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Posted by: 95wolv
Back when I still lived in town, my truck got a flat with my boat behind it parked in the street, back then I only owned a 85 Yamaha Moto4 200, so I used that to back a 16 foot Alumnacraft Classic Deluxe ( a fairly big boat) up a steep driveway into the garage, the back tires were almost squatted flat from the tongue weight, and it barely moved, but I managed to get it up the driveway and parked.
Posted by: jaybeecon55
I used my '94 King Quad to manuver a dump trailer to a tight location around the back of a house that we were remodeling. We had to back it in up a slight incline on packed clay. Going in was just the empty trailer, about 2,100 lbs. Hauling it back out was a little harder - slight downhill with a total loaded weight of about 3,500 + lbs. I had two guys hanging on the racks for extra traction weight as well as myself driving. It did OK, but I wouldn't consider it very safe.
Jaybee
Posted by: Specta
Heaviest thing I ever towed with my Honda was a Polaris!!! LOL
Posted by: 400PrarieXLT
I lost a fuel pump a half mile from home on an 86 sentra junker I had and while the car isnt too heavy, I was able to pull it home. It got really good when I went to pull it up the rest of my cement driveway to the carport up a pretty good incline, my tires were spinning on the pavement and it worked it pretty hard! It wasnt until after I got the car where I wanted it that I realized the emergency brake was on....
Posted by: 400PrarieXLT
yeah, that would suck. The Ebrake on that little car worked pretty good though.. good enough to lock up the rear wheels. But somehow the little 400 pulled it up.
Posted by: Rancher2001
i pulled my buddies 88 chevy out of a mud hole with my p650
Posted by: TrailBlazerguy250
i towed a pontiac grand prix up a hill will alot ice on it , that was w/ my kodaik , man that thing struglled
Posted by: jwoodsman
An old 6X14 gambrel shed that was built on an old trailer frame 4x6 floor frame on 14"wheels .
My AC 400 had no problem pulling .
Posted by: jwoodsman
I'm a Mass redneck alright Bellingham MA next to Milford, Medway,Mendon.
I had to prove to the guy's at the gun club that my new Arctic cat atv had some power ,I don't think I had 20 miles on it yet ,I had to move the shed about 50 yard's . That shed in now in my back yard ,and is currently the home for my Quad,I had to build an 10X12 addition on the back side .
where in Mass are you from?
Posted by: Vinson581
pulled my brothers F-150 up our hill with the vinny, hill is 1/4 mile long, in about 5 inches of snow.
had 4 chains on the vinny. and it did ok, but i wouldnt reccomend it.
pulled a U-Haul trailer, that weighed close to 4500lbs. the most I HAVE EVER pulled, was 9,700lbs of granite blocks, on a 16ft long car trailer, to give you a idea the fenders were rubbing the tires on the trailer, because 2 pallets of belgium blocks were on there, oh what fun. i wouldnt pull more then that ever. i had the bike in 4x4 low range, power wasnt the biggest problem, it was the lack of frount traction, because of the tounge weight.... and you wonder why i have problems....
v581
Posted by: alwaysride
Pulled two cars out in a snow storm. Made me happy. As i was hooking up, a guy came bye with a 4x4 chevy and was watching. he watched me yank them out and he came up to me saying "that thing is unbelievable". he said he thought for sure he would have to do the pulling.
Posted by: hondabuster
Stopping is the biggie. And drum brakes arent the best choice for heavy loads. Is there brakes on the trailer, and any way to use them from the quad? Gonna use a helper...with tire chocks?
I know honda has a low rating on the toungue weight, and im not sure why, my foreman has a 35 lb limit. But I hooked up a strap, and pulled a suburban up a driveway with it. Itll pull just fine, its just stopping, thatll be a problem.
Once youre under way, it doesnt take much stress to keep going, but starting out can be tough on tires. I wouldnt worry about the rubi tranny...the only thing slipping is fluid.
Posted by: Outrage
I pulled a jeep off a hill that was partly burried in the sand. I don't know how much it weighted but it sure wasn't an easy task.
