Can Am Quads,Good? Bad?

I have a 400 Outlander and a 500 Outlander Max.

The 400 has all (4000) very hard miles on it.

I have had many opportunities to compare with others and now I highly recommend the 400 for too many reasons to list.

I only got the 500 Max because I needed just a little more weight to pull the boat up the launch.

Buy a 400 Bombardier with confidence.
 
Friend from kapuskasing sent me this pic.
A washout hit at 50k. Five other bikes that hit the same washout in the same manner, and the rest were unscathed. None of the others there Can-Ams though!
When inspected, it was found that the frame bent where hair line cracks had started.
Gets ya thinking!
Outty4.jpg
 
crazydave said:
The 650 i had did have alot of top end but the power was like that all through the power curve. My cousins grizzly 700 was constantly stuck where we would go cause it could not turn the tires with enough oomph to clean them.
Click to expand...

Got to call Bull on that :rolleyes:
Or else tell your cousin to use LOW range when mudding!
 
oh boy!

I am paying close attention to info here, this frame business is spooky, think I may start looking for an old Samurai and some old Honda/Yamaha quad.
 
Broken Spar
Notice: 1st pic is upside down but you can see it was not caused by the Spar being pounded!
11213Spar_001.JPG


My own repair, plated front to bad...thanks Bomby :mad:
11213spar_repaired_003.JPG


Couple pieces of angle fitted under the Spar after I plated it.
11213spar_repaired_002.JPG
 
Another thing to keep in mind is none of these fuel injected atvs have manual recoils to start them............big problem.

Last year my friends Can am got to spend the day on the trailer while the rest of us fished lake temagami. -36C° was just too cold for it to start.
 
I have an '06 Outlander 400 with about 1400 miles on it. It has not given me a minutes trouble, but I'm not sure if I would buy another one. I dont know why. Just a feeling.
I knew of the frame troubles Senior had before I bought it and have been keeping an eye on mine. Nothing yet.
Should I take a pro-active step and plate the frame now before it breaks?
 
Slapshot said:
I have an '06 Outlander 400 with about 1400 miles on it. It has not given me a minutes trouble, but I'm not sure if I would buy another one. I dont know why. Just a feeling.
I knew of the frame troubles Senior had before I bought it and have been keeping an eye on mine. Nothing yet.
Should I take a pro-active step and plate the frame now before it breaks?
Click to expand...

The 03-04s usually started breaking around 4,000.
I could give you list of problems I had but it would take up the rest of this page, maybe I just got a lemon & the rest only had 1/2 page of problems.
The newer ones have a couple extra gussets right under the engine, whether that fixed it or not I don't know. The Spar is an inherantly weak desgin in that it can't take much twisting. If I owned any Bomby, I would stand it on end & weld a piece of 3/16" plate front to back for insurance!
 
Slapshot said:
I have an '06 Outlander 400 with about 1400 miles on it. It has not given me a minutes trouble, but I'm not sure if I would buy another one. I dont know why. Just a feeling.
I knew of the frame troubles Senior had before I bought it and have been keeping an eye on mine. Nothing yet.
Should I take a pro-active step and plate the frame now before it breaks?
Click to expand...

A big problem with the Outlander frames is moisture, and crud gets inside, and doesn't drain causing excessive corrosion making an already weak link weaker. Keep a close eye on yours if you own one for cracks. If you don't have any now, it's only a matter of time! The proplem is Bombardier won't cover this under warranty.
See here!
http://forums.atvrideronline.com/70...e-weak-and-very-vulnerable-to-buck/index.html
 
Bombi is a s**tty company all the way around. Remember when they would not lower their price when the canadian dollar was par. Then people were going to the states to buy quads because they were so much cheaper untill bombi shut that loophole down. Many people swore off them just for that, never mind the poor design problems and warranty issues.
 
All terrain research sells an aluminum spine to correct the Outlander frame issue. My buddy installed one of these at a cost of around $150 on his then new 650 Max. The added stiffness on the bottom worked, but the frame ended up cracking under the seat.

