I completely disagree with this statement:
"I think they need to gear the unit down or make the clutch larger. I've driven one of these in low gear to test some stuff out and it's Damm near impossible to be easy with it. They like to surge and hunt between 1st and 2nd. I can't see using low anywhere, it's not smooth enough to crawl. Even in M/T it surges up and down, the throttle won't stay steady cause of the high ass gearing they installed to get the top speed up"
Actually Its not, if you use this machine in real world applications you'll find LOW gear is plenty low. Your bosses blacktop parking lot will not justify LOW gear. LOW gear between 3-4K RPM @ 3-5 mph is great. MT is better, the ability to "hang" on to gears is the resason I went from the 700 to the 1000. For "Johnny rock crawler" it may NOT be low enough. But thats not who honda built this for.
Low Sport is great for 30mph and under. You want more? put it into high and it will go 66. Honda hit the nail on the head with this machine. The biggest problem is its too confusing for the "Average Joe" "Jane".
HIGH: AT
HIGH: MT
HIGH :Sport
LOW:AT
LOW:MT
LOW: Sport
Until you have numerous miles on this machine you wont unlock what its capable of. When my wifes family/friends come over and wanna go for as ride I tell her just put it in High auto. Is this machine to complicated and maybe thats why we see burnt clutches???
Thanks POLARIS for putting an Automatic on a 4-wheeler so that every idiot thinks they can ride one!!
I hope to clear the mud a little. It seems that both of you want the vehicle to be less jerky but the discussion turned into gear ratios.
I also agree with HondaTech. with 1,000 miles now, mine is broke in good. Low gear just sucks when in "auto". It will make your kid fall in the floor and spill your morning coffee. I rarely use low until I'm on rough terrain and then I use low in manual mode.
However, I don't think it's a gearing problem. The throttle is too sensitive. There should be a different ramp for throttle input when in low. The throttle is very touchy.
Also, I use my vehicle in "real world" applications as a property owner and hunter and reverse is terrible. I also use it for recreation as I am your " Johnny rock crawler". It's actually not that bad for that. There are no rules for how we should use our machine and we all have different opinions for what could be better. I say, "I wish that low gearing is lower". I know that it's ok for stock size tires. It's not Honda's fault that low is too high for 30" tires.
And Honda shows riders blasting thru trails in the commercials. They did build this for rec drivers as well as utility purpose. If it was utility purpose only, it would have half as much suspension travel and a bed that actually dumps. Some people like me like to push the limits, that's why we drive Honda, it holds up better.
SIGNATURE:
Quote by Delton: You ain't riding the Bull without some type of collateral damage. Scratches, gouges, etc. But if you do happen to be the type that Armoralls your tires and waxes your panels, we have a nice stretch of blacktop you can raise hell on lmao