Posted by: Gimpster
I worked for a boat and atv dealer a few years back, the shop was about 3 feet higher than the ground with a 30 foot access ramp to the shop door, poured from concrete with a rough finish. I hooked up to a triple axle pontoon trailer with the pontoon on it I think it was a 28 footer, with a Rubicon. The Rubicon would not quite back it into the shop without spinning out. I hooked to it with a Traxter and it would barely make it up the ramp, but did with effort.
Otherwise, most single and double axle trailers with boats on were a snap with the Rubicon. The biggest I pulled with it was a 21 foot aluminum boat on a tandem axle trailer, that had a lot of tongue weight, rather easily ....
Hope this helps you
----- Gimpster -----
Posted by: Gimpster
I can suggest a few thing if you want to pull your boat, but keep in mind the stopping power of the lighter unit pulling a heavier unit concerns.
When ai pulled units around, in and out of the shop, or at sport shows with an ATV, I had problems with things like getting the boat trailer tongue lowered to the low ball mount of the ATV, loose surfaces, tight turns with tandem axle trailers, and going over curbs etc...
Going into and out of the shop was not really a problem but I had to be careful and take it easy.
I have rigged customers units to have a safety cable extended to within the operators reach on that type of brake lock up/ breakaway type tongue set-ups. The customer could pull the cable to lock the brakes on the boat trailer to stop it in time of need. I have also wired toggle switches on the ATV to connect to the trailer brakes through the vehicle wire plug, so if needed the customer could flip a switch to lock the trailer brakes to stop the boat and trailer in time of need. I would highly suggest doing something like this to your unit if you plan on pulling the boat with it. Another thing I would do is increase the tire pressure on the ATV to around 7 lbs when used to pull the heavy load, then deflate them to normal pressure when not towing to keep them from enlarging in the sunlight. It sounds like you would not be over loading the rear axle with your boat on the trailer if you are moving it around by hand, but check how much the tongue weight changes when it is as low as the ATVs ball hitch, to make sure. And like I say, be carefull of wet docks that may have slippery surfaces from water, algea, and gravel. I have had customers pull boats in and out of docks with 450 foreman before, but most have been 17 foot boats.
Like I say, moving boats in and out of the shop, I had limited problems with the slope. And it was do-able, as long as I was not hurried and careful doing it.
----- Gimpster -----
Posted by: 20045SP500HO
Helped pull a jeep out of a revine ... about 250 feet ... it was a muddy and steep mess. BR>
Used my two winches and drive power ... his winch and drive power.
The problem; It was to steep to pull, stop, and then rehook up his winch, so by connecting the two machines together we did it in two pulls.
Posted by: 20045SP500HO
The tow rating on most ATV's is for the stopping power ... if you are going to try to contonl a 19 foot boat down a ramp ... I want to be FAR AWAY with my camera.
Posted by: 20045SP500HO
Gald to hear you didn't go swiming with your atv
Posted by: SPORTSMAN70003
The heaviest thing I have pulled with my 700 is a Ford ranger up a slight incline with the atv doing all the pulling. I felt the 700 had plenty of power and could have easily pulled something bigger.
Posted by: Stumppuller1
Okay, I have a 02 Bombardier Traxter XT the KING of working.
I pulled a 4*8 trailer loaded with we dirt and clay and sod up the street to an empty lot to empty. The tires were rubbing on the trailer and I had to use a jack to let the tongue down onto my hitch as 2 of us were not strong enough to lift it. So I'd say that I was way over the 2000lb axle limit, plus the weight of the trailer.
Another time, had the same tailer full of wet blocks of wood, in the gully behind the house, we had the trailer way overloaded again, but this time the tires didnt' rub. Got 3/4 the way up the hill and had to get the help of the winch to get to the top as it was too steep and it was a clay bottom so it spun lots.
Pulling this kind of weight can be dangerous especially when there's a hill involved. I don't recommend it if you can help it. I've heard people dying doing this kind of thing with Tractors and where doing it with ATV's that weigh a fraction of the weight.
