Well folks, just figured I'd give you another update on how my new UXV 450i is faring. Bottom line: so far, so good! All in all, I've been impressed so far. Over the past two weekends, I've put about 50 miles on the machine - boy, it's amazing how many miles you can drive going nowhere! My son and I have been exploring some of the old surface mines throughout the area. We are fortunate enough to live in an area where you can go a short distance down the paved road from our house and get into a labyrinth of old mine roads and off-road trails. So, no shortage of places to ride and any kind of terrain you can imagine, from generally wide, smooth roads to narrow, rocky trails, mud-filled bogs, steep climbs and wide-open "playgrounds" where you can just cut loose. I got in one of those areas yesterday and did about 10 donuts, which my 13-year-old just thought was wonderful. I thought it was pretty fun too!
I haven't "babied" the machine so far, per se, but I've also been pretty conscious about taking it easy on the throttle (haven't gunned her yet) and not asking to much of her. So far, however, she seems to be able to handle just about anything you want. After yesterday's two-hour ride, my son actually remarked that he thought the machine has been pretty impressive so far. "I thought we would break something," he said. Well, not yet, anyway. And hopefully not anytime soon.
As for power, the engine seems sufficient. One thing that kind of surprises me is how high the RPMs go under normal use - seems to run between 4,000-6,000 a lot of the time when under power. That's probably perfectly normal for an ATV/UTV, but being used to driving a regular highway vehicle where you are typically running between 2,000-3,000 RPM, it seems high. However, I notice that the tachometer goes up to like 9,000 RPM, so I guess 4,000-6,000 is only about mid-range for this type of engine. I do know that going up the paved road back to my house, the machine has no trouble doing/maintaining 30+ mph without coming close to putting the accelerator all the way down. And when going downhill, you can easily get to 40 mph+ again without asking for all she's got. On steeper climbs, I've been careful to use Low gear and just kind of crawl up at like 8-10 mph. She isn't setting any speed records up those hills, but doesn't seem to be struggling. And with as rocky as lot of the trails are, I don't think you'd really want to go any faster anyway, as you need to steer carefully.
About the only problem I've experienced so far is that before our ride yesterday, I went into the garage and found the driver's side rear tire completely flat! Not sure what happened, but I obviously must have driven over a sharp rock or something on Saturday because it now has a slow leak. I was able to pump it back up and I closely monitored the pressure all day and found it was losing about 2 psi per hour. So, that was good enough to do our thing yesterday. We just stopped every now and then to check the pressure, and I added some air a couple times. I am going to stop today on the way home and get a bottle of sealant to hopefully plug that up. It's just kind of a shame, because the tires are obviously brand new. But, it is an off-road vehicle, after all. These things are bound to happen.
Here's a quick summary of my impressions of the machine so far, plus a few photos for you all!
THE GOOD: A sharp-looking machine with definite cool factor, capable suspension, comfortable seat, easy steering, useful dump bed, TONS of storage, comfortable seat belts that really come in handy on steep downhills, relatively compact width makes machine really nimble in the woods (I got through several ATV trails where a 60-inch machine would have NO chance!)
THE NOT AS GOOD: A little noisy under power, seems a little squeaky in the back under the bed when you're bouncing around, turning radius could be tighter (lots of three-point turns needed in tight quarters), oil dipstick in a hard-to-reach location, the little cables that hold the tailgate like to twist when you put the gate up and down (you have to watch them when closing or they like to get caught between the bed and gate)
