Thread: Quad bikes/side by side and east coast river access

Is there anyone out there using quads or side by sides for access up east coast rivers to chase tahr? Just curious how useful they are compared to trucks. I know they wouldn't be able to handle river crossings as well as a truck, curious how often rivers would be an issue and if it's worth investing in a quad or side by side.

Mostly asking cause I'm poor and wondering if they are worth looking into and how much use you'd get out of one in those big, braided river systems.

A quad and to a slightly lesser extent a sxs is out of its depth crossing an East coast river about 2 to 3 times quicker than even a standard Hilux with no snorkle. If there's only side creeks to cross you may get away with it, but just stand beside the front guard of a hilux and see where the water can come to, then stand beside a quad. There's no contest really.

Depends on the valley you’re wanting to hunt I guess. I spent 5 days up the Rangitata in May last year in the area near Growler hut and the only other vehicles we saw (apart from Proutings helicopter) were a 4 wheel and a 2 wheel motorbike heading up towards Mistake Flat, which is a fair way up the river valley. It was May though, and the river was pretty low.

I've never had a quad or SxS but from walking up the valleys I'd say you'd certainly get many places, you'd just take a very different approach to where you'd go and where you'd cross in a 4wd. I've also driven up quite a few and most of the time everybody just ploughs through the crossings on the wheel tracks" instead of finding the best place. This is a bit of a trade off against not wrecking riverbeds with tracks everywhere but signals that most drivers are too lazy to find the best way!

I had an early Polaris quad and waterproofed the belt drive (CVT). If I was carefull not to splash or cause a wake it would handle 8-900mm deep ok, deeper than that & the electronics were at risk. This was in a very slow stream and because of the tyre flotation there wasn't much traction, you could fill the tyres with water to reduce flotation (tractor style). Not sure I'd risk it unless you were in the area often & knew it well as the braided rivers can change quite quickly.

Originally Posted by Sauer

Depends on the valley you’re wanting to hunt I guess. I spent 5 days up the Rangitata in May last year in the area near Growler hut and the only other vehicles we saw (apart from Proutings helicopter) were a 4 wheel and a 2 wheel motorbike heading up towards Mistake Flat, which is a fair way up the river valley. It was May though, and the river was pretty low.

Yeah I kinda figured that would be the case. I would guess they would have issues being swept downstream given how buoyant they are, so might need lower than average flows to be much use. Was also just wondering if there were any valleys in tahr country where they would be useful? Not really aware of any where rivers wouldn't be an issue.