I love my Traxter for working as you can't beat a GEARED tranny for this.
Posted by: Gopher500
my friend on his old quadrunner 500 pulled a Mack 10 wheeler. they were changing the oil and he didnt feel like walkin the 250ft every trip for the oil, so he hooked up the 500. him, his dad, uncle, and brother all sat on it, with his other uncle in the truck. it moved it.
Posted by: BigBaller
Pushed a Chevy 1500 silverado with my rubicon
Posted by: BigBaller
Pulled my friends blaster outa alot of snow while plowing snow. Pushing and pulling at the same time.
Posted by: BigBaller
Not much snow tho... LOL
Posted by: BigBaller
the other day I pulled my Lincoln Navigator with my Rubicon. I was just playing around and I was wondering if I could move the car so i move it a little bit
Posted by: jwyles
I pulled my 04 F150 up a slight grade. I have the vid on my website...
Posted by: garrett5462
i pulled a horse trailer with my 250. also, many sport quads and i pushed a car that was stuck going up my road in a snow storm. i put a tire between my front bumper and the rear bumper on the van and i helped it out. i had chains on it though.
Posted by: garrett5462
Quote
Originally posted by: jwoodsman
An old 6X14 gambrel shed that was built on an old trailer frame 4x6 floor frame on 14"wheels .
My AC 400 had no problem pulling . hr>
lol, what did a red need live in it? wait, yur form mass. 2. we dont have many rednecks, i thought u were form like far away like everyone else.
Posted by: garrett5462
from granby. western mass., near springfield.
well, im not a massachusetts redneck, but i like jump the 846 bobcat sometimes and go fishing with m80's. and dont ask about the all the junk in my backyard...
Posted by: garrett5462
Quote
Originally posted by: 2fast4you08
foreman 450 es had a e-ton 90 on the back rack through mud holes and up hills. my recon also had to help when it got stuck to pull it out.
ha ha, that brings back memories. about a year ago i brought my cat to my friends house and we were riding around in a brooke. and, then we found a deep spot, and he just sunk his ole 94 kdx 80. lol. i remember pulling it out, and putting it on the back rack and driving home down the road. he lost all his gas, cuz he didnt tuern the gas off. also, one i pulled it out the brook, there was an almost staight up hill climb, and i had to go up with the dirtbike on the back. lol. oh yea, also, a little while before this, he had his front tire tottaly stuck in mud and the back tire wasnt even under, so i tied a tow strap to the handle bar. and, what do u think would happen? i told him to sit on it and give it gas, and when i pulled it, the bike flipped over, and he flew off and i acted like i didnt notcie and just kept pulling it about 25 ft, dragging it throught mud, that was a fun day. lol.
Posted by: garrett5462
Quote
Originally posted by: oneshot7525
As for towing,we use our sportsman 500 to back our 16' smokercraft into our storage garage and our driveway has a steep incline (approx 30deg). We also tow a trailer full of firewood out of the woods, we had the trailer weighed once to see if we were overloading it and the gross weight was 3800 lbs. As for weight on the atv, we were hunting, making a deer drive way back in the woods one year, and when we were done there were 6 people that needed a ride back to their atv's and there was only 1 atv by them, our honda fourtrax 300. sure i didn't get it out of first gear but i got them back to their quads.
lol, we have had four people on my cat 250 and we had sleds on it. we were going sledding, on a snow day.
Posted by: garrett5462
Quote
Originally posted by: 400PrarieXLT
I lost a fuel pump a half mile from home on an 86 sentra junker I had and while the car isnt too heavy, I was able to pull it home. It got really good when I went to pull it up the rest of my cement driveway to the carport up a pretty good incline, my tires were spinning on the pavement and it worked it pretty hard! It wasnt until after I got the car where I wanted it that I realized the emergency brake was on....
imagine if yur driveway was like downhill and u stopped.... that wouldnt be good. come crashing into you. ouch!
