Worst and Best Mods ive Done to ATV's

[leonard]

we will start with BEST i have done -

- Snorkels
- Tires / Rims
- Winches (kind of a must have)
- Clutch Kit can be depending on how large the tires are
- Axel's can be depending how large the tires are
- Skid Plating Alum all around
- Shocks for handling
- Front Disk on 06 or later 350 Ranchers
- 4x4-2x4 Unlocker for 350 Ranchers
All of these have Improved the actual capability's of the machines we have done the mods too noticeably.


Worst Mods that i have Regretted Doing to my ATV and friends/family ATV's
Reason i say worst is because alot of times the bikes run worse or don't run any better for the $ spent.

K&N filter -- at least on 3 bikes Ive had poor fit K&N filters ESP my Grizzly the Foam Gasket rips 99% of the time removing it regardless of how careful i've been/4 replacements. Also bike actually ran worse with it on didnt notice till i replaced it with the old stocker one. And to me as well poor sealment on a filter is a bad decision stick with the stock one or get a UNI filter for better filtration.

Pipe-- Ive had some plug up because of poor design . Most times they leak if they are just slip on's. I've never actually had noticeable FELT performance increases from any of the pipes I've done- and I've done - 350Ranchers - 660 Grizz's X 3 - 700 Grizzly's X2 - 750BF x 1 - KQ 700 X1.
The biggest thing you get from a pipe is placebo effect where it sounds raunchier there for people think its performing better. I've actually seen performance loss when switching to a pipe regardless of re jetting for it ect during timed runs of before and afters and let me tell you its kind of gutting to spend 300-400$ on a pipe spend all the time installing it just to see the bike run slower than before ect thats what i call GUTTING feeling.

Juice Boxes or CDI's - Unless Specifically Especially Proven to provide increased power such as a example the Cherry Bomb for the Suzuki Quads . Most of these CDI's Actually Hurt the bikes performance although they do eliminate the rev limiter a lot of the times the bike actually looses power through the RPM range. I have had 2 friends buy them and go back from power loss.
That said there actually Are some that work but they are for EFI machines and specific ones at that so do your research.

you might notice I actually have some of these mods on my bike that i am calling down. the pipe is still there because its there, its quite simple i don't feel like changing it back.

the K&N i should remove from sig .. i threw it in the garbage cuz it was just that garbage and would not seal properly.

I made this post to give people a heads up who are trying to get extra this and that out of there machine's.

I'm here to tell you if you want the fastest machine buy it fastest from the factory. performance mods rarely live up to expectations and half the time are a placebo effect.

In my opinion Honesty here bolt on performance is a money grab and doesnt work out most of the time.so keep that in mind the next time you get the bug to buy new things for your ATV buy the things that will actually make a difference to where your bike can go. things like Tires shocks plating snorkels ect.

the Mods i have recommended actually had strong effects on bike performance though .

We could also add a lift kit into that mix but thats heading into extreme territory thats the same kind of territory as cam's and high compression pistons. which at that point your building a entirely different bike and its no longer just Mod's.

i'm sure some will disagree no doubt they will have a moded out bike and i hope they can post un biasly about this if they do post. Please don't make a post to justify your purchase lol it does nothing for the next guy who decides to waste $ on things that have no positive effect on his/her bike performance.

This Thread was to help people who are getting the winter itch to do upgrades to their bikes like every one does this time of the year .

 

[Murminator]

I am with ya Len traction, protection, strength, and safety. If all these so called "power adders" where that great the manufacters would have them also to give the edge on the competion....I realze some of them remove safety factors but they would work around them to keep them.
The placebo effects are totally correct I am trying to find a thread from another site where a 660 grizz had a juice box in it they had the owner run it up and down a road then they said they were going to replace it with a stock one. They took the bike into the shop without the owner watching took the seat off and drank beer for 10 minutes and returned to him and he said "Try that see how much of a difference it makes"(that was planted in his head there is a change) he went for a ride came back and was told to keep the comments to himself....back to the shop they go take the seat off and did absolutly nothing again returned it to him and said "Now try that" off down the road he went when he came back he raved how much better it was it was like night and day he couldn't beileve the horse power difference it made...while the whole time these guys were busting a gut laughing....amazing what the power of suggestion does

I also believe my truck runs better when it is clean and all polished up than it does when it is covered in mud and dirty inside

 

[ftguy]

Yeah I call that the visual horsepower effect.

