ATV General Discussion | CZ Chains

Educating myself getting ready to buy my first 4×4 and have some questions.

1 – Engine size. One of my wants is to be able to pull a trailer up a trail with a decent amount of camping gear piled in, so I’ve been told to either look for a good size motor or one with hi-lo gears. From what I’ve learned so far it seems that something like a Sportsman 500 HO or 550 Griz would do that job fairly well. But for the sake of opening up my options could I possibly look into a smaller engine than these if it had hi-lo? Put another way…what’s the smallest engine size I should be looking for on a machine that has hi-lo considering my pulling needs?

2 – Can add power steering? Is it possible to add power steering to a model that didn’t come with it, but other versions of that same year’s model did? For example some of the 2008 Griz 550s came with PS and some didn’t. If I found one that didn’t have it could I reasonably assume I could add it later considering the frame and equipment has probably already been designed to work with it?

3- Mileage and age. Most of the machines I’m seeing have between 500-1200 or so miles and I’m wondering how many is too many? Seen some with 2-3000+ and I’m most def staying away from those. But whats the mileage limit where you can expect major things (read expensive) to start going wrong with the machine? I’ve heard someone generally speaking say they would rather take a 2006 with 1000 miles on it vs a 2012 with 2000. Would most people agree?

My battery is a year old and it is the 14Ah Polaris battery in my Sportsman 550. Twice now the battery has been completely flat dead. Last week it was sitting with the key off for about 5 days and didn’t even make clicking noise. If I boost the bike, it runs totally fine for a few more weeks.

On friday I took the battery out. I brought it to the dealer and the voltage was 11.7 and it tested "needs charge" and the dealer charged it and used a polaris tester and it tested "good battery" after charging for a few hours

It was charged to 12.7v and I out it back in the bike.

Two days later, I checked the voltage before starting the bike and it was 11.8v. The bike did turn over fine and it started charging at 14v pretty quick.

I tested the amperage drain on the battery with the bike off and I got the following:

Big red cable going to starter = 0
Big red cable that goes to ECU = 0
Big red winch cable = 0
Red cable with 5 wires in it that go into harness = 260
The range on the multimeter was "2000u"

I’m not sure if that drain is normal/high/low

I have a funny feeling my battery is toast.

What is the best battery replacement? Heard I could use a 20Ah battery

CZ Chains

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