Posted by: BAYOUMASTER
On christmas eve me and two of my buddies pulled out my dads 3/4 ton diesel that was burried to the axels after trying to pull my grandfathers 3/4 ton truck and the company truck out of the field that they had parked them in before we recieved 3 in. of rain. I was on my 400 kodiak my buddies were on my 185s 3 wheeler and my 200m 3 wheeler. we had all three trucks tied together and in neutral after a few wheelies and ropes snapping we pulled the trucks about 200ft onto the road where we then had to wash them.
It was fun but sucked at the same time!
Posted by: MXF
I'm trying to get some comparative data to help answer a previous post (Towing 19 foot ski boat with Rubicon 500).
I would really appreciate if anyone could recall the heaviest item they have successfully towed, dragged, or pulled with their ATVs. I've read posts of people pulling their stuck pickups out of a ditch or up a grade but it doesn't mention if this was the ATV only doing the pulling or was the pickup also under power and the ATV just helping along. It would be great if you could provide some details too!
Thanks,
MXF
Posted by: MXF
Thanks for the responses!
In regard to my other post concerning towing the 19 foot ski boat, I'm starting to think that going down-hill while maintaining control will be my biggest concern. I know that 3500 pounds and 120 pounds tongue weight are way over the rated specs of the Rubicon, but do any of you think I will actually do any physical damage to it like overstress the hitch/axle, or burn up the engine/drivetrain? If I can pull it successfully, the whole trip (one way) should only take about 2 minutes in either direction (launching/retrieving).
Thanks,
Marty
Posted by: MXF
Hi All,
Thanks for the responses. Some are boosting my confidence - others are making me even more nervous than I already am about attempting this. My plan is to tow the boat with my pickup to a relatively flat area and then hook up to the Rubicon and attempt some small uphill and downhill stretches - gradually working my way up to the actual hill that I will ultimately need to descend.
To Gimpster: from your experiences at the dealership lot, would you think that my biggest challenge will be going uphill, or controlling the load going downhill. My boat is on a single axle trailer - I might have over estimated the weight to be on the safe side as I can move the boat around by hand quite easily on a level gravel parking lot. Would you happen to recall the total weight of the pontoon boat/tri-axle trailer combination? I would guess a rig like that would be pushing over 6,000 pounds to be on a tri-axle trailer. When you say that most single and double axle boats were a snap with the Rubi, did that include backing them up and down the 30 foot ramp?
I'm trying to do the math for comparison of your situation vs mine. From your description of the shop ramp, it has a 10% grade which means its on a 5.7 degree angle so the straight-line force to push or pull any load is about 0.1 times the load (plus of course the friction forces of the load, which is the rolling resistance on level ground, but I'll ignore that since it will help me on the downhill, hurt me on the uphill). So if you could push a 5000 pound load up that ramp (4200 for the boat, 800 for the ATV plus driver), that's a straight-line tractive force of about 500 pounds being supplied by the ATV. If my boat weighs 3500 and my Rubi and I are another 850 for a total of 4350, then going up a 15% grade, the Rubi will need to supply a pure pushing/pulling tractive force of about 645 pounds. That's equivalent to the Rubi carrying just me up a 49 degree slope which I think would be do-able (its actually not even that bad since going up a 49 degree slope, the traction will be reduced to 66% of what it would be on an 8.5 degree (15%) grade.
Well, it all sounds good on paper, but there are just too many unknowns. Hopefully my buddy will be able to help me out. He has a Ford Ranger 4x4 pickup. So for practice, I could just pull him around in his pickup which I think weighs around 3600 pounds or just a bit more than my boat. If I can do that I should be good to go with the boat - and as a backup, we can always hook up his truck to the back of the boat trailer when going down the big hill.
I'll let you all know how it turns out when I get back after the weekend (if I'm still alive!!!)
Thanks again,
Marty
Posted by: MXF
I'm back from the lake and am very happy to say that the Rubicon towed the ski boat with power to spare, performing beyond my expectations! Going down hill was not a problem at all - kept it in low range, ESP 1st gear and the engine braking kept the speed to about 4 mph on the worst hill (about 250 feet long at 12 to 15% grade). I tried the brakes on the downhill just to make sure that I could stop the boat and they worked great.
