Posted on 05/23/2011 3:56:57 PM PDT by Maverick68
OK, my son has outgrown his battery powered 4 wheeler. He is now 8 years old and I'm soliciting Freeper advice about moving up to a gas powered youth quad. I don't have too much to spend, so it will probably be a used one. Any advice on preferred make/model. Also, are there any modifications I can make to the quad to make it more safe? I have a fear of a flip over. Many thanks, Maverick
I like Honda products.
Probably not the answer you want to hear, but off-roading is a dangerous sport. Fun and rewarding, yes, but aside from proper training and safety gear (a must for Quads) crashes WILL happen.
They are simply part of the experience. Just don’t let Junior believe he’s Travis Pastrana and it’s a great sport.
Most all have a screw-in throttle regulator - use it!
Are you sure you want a 90? Maybe you should look into a small adult model. Consider his size and how he is going to grow. Are you willing to buy another in a year or two....
Stay away from the junk crap built in China.
Stay with the name brands Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha.
If you can, find a good used Suzuki LT80.
Just put a top end on one (bored cylinder, new piston, rings, gaskets)
cost $110.00
I’m not embedding a link, just throwing it out there.
The Argo (And others) 6x6 vehicles can be had super-cheap in the used market.
my boys thought I was the mother from hell, they were the only kids in the neighborhood that didn’t have one. Three of those neighborhood kids should have had mothers from hell. One was killed in an ATV/car accident, one is blind for live due to brain damage from a roll over, another is in a wheel chair, quadriplegic, from another roll over. Kids should not have those things before they get a drivers license.
My kids grew up on horses, which took very good care of them.
Kids should not have those things before they get a drivers license.
My kids grew up on horses, which took very good care of them.
... and in an ironic twist, my father-in-law got killed in a horse riding accident but my kids grew up with 3 and 4 wheelers and never got hurt,
Depends a lot on the rider (on both horses and 4-wheelers)
“Also, are there any modifications I can make to the quad to make it more safe?”
Yeah. Remove the engine.
Just how many acres -your or family own - do the kiddies have access to ? Damn tired of surbanites with money/credit buying their teens toys that “arent’ fun” on their 1-acre patch. Almost instantly they’re running the roads and any open patch they can access - regardless of crop or environmental damage.....
FMBW, Daddy/Mommy ought to be compelled to “restore” the damage their get has done by hard manual labor. >PS
My wife and I have Polaris 500s for our West Virginia hills. They’ve been very good for us. A friend of ours has a Yamaha Grizzly he keeps in our barn and it’s a good quality machine also. These aren’t really machines for kids though.
I have a friend whose son died in one. I’m not sure how you make them safe for boys.
My niece died from internal inlury being thrown off the back of one. I’d think twice about putting a child on one.
Kids and horsepower all too often lead to bad things happening. To put it bluntly, when it comes to safety, no ATV is idiot proof.
When we lived in Alaska I had a hard and fixed rule, absolutely no unsupervised snowmachine riding by the kids.
A similar rule applied for horse horsepower, they could go riding unsupervised, but sans saddles and bareback only. They could perhaps get thrown, or fall off and hurt, but at least not dragged to death with a foot hung up in a stirrup.
Being elderly (AKA old) the Wife and I are now avid ATV riders, as it is now the only way we can get off-road and enjoy the back country with a certain amount of freedom. But knowing accidents are always in the offing, we temper it with caution, and more than a bit of trepidation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.