P1000 Any driving techniques to protect the clutch?

[Crow_Hunter]

How far you from Paducah Kentucky? I may need to come take a test drive before I drive home.

About a 2 hour drive. It would be way out of your way to come here. There isn't a straight way to get here from there. But thank you very much for offering.

 

[Admin]

 

[hondabob]

I think if you are doing constant stop and starting on steep hills the shudder will be annoying enough to consider trading it in on a 700 especially if they announce an upgraded model with bucket seats. The seats are my biggest complaint. Got over 9,000 miles on my 700. If you need the power and top speed of the 1000 its going to suck for your kind of use. On my P1000 I left foot the brake to prevent roll back and apply easy throttle in 4 WD to avoid trail damage and get it up to about 3 mph for the best clutch life. For most use the clutches should last for about 60,000 miles when the engine may need a rebuild due to the off road use. My buddy got 60,000 miles on his 92 Polaris 4WD quad. It has chain drive on the front and rear. He did 3,000 miles a year for 20 years. It still runs good but he spent a lot of money on everything except the engine, his son has it now. The important thing was taking care of the air filter and oil changes. Pretty impressive for a Polaris.

 

[Plumber101010]

I don't think many people, if any, can claim to have put as much load on a clutch as I have. Carrying 1000 pounds PLUS full of rock 20 times a day up extremely steep and rough, at times slippery muddy roads, is about as much abuse as you could possibly put on it. Add in coming to a complete stop, seeing I stopped too short and needing to pull up another few feet on a 45 degree incline and taking back off from a dead stop and I simply cannot imagine putting any more pressure on the clutch, short of tying yourself to a tree. LOL

I am happy to announce that I have never once felt any kind of "slippage". I did get shuttering, and even without a load I do still have shutter at times. The shutter is much worse in high as it is in low. In fact the shutter is what keeps me going back to low even though high is much smoother and quieter

I don't baby it, but still, when you're in second gear (regular driving no load) trying to make it up the road and it's shuttering, no doubt she is telling me something that I need to listen to. I go to low and it disappears.

But as far as slipping and actually grabbing it has performed flawlessly. My point is, if it can handle that kind of abuse, I don't think you have too much worry with regular driving.

In short, there are few things on this machine I am more impressed with than the clutch. Whatever Honda did, it was the perfect design to complement the powerful engine and tranny.

Now Shuttering I would like to see go away!

In retrospect knowing my particular needs which was more work than play, I don't think this set up was necessarily the best option for me and I think a CVT transmission was the way to go. There is definitely something to be said about smooth acceleration from a dead stop to top speed without shifting or jerking whatsoever.

However, the trade off of having a shaft drive vs belt driven was more than I could handle and I just knew I needed to have it

 

[Crow_Hunter]

I don't think many people, if any, can claim to have put as much load on a clutch as I have. Carrying 1000 pounds PLUS full of rock 20 times a day up extremely steep and rough, at times slippery muddy roads, is about as much abuse as you could possibly put on it. Add in coming to a complete stop, seeing I stopped too short and needing to pull up another few feet on a 45 degree incline and taking back off from a dead stop and I simply cannot imagine putting any more pressure on the clutch, short of tying yourself to a tree. LOL

I am happy to announce that I have never once felt any kind of "slippage". I did get shuttering, and even without a load I do still have shutter at times. The shutter is much worse in high as it is in low. In fact the shutter is what keeps me going back to low even though high is much smoother and quieter

I don't baby it, but still, when you're in second gear (regular driving no load) trying to make it up the road and it's shuttering, no doubt she is telling me something that I need to listen to. I go to low and it disappears.

But as far as slipping and actually grabbing it has performed flawlessly. My point is, if it can handle that kind of abuse, I don't think you have too much worry with regular driving.

In short, there are few things on this machine I am more impressed with than the clutch. Whatever Honda did, it was the perfect design to complement the powerful engine and tranny.

Now Shuttering I would like to see go away!

In retrospect knowing my particular needs which was more work than play, I don't think this set up was necessarily the best option for me and I think a CVT transmission was the way to go. There is definitely something to be said about smooth acceleration from a dead stop to top speed without shifting or jerking whatsoever.

However, the trade off of having a shaft drive vs belt driven was more than I could handle and I just knew I needed to have it

Thank you very much.

This is what I was wondering. Are other people having it and not having long term problems and am I ruining the clutch doing this?

I won't be hauling loads like that but I will be doing quite a bit of stopping on hills with loads of grass or sticks/logs and dumping them down a hill. If you aren't having any problems with the transmission even with it shuddering, then I shouldn't either.