Information like this is hard to swallow after you have spent big $$$$$$ on a BPR, and you start finding out you might have bought a cat in the bag. If you do own one I honestly hope you never have an issue, but why would a product such as this aluminum spine be produced if the outlander didn't have frame issues?

atr-can-am-spine-002.jpg

spine-drawing.jpg

atr-spine-018.jpg

atr-spine-029.jpg


http://allterrainresearch.net/
 
Last edited:
Crankbender said:
Bombi is a s**tty company all the way around. Remember when they would not lower their price when the canadian dollar was par. Then people were going to the states to buy quads because they were so much cheaper untill bombi shut that loophole down. Many people swore off them just for that, never mind the poor design problems and warranty issues.
Click to expand...

In all fairness though, this wasn't exclusive to Bmbdier. A LOT of companies did the exact same thing, whether it was quads, bikes, or autos/trucks. I bought my wife's Audi down there and there wasn't a problem at all however I bought my Tundra down there and had to go through my US-based aunt as the dealership wouldn't sell to me for fear of repercussions from Toyota.

For quads, Honda was one of the worst actually. I bought a 2 year old Honda Rancher in the states not figuring on having any issues. Once I got it home and tried to do the RIV paperwork I phoned Honda for a recall clearance letter. They wouldn't issue me one as they classified the quad as "grey market". I asked what the point of it was and she said it was to "protect" their Canadian dealerships. I argued that I couldn't walk into my local Honda dealership and buy a 2 year old Rancher so how was his protecting them exactly? Then she changed her tune and said they were protecting the used resale market in Canada?? WTF?? Luckily I found a way to register it anyways after some spade work on my end, but what a joke.

Don't get me started on the fiasco that ensued when TC changed the engine immobilizer regs a couple years ago and how the car companies found a loophole to use it to their advantage to avoid vehicles being imported to Canada :rolleyes:. My point is that they pretty much ALL did this, very few were actually receptive to Cdn purchases crossborder.
 
i used a can am 500 last summer great power confortable but the the thing i didn't like about it was no dry storage compartments its nice to have a a place to put a wallet extra ammo and other such things where no water can get at that is the only reason i wouldn't buy one
 
Quest XT

I have a 650 4x4 Bombardier/CanAm. I use it on the farm, plow snow, race the trails, pull stuff, etc. It has full skid plates. Largest fuel tank, 6.5 gallons I think. No major troubles. 2 dealers within driving distance. Parts are a little pricey.
I like it. Would buy another.

John Deere quads are made by CanAm, just differant body colors.

Puma
 
big bear said:
I am paying close attention to info here, this frame business is spooky, think I may start looking for an old Samurai and some old Honda/Yamaha quad.
Click to expand...

a few weeks back i nailed a stump with the front left tire going about 40km/h which caused me to stop so quickly that the force slid the pleather on the seat forwards, ripped the hand grips, and rolled the quad right over. the body was damaged form it being so cold out, but there was nothing wrong with anything else. the alignment was still perfect :cool:

i can only imagine how much force was put on the a arms and frame due to the abrupt stop and rolling. my grizzly 700 just laughed at the puny stump. i didnt take it so well :(:redface:


senior said:
Got to call Bull on that :rolleyes:
Or else tell your cousin to use LOW range when mudding!
Click to expand...

i call huge BS on that one too. i had 30" mud lites on my grizzly 700 when my buddy was fixing his quad ( couldnt resist) and i was still throwing mud like a manure spreader that tim taylor got a hold of :D i will honestly say that my quad has never wimped out and that includes everything from riding through deep clay mud holes and climbing through broken ice on water to plowing snow and gravel.

any 700 that cant spin the tires fast enough to clear the mud has something wrong with it whether its the machine or driver...
 
Here's a good example of how poor Can Am's front diff is. TwoTone, as for the Can Am having the most power, that's past tense. Go look at the new Polaris 850.;)

[youtube]r-2f7lQYGrM[/youtube]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom