I went riding yesterday and before we left the trails I had to take my truck on them for a little bit too. When I get in to mud, I am in 4 hi and 1st gear, tires are all in mud, gas pedal to the floor and baaaaaaaaa!! the engine has NO ***** and sounds like its going to stall completly. this is literally with the gas pedal to the floor and there is just not enough power to get through the mud unless I continuously use the clutch to get the rpms up. WTF??? why do you think my engine is lacking so much power? What could it be? Its not just yesterday, every time I go wheeling and hit some mud, its hard to get through without clutching it.
Heres a couple pics for the hell of it...

 

Why are you messing around in 4 high in the mud? Doing nothing but putting extra strain on your engine (as you can see) and your clutch...


use 4-low...

 

try 4lo?

 

lol I asked in another thread what to use in mud and they said 4hi. I will try 4 low next time

 

Depends on how fast you plan to hit it. Nice Mojave by the way!!

 

thanks man, I love the thing, Im trying to decide whether to put some money into it (needs clutch, brakes, front tires + rims, chain, sprockets) or to just sell it and buy a newer quad, I love it though its perfect with the 36mm mikuni carb, k&n, liquid cooled, and cobra pipe! lots of power for a little 250, But I just dont know...

 

is using 4low going to damage anything? or is it safe to just put it into 4low when I get into the trails, and leave it in 4low the whole time

 

depends on the type of mud. if its sticky clay like mud then 4low is favored.

 

same as 4hi, just cant go as fast.

 

crawl through mud. my truck did that when i was trying to pull a chevy k1500 out. i snatched it and all was fine

 

You mean you want rims................

 

lol no, definitly need them, the rear has new rims and tires, the front are still stock and its a 98, they are all bangged up and bent and dont hold air well, have to fill up before each ride

 

It only does this in the mud? That is odd. I would think it would do it all the time.
Anyways, I use 4HI in Florida mud usually unless it is the sticky muck mud then it's 4LO.

 

yes, I am pretty sure I have only experienced it in mud, probably since its so thick its a lot of friction and resistance working against the tires, I dont know lol. It also has no ***** with my quad in the back and the trailer attatched, maybe that is expected of a 4.0 though right?

 

No that would be because you are towing. If you want ***** when towing, then get better gears in it. But you do not need to go fast when you are towing. You are just going to put more stress on your trans, motor and drive train.

 

i was always taught that you play in 2wd then when you get stuck you lock it in

 

I know I do drive slow, and I have 4.10s I thought they were good enough for towing, I was just mentioning it

 

Yeah, its a ranger, they are not meant to go fast lol.

Looking at your set up with the trailer, I personally would have the quad in the back in the trailer, and the bike in your box. It will help distribute the load a little better. Not a big deal, just what I would do.

 

4wd is for when you get stuck.

unless youre not playing. i.e. if i have to drive to the property the road there gets deep after a good rain and 4wd is necessary

 

I'll stay in 2wd quite a bit when I wheel in the mud. Having a really tight LSD in the rear helps out a lot.
There are a few spots though that I know that if I go in in 2wd that I am going to bury my rear wheels and with the suction power of the swamp mud, shifting it into 4lo won't help any once I am stuck in 2wd. For those few spots I go at it hard it 4LO.

 

if you can get through the so called mud in 2wd than it aint really mud.

 

 

ya there's no way to get through this mud in 2wd

 

I always use 4wd hi in mud and never have any problems keeping wheel speed up.

 

I have the 3.slow, with 31x11.5's and 4:10 gears and dont have a probelm, but I will say the 3.0 is way under powered.