Hi just your troubled king quad owner here.

After further review, Suzuki will not cover the clutch issues I have with 739 miles on the bike. But I did notice some smoke comming from the exhaust, my dealer did look into it and found that the top end needs a rebuild. This is caused from the stock paper air filter. Susuki is taking care of the problem for me, and my dealer will eat the cluch repair.
If your thinking about buying a King Quad, you may want to change over the air filter right away to a Uni-filter or a twin-air filter. (both foam type filters).And never use your Suzuki King Quad like you would any other ATV, it won't hold up. Soon as I get mine back,I will be selling all three of my Suzuki's....Still have two die-hard Honda's and thats what I am going to buy next.

 

Dude....I am so glad I bought the Grizzly. Sorry guys...don't mean to flame anybody....but I was all geeked up the KQ and went to buy one and the dealer couldnt sell them cause of the cable recall thing, so I went down the street and got a Griz for much less anyhow. Sure nuff...the reverse idler issue would have affected the unit I darn near bought. None of the aforementioned issues these KQ's have come up on the 05 Griz, and actually no issues have come up with it at all. Yes...I do have to let it warm up a bit before I take off, but thats a good thing for the engine anyway. I put it to task big time plowing snow...and this thing is just about bullet proof. I did'nt pay extra for any kind of extended warranty and it does'nt look like I'm gonna need it anyway. It sounds like they're great when they run and keep running and I'm not ruling one out for the future, but Suzuki is going to have to make some serious changes before that happens. By then I'm sure Yamaha will do some updates to the time proven griz to make it competetive. The future will be interesting....but Suzuki is starting to get a bad name due to all these KQ issues that just never seem to stop.

 

troubledKQ, Sounds like you bought a lemon. I would never buy a new quad anymore without the extended warranty. What were you thinking? I have bought my last 2 machines from the same dealer. They have been good to me so far. They have fixed everything i have ever asked them to fix that I thought was under warranty. No questions asked. They havent done me wrong yet and have gone out of their way to help me out. Sometimes , like with cars, You get a lemon. Sorry to here you were the guy.!! Its like the lottery , but you loose.

 

I understand your frustration..but this a stereotypical statement-"And never use your Suzuki King Quad like you would any other ATV, it won't hold up." That simply isn't true from my experiences with the KQ and the past 6 months of reading owners opinions. Yeah the stock filter has a flaw but put in a Uni and there's not many more problems. I have driven my KQ just like I drove my last ute and it's held up better nothing has broken, I've got 900 miles and the stock belt is still fine. Usually the belts that go out early are from riding it to hard..get any belt driven ATV and you'll have problems if you ride it harder than the manufacturers would recommend...If you treat something with care it'll last longer..Some guy told me he has 4600 miles and counting on his stock belt...so. Oh yeah..I'm glad I bought the KQ over the Grizzly.

 

I bought the Uni air filter,but I wouldn't spend the money again,all you have to do is seal the paper filter with all are grease and it will work fine....also keep it real tight.

 

Are you the only one who rides the bike? I say this because what you have sounds certainly like someone has been riding the machine slowly in high range. See, it's not like a car (or a Honda hydrostatic) with a torque converter that only pushes oil around in order to slip for slow operation. On a King Quad (and most all Yamaha, Kawasaki, Arctic Cat, and Bombardier belt drive ATVs) the belt is always tight and when you are taking off from a standstill the centrifugal clutch engages and slips until you get to a speed where the quad's transmission in it's lowest ratio matches the motors RPM, and then its shoes engage solidly against the clutch drum. In low range this will be a very slow speed, though I don't know just what it is on the speedo. In high range this speed at which the centrifugal clutch engages solidly, will be a good bit faster, particularly if oversize tires have been installed.

What this means is that if the operator leaves it in high range and creeps around relatively slowly, the centrifugal clutch will be slipping it's shoes constantly, something it is not designed to do. This causes heat and accellerated wear and the condition of a clutch that you described.

I loaned my old King Quad (manual tranny but still has a centrifugal clutch) to a friend so that he could go hunting with it, and not having any idea how the driveline worked, he would put it in a high gear so as not to make much noise in the bush, and creep around just off idle. When I got it back the clutch slipped like crazy as it was worn right out. Of course he couldn't tell anything was wrong!

We get used to cars and pickups with automatics that aren't hurt by any amount of creeping in traffic jams, and forget that with ATV's (except Honda's hydrostatics of course) you have to use low range if you are going to go slow for any distance, or you'll burn up the clutch, or the belt in the case of Polaris.

 

Glenlivet, interesting read.

Im one of these high range guys... Probably why my belt has worn out.I very rarely use low. Tight trails usually fall into my conditions and catagory. I gonna try Low more often then. Thanks for the tip.
So most riding under 30mph should be done in Low? Or would you suggest a slower Speed then that.

 

Not so fast (as 30)

Like I say, the King Quad belt is one of the type thats tight all the time, so slow riding in high range will not shorten its belt life, as it would a Polaris (among a few others) which slacks its belt at idle and just-off-idle speeds. If you wore out a belt prematurely it wasn't from creeping in high range. With Kingers its the centrifugal clutch that slips to allow you to get from a standstill to the lowest speed the tranny's ratio is capable of, not the belt.

Without a tach and the specs on what RPM the centrifugal clutch engages solidly at, it's a tough call at just what speed in high range it is no longer slipping. 30 is a bit much though. I'm sure that it is engaging solidly by as slow as 10 MPH anyway... but I'd like to know for sure for myself!
Using low range for the slow technical stuff is easier on everything though.

 

Glenlivet,
I do not usually ride at slow speeds ,except for when I pull it out of my garage when I am doing woodwork so it doesn't get full of sawdust, or when I load it on my trailer. Maybe I need to use low alot more often. Thanx for the tip. That still disgusts me though, that the engine needs rebuild after 739 miles. We pay alot of money for these ATV's
and should have been notified of the air filter problem right away. I could have had it replaced with a UNI or Twin-Air when it was put into service. But it's too late for that now.


05' KingQuad Red
Warn 2500
front and rear Susuki Bumbers
Warn driving light kit
Stock size ITP Mudlights on factory rims

 

It takes prolonged operation to burn out the clutch, such as crawling along back roads while hunting, someone putting slowly around the yard in high, or pushing snow in high range. Loading in a truck or moving it out of the garage is normal use.

That sounds like a whole lot of problems there, troubledKQ. Mine has twice the mileage and is trouble free. I dunno what's going on.