The scariest part for me was backing the boat down the ramp (which I measured at about a 10% grade). I was about to start down when I remembered the posts about being on America's Funniest Home Videos - and pictured myself flying wildly out of control into the lake. It was at this moment that I remebered to put the drain plug in the boat - without which I could have been in the running for the $100K grand prize!!! So I backed down, keeping the Rubi in 1st gear, letting gravity slowly do its thing, using just the brakes to keep the speed at about 1 mph. Every 10 feet or so I would give it some throttle just to make sure I could still go back up the ramp.
I eventually reached the waters edge and eased the boat in until she started to float off the trailer bunks. I then pulled her out of the water and all the way back up the big hill, and just to make sure, I repeated the whole process one more time. I would have to say the hardest part is going up the long steep hill - but even then it seems like the Rubi's only at about 80% of max capacity. I never had to peg the throttle all the way, and never once did the tires ever spin out (front or rear). But I will say that I would not want to attempt this with any heavier load.
I re-estimated the tongue weight at about 150 pounds so now my biggest fear is whether or not this amount of weight will cause long term damage to the hitch or axle since it is only rated for 30 pounds. It did not appear to bend the hitch and did not cause the suspension to sag too much (only about 1 or 2 inches). I could reposition the boat on the trailer to lighten the tongue weight, but I think the way it is now is maximizing the traction. Any thoughts on this are welcome.
Aside from towing the boat, here are my other comments about the Rubi's performance in general. Keep in mind this is a 2003 Rubicon with just over 3000 miles and about 220 hours:
Transmission: I love all the different options this set-up allows. Low Range ESP for total control when working hard, Low Range Auto for slow to medium speed trail riding and High Range, D1 Auto for cruising on dirt roads or smoother trails. The Low Range Auto is great for situations where you normally would do a lot of shifting between gears such as approaching a steep, off-camber, rutted hill at a relatively high speed. In this case, where you would normally be in 3rd or 4th gear and then need to progressively shift into a lower gear to stay in the power band, the Low Range Auto maintains the perfect power band engine rpm - such that when you need the power to start climbing it's all there instantly. You never get caught losing forward momentum because you didn't donshift far enough - or you downshifted too far. This also leaves you free to concentrate on handling/manuevering the machine up the hill so you can throw your weight around without having to worry about keeping your left foot hooked into the shift lever. Along with this, the full floor boards are really nice - on my manual shift Bear Tracker I would occasionally have a broken tree branch poke up past the foot pegs against my anlkes - the full floor boards prevent this.
Full Time 4x4 and steering effort: At first I was concerned due to all the posts on this subject. My personal take on this is that the Rubi's steering is very light and responsive. It does feel a bit different than my two wheel drive Bear Tracker in that on the Rubi it feels like you are being pulled around by the nose rather than being pushed from behind (kind of like a front wheel drive car in snow) This actually inspires confidence on tight, winding trails. On a level gravel parking lot, it is difficult to slide the back end around - although it can probably be done if you really nail the throttle hard while turning but then you also risk tipping over. The one thing I did notice is that when acceleratng up a hill, the front end tends to wander a bit from side to side since the front tires don't have as much traction as the rear due to the weight shifting rearward while climbing - but this is very minor and outweighed by the rail-like steering control when rounding tight curves. Bottom line for me is that it would be nice to have the selectable 2x4 to 4x4 option, but for trail riding I would probably just leave it in 4x4 since the steering is very light and the amount of control you get is very impressive.
Center of Gravity: The Rubi does feel very stable - more so than my Bear Tracker does on the same off-camber trails.
Engine Braking: Very impressive, especially in Low Range. Like others have noted, it feels like the Rubi can read your mind, applying just the right amount of braking force. Truly awesome for controlling a heavy load down a steep hill.