 

[leonard]

my friends and I get pretty competitive but its pretty darn funny when 2 guys have 2 same stock machines one guy buys these power adders then gets his but smoked by his brothers stock machine .. which at that point there is a-lot of excuse making but we all know why it happened.

 

[Garryese]

Leonard, I agree with most of what you have stated. One of the most cost effective performance mods I have done for customers is remove poorly designed or installed snorkle kits; That is not saying all snorkel kits are poor design or poorly installed.

I particularily like the fact you listed chassis and traction mods as the better mods. Oem setups are for the masses, so there is alot to be found by tweaking ride, handling and traction for you own driving style and riding area.

Some performance mods on sport machines are quite effective, but rarely make a big difference on utility machines. Generally a good pipe w/mid and header pipe are cost effective mods, even for utility quads. Some heads just do not flow well enough for a pipe to make any difference.

Makes no sense to me why people buy 40hp machines then go looking for another 25hp in mods. Way cheaper and more reliable to just buy a 65hp machine in the first place.

The one item I would add to your best list is an air box lid removal/replacment for the sport machine guys.

If you need to measure performance mods with a stop watch or a dyno, how much are they really worth? And, is it really a mod or is it expensive tuning?

Good post Leonard.

 

[steveo10]

Good write-up!

Majority of the time you will see hp/trq gains from a pipe... come from factory there all about pluggin the ends so they dont blow the decimeter and not makin the forest a fireball

2x on the K&N... lets in too must dust

 

[steveo10]

Makes no sense to me why people buy 40hp machines then go looking for another 25hp in mods. Way cheaper and more reliable to just buy a 65hp machine in the first place.

Couldnt agree more

 

[BIG_BRUTE750]

best mods ive done are outlaws/rims and pipe/jet kit and the worst is a clutch kit.

 

[Work2Ride]

Makes no sense to me why people buy 40hp machines then go looking for another 25hp in mods. Way cheaper and more reliable to just buy a 65hp machine in the first place.

You're lucky if u even get 1/3 the amount of money u spent on Mods when u go to sell the damn thing.

My brother always telling me to get all these things for my 400ex, but I rather gather some money next year and upgrade to a 450r.

Stock allows a machine to last alot longer.

 

[medler]

Yep i have found that tires and a pipe is about it for mods for me .

 

[Brute Force Boy]

best mods ive done are outlaws/rims and pipe/jet kit and the worst is a clutch kit.

Couldn't agree more on the worst being a clutch kit, I get the same results shifting into low as I got with the Highlifter kit, to bad it took almost $800 to figure that out.

 

[bcham5]

Best for my Brute force 750
Itp108 rims
27inch xtrs
maier fender flares (keeps mud off ya looks cool)
Epi clutch kit

worst
big gun exhaust system ( mufflers falling apart and leaking everywhere connection into pipe leaks)
Fuel controller(cant get it set right to where it wont back fire

 

[mudboy]

I always tell everyone there first investment should be a winch if it does not already have one, AND i mean a real winch not some mickey mouse home made set up. The next thing would be tires. I will never take a machine home with sock tires again!! As for exhaust systems and the k@n set up. Well I thik it is hit and miss it worked good on my honda 450es but did not really make a difference on a wolverine. On my current grizz the pipe gave me better botom end snap but lost top end. I can live with that. After market cdi's well for the grizz only thing it did was get rid of the back up limiter which is great. On the rhino top speed befor was around 45-50 km now I can hit 70

 

[insaneZ400shane]

in the process of getting the drze gasket/springs, and hotcams for my z400. with a cdi i know for a fact it will be worth it.

very interesting to hear that what i thought would be no-brainer mods (air/exhaust/jets) are not that good for 4x4 quads. im planning to get the gf a wolverine or something similar in the spring and was afraid id have to put tons of $ into it. new tires/winch and good to go!

 

[Snowdin]

Great post Leonard. Thanks for sharing that. I've always wondered why people spend money on a clutch kit. I've always had big tires on my machines and just go into low range when in tight. Never had a problem.

Murm. I LOL when you said your truck runs better when it's clean. That is so true. I've noticed this strange phenomenon all my life. For 5 bucks at the car wash I can get huge HP.

