turning into swift flowing rivers where forcing up stream results in jets of water squirting out of the plastics. No dramas.

Yeah I'd agree with that as well had our 750 up to the seat a few times and never had any belt slip.

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One thing I would recommend if you get a King quad is to have the dealer swap the stator out for one from one of their roadbikes (can't remember what model but lot more capacity and direct swap) my old man runs one of these shooting for a dollar, he trades for a new one every year and had two of them let him down out in the back of nowhere because the stator can only just keep up with running the engine and lights on the bike, run a spotlight or a thermal on charge for a couple hours and they won't keep up and end up killing the stator packs, the battery dies and ultimately you're left stranded, even having an extra light bar on the bike itself and a uhf hardwired to the bike puts them at their very limit. Last two he's had they have fitted the upgraded stator and no problems. He also has a pull start off one of his old 500s and has it fitted to his new bike each time he gets one as the 750s don't come fitted with any kind of auxillary start, they're a bloody mission to pull start but can get you out of the shit

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

One thing I would recommend if you get a King quad is to have the dealer swap the stator out for one from one of their roadbikes (can't remember what model but lot more capacity and direct swap) my old man runs one of these shooting for a dollar, he trades for a new one every year and had two of them let him down out in the back of nowhere because the stator can only just keep up with running the engine and lights on the bike, run a spotlight or a thermal on charge for a couple hours and they won't keep up and end up killing the stator packs, the battery dies and ultimately you're left stranded, even having an extra light bar on the bike itself and a uhf hardwired to the bike puts them at their very limit. Last two he's had they have fitted the upgraded stator and no problems. He also has a pull start off one of his old 500s and has it fitted to his new bike each time he gets one as the 750s don't come fitted with any kind of auxillary start, they're a bloody mission to pull start but can get you out of the shit

Good advice, we don't have any auxiliary electrics and still replace stators regularly.

I can say ours get absolutely flogged. I have two at the moment because I like my old one so kept it. It's got 46,000km on it and right now I'm pulling to its absolute limit in 4x4 on the original belt.

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Originally Posted by Tussock

Good advice, we don't have any auxiliary electrics and still replace stators regularly.

I can say ours get absolutely flogged. I have two at the moment because I like my old one so kept it. It's got 46,000km on it and right now I'm pulling to its absolute limit in 4x4 on the original belt.

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Yikes! Now that is impressive

Originally Posted by XR500

Yikes! Now that is impressive

I'm genuine when I say I have never dealt with a piece of machinery of any kind that is this tough. Really good things. Take day to day abuse and still pretty low maintenance. My family can be very very hard on machinery. This bike was a bull chaser ridden like a dirtbike for years and has been pulling big K-lines since new. Asked the shop to go over it as it was old and due to trade and was told "basically nothing wrong with it". We don't have Utes (which is super annoying). You want to carry a load of fence posts or literally anything else, it does on the quad.

If you are a hunter using it recreationaly, as long as basic servicing is kept up with and it's stored well, given a run occasionally, I can't imagine them giving any trouble.



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Mine is a 09 king quad 750, best machine I've owned, never had an issue with the stator problems you guys are talking about, there is a mod that can be done to the regulator rectifier by using a bigger gauge cable to the batt from memory due to the standard one being a shoestring, have done this with mine and haven't had any issues especially with doing extended Winch pulls. There's a few tricks you can do with the CVT clutch system to get them going better too, I've machined 2mm off the primary clutch and fitted a 0.5mm shim Bettween the primary sheeves which allows the belt to ride deeper which calculates to 30% more torque low down but decreases top speed by like 5kmh. Added a vdi copperhead ecu which changes ignition and fuel tables and is live mappable it Lso removes the rev cut with diff lock and when in reverse. One thing to keep an eye on is cracking in the frame if you really giving them a hard time I ended up welding in som supports and braces to help stop this. All in all great machines. Mine ears the big canams for breakfast.