Power and Speed: I've had a chance to ride several Prairie 650s, some Grizzly 600s (unfortunately no Grizz 660s) and I would put the Rubi between the Prairie and the Grizz 600 in accelaration. It doesn't give quite the rush of power as the Pairie, but it does have a good snap to it and even more so in Low Range. For me at least it's plenty quick off the line. I never tried to determine the top end, the fastest I went was about 38 mph, but I know it easily had a lot more left - I'm just not really that into high speed since where I ride, anything over about 40 mph starts to get a bit risky. As far as sheer power - again, it rather easily pulled my 19 foot open bow ski boat up a 15% grade - I don't think you can ask for much more out of a 600 pound ATV!
Reliability: have only had it for 1 week so I can't say.
Issues: I did notice the following problem: Every once in a while it will run real rough so that when you rev it up it barely increases in rpm, and it makes a horrible clanging sound. Shut it off and restart and it runs perfectly again. This first happened as I was about to take my boat down the steep hill for the first time after having circled the relativley level parking lot to allow the Rubi to warm up. I came to a stop at the top of the hill with the engine idling in Low Range ESP 1st gear and was just about to start the descent, when it started acting up. My first thought was that I had broken the transmission somehow since it wouldn't move either forward or back. I put it in neutral and the loud clanging sound was still there so now I thought maybe it was something in the engine. I shut it off and back on and it still did it.
Well, my heart sank siince I had purchased it AS IS with no warranty. So I unhooked my boat, got my pickup and pulled the boat back to the parking spot, then went back to get the Rubi. When I fired her up this time though, she ran great in neutral, and when I put her in gear she ran smooth with plenty of power and absolutely no sign that anything was wrong at all. I'm guessing that it was some kind of electrical glitch since obviously a major mechanical break-down can't just repair itself. This happened again a few more times but only upon start-up, never again while running. Everytime this occurred, I would just shut her off and restart and she would run fine. So if anyone else has had this happen to them or heard of it - I would appreciate any comments. I might just place a separate post on this problem here and on the Honda board.
Well that's about it - sorry if this got too long! Thanks again for all your responses.
Marty
Posted by: duramaximizer
I think I have you all beat. I pulled somewhere around 200 bushel of soybeans in a killbro 385 wagon up a fairly good grade up to our house. This was with a 1993 350 big bear. I was in low range and by the time I made it to the top of the hill I had went from 4th down to 1st and was just starting to loose rpms when all of a sudden they started to come back up. When I got up to the shop and finally got the wagon stopped. Dad comes up to me and say don't you think the D17 would have been a more worthy canidate. I just looked at him and smiled and said I made it didn't I. To that he shook his head and said barely.
Posted by: oneshot7525
As for towing,we use our sportsman 500 to back our 16' smokercraft into our storage garage and our driveway has a steep incline (approx 30deg). We also tow a trailer full of firewood out of the woods, we had the trailer weighed once to see if we were overloading it and the gross weight was 3800 lbs. As for weight on the atv, we were hunting, making a deer drive way back in the woods one year, and when we were done there were 6 people that needed a ride back to their atv's and there was only 1 atv by them, our honda fourtrax 300. sure i didn't get it out of first gear but i got them back to their quads.
Posted by: 2fast4you08
foreman 450 es had a e-ton 90 on the back rack through mud holes and up hills. my recon also had to help when it got stuck to pull it out.
Posted by: 87250xman
I saw a honda rancher 350 pull a 3/4 truck with 35s on it up hill under its own power.
Posted by: Polaris600
I have pulled many downed trees afteer storms. My largest load was a 18 ft fishing boat. It may not seem like much but with that tounge wieght and IRS it did slip my belt a few times while going up hills. Ran funny after that pull, got a new belt and it works fine today.
Posted by: 500rubicon
With my old 1985 250 Fourtrax I pulled a 10*10 shed on a 10*20 foot flat bed trailer up a small muddy incline about 150 feet.
Posted by: katman
my 250 pound uncle pat sits on my rear rack
ta make my furrows,............ha,