So now that you've ruined my Christmas and the rest of my winter Leonard, cause I've been looking into adding a sheave and CDI on my 700 Rhino and not sure which one Do you think that would be money flushed down or money well spent?

 

[leonard]

There is a difference between running 29.5's and 26-27" tires though koby. the bigger your tires the larger the difference your going to see in a clutch kit. infact if you can spin the tires in thick mud you really dont need a clutch kit. The problem is with huge tires you cant get any RPM's to spin tires. the clutch kit holds your bike in a lower gear LONGER so you can .. so like i said if you can spin your tires over in thick mud you can obviously get the RPM's up which means you really dont need one.

ill be the first to admit that when messing around out side of mud where my tires would bog down on me i hardly notice a darn thing except i lost like 20k off my top end.

to Snowdin. id take my $ and buy a alum skid plate replacement setup .. or some good tires for that machine. knowing you can bang her a little harder through the slop will help you a-lot more than babying it(i ripped ton's of plastic plating off before i did mine) with lets be generous 1-2 HP more.

I smoked a Large rock in the river this year with my plating. i was water wheeling the quad across the eagle river to keep my front end above water and i smoked this rock and pretty hard.. i got stuck on top of it i wiggled around and finally slid off into the water and kept going. i looked under neath and all i had was some scrapes across the aluminum. if that was plastic i would have been probably fixing some bent cross members and what not i'm sure.

 

[Snowdin]

There is a difference between running 29.5's and 26-27" tires though koby. the bigger your tires the larger the difference your going to see in a clutch kit. infact if you can spin the tires in thick mud you really dont need a clutch kit. The problem is with huge tires you cant get any RPM's to spin tires. the clutch kit holds your bike in a lower gear LONGER so you can .. so like i said if you can spin your tires over in thick mud you can obviously get the RPM's up which means you really dont need one.

ill be the first to admit that when messing around out side of mud where my tires would bog down on me i hardly notice a darn thing except i lost like 20k off my top end.

to Snowdin. id take my $ and buy a alum skid plate replacement setup .. or some good tires for that machine. knowing you can bang her a little harder through the slop will help you a-lot more than babying it(i ripped ton's of plastic plating off before i did mine) with lets be generous 1-2 HP more.

I smoked a Large rock in the river this year with my plating. i was water wheeling the quad across the eagle river to keep my front end above water and i smoked this rock and pretty hard.. i got stuck on top of it i wiggled around and finally slid off into the water and kept going. i looked under neath and all i had was some scrapes across the aluminum. if that was plastic i would have been probably fixing some bent cross members and what not i'm sure.

Hmm. I have 27" Bear Claws on now which I really love. I really don't think I need any extra power but would like to get a little more top end out of it. Good suggestion about the skid plate. Thanks.

 

[leonard]

people say the CDI works on the 700. but like i said ALOT of this is placebo effect honestly. for instance my friend has CDI , PIPE , Clutch kit , UNI filter on his 700 grizzly .. his brother has a stock grizzly 700. we all raced. between the 3 bikes, my 660 and the first grizzly 700(moded one) were basically neck and neck i actually pulled ahead of all of them (1/2 a bike)and i'm the heaviest rider there. within about the 80kmph mark the stock grizzly actually gained on us. at about the 90kmph mark we stopped the race but the stocker would have probably passed us in another 20seconds or so.. my point to my story is were talking like massive mods for maybe a bike length of difference in performance.. any top end your going to gain is going to be seriously 99% placebo effect and like maybe 1% performance gain for what is it now 400$? 400$ for what? 1/2 a bike length of distance in a 1/4 mile ? you might gain 1-2mph on the top end and actually ever get the machine maxed out once a year or so.

if it was me i would never do any of the mods aside from tires and skids , and of course the home made Rear Clutch exhaust relocation (cuz 660's have this tendency to fill the clutch with water when stock). if i could i would have taken my $ i spent on my other mods such as pipe / k&N clutch ect and prob got a better suspension under this bike i actually think that would make more of a difference in how hard i could ride it.

so seeing you have good tires .. id go skids or shocks. both of those stock parts are pretty sad tbh.

 

[Snowdin]

I've got the sport Rhino. Suppose to have the best shocks. It really does ride awesome. This all good to know stuff. How much weight would the skids add to a Rhino?

 

[leonard]

not much at all they are aluminum.