With all the talk about clutch problems and slipping and avoiding going slow and such, I was afraid that I was doing damage to it.

If it couldn't survive what I was doing with it, I wanted to sell/trade it in on something that could before I lowered the value on it anymore.

No one else seemed to understand or have what I was feeling, so I was afraid that either there was something wrong with mine or that I was abusing it in a way that others were not.

Thank you very, very much!

 

[Plumber101010]

Been on the road and just got back. These 12 hour drives are starting to kill me...

The shutter has always concerned me too. And I hear it's the nature of the beast. Initially I tried to equate it to all other clutch operated vehicles I have owned where a shutter indicated something was wrong.

Motorbikes, dirt bikes, any manual clutch vehicle, all the clutches slip, purposefully, it's how you DONT get shutter and have smooth takes offs and shifting. This clutch slippage was normal and designed to slip. So I equated it to like taking off in 3rd gear on one of the above, it shuttered and that meant wrong gear, drop down.

However, this is an "automatic clutch" and NOT a manual and this is what took me awhile to get into my head. That this particular shutter, whereas normally indicative of an issue with manual clutches, in this case, it does not and a certain amount of shutter is going to happen. What you don't want to do is prolong the shutter.

So a little shutter when taking off is ok. A little Not to confuse a little with how much it is felt or how much it shutters, a little in meaning length of time, for a couple seconds.

Having it shutter for more than a couple of few seconds COMBINED with constantly driving it that way, yes, will wear things out much faster.

And the way to get around that, is to avoid extremely constant low speeds and just give it gas and don't do a lot of poking along very slow.

And if you're really worried about it, just keep it in low. I personally think way too many frown on low and think it's a disgrace or you won't get a badge of honor driving in low. I think too many associate owning a UTV with being in an extreme sport. That's what sport models are for.

Low is there for a reason. High has its uses. Flat or hilly trails, pavement, etc., etc high is fine. For me personally, on any kind of load, over and above normal driving and its low range all the way. It's fast enough for this old man and my shutter all but disappears. I believe that being in high is what caused a lot of the clutch issues you have heard about.

High = speed. Most all others, except me, love to go fast.

But stop thinking shutter means something is wrong. An automatic clutch is a different animal completely in regards to a manual clutch that many of us grew up on

 

[sharp]

If I feel like it's shuttering or in too high of a gear I just reach the fingers on my left hand up about 2 inches and smack the paddle shifter down problem solved.

 

[Crow_Hunter]

Been on the road and just got back. These 12 hour drives are starting to kill me...

The shutter has always concerned me too. And I hear it's the nature of the beast. Initially I tried to equate it to all other clutch operated vehicles I have owned where a shutter indicated something was wrong.

Motorbikes, dirt bikes, any manual clutch vehicle, all the clutches slip, purposefully, it's how you DONT get shutter and have smooth takes offs and shifting. This clutch slippage was normal and designed to slip. So I equated it to like taking off in 3rd gear on one of the above, it shuttered and that meant wrong gear, drop down.

However, this is an "automatic clutch" and NOT a manual and this is what took me awhile to get into my head. That this particular shutter, whereas normally indicative of an issue with manual clutches, in this case, it does not and a certain amount of shutter is going to happen. What you don't want to do is prolong the shutter.

So a little shutter when taking off is ok. A little Not to confuse a little with how much it is felt or how much it shutters, a little in meaning length of time, for a couple seconds.

Having it shutter for more than a couple of few seconds COMBINED with constantly driving it that way, yes, will wear things out much faster.

And the way to get around that, is to avoid extremely constant low speeds and just give it gas and don't do a lot of poking along very slow.

And if you're really worried about it, just keep it in low. I personally think way too many frown on low and think it's a disgrace or you won't get a badge of honor driving in low. I think too many associate owning a UTV with being in an extreme sport. That's what sport models are for.

Low is there for a reason. High has its uses. Flat or hilly trails, pavement, etc., etc high is fine. For me personally, on any kind of load, over and above normal driving and its low range all the way. It's fast enough for this old man and my shutter all but disappears. I believe that being in high is what caused a lot of the clutch issues you have heard about.

High = speed. Most all others, except me, love to go fast.

But stop thinking shutter means something is wrong. An automatic clutch is a different animal completely in regards to a manual clutch that many of us grew up on

Thanks again!

I only feel it when I start from a complete stop on a 10+ degree incline. It doesn't do it any other time and it doesn't do it on those same inclines if I am moving, only for a second or two from a dead stop. I never feel it any other time.

I should find out more tomorrow, I should be doing around 30 miles or so tomorrow and crossing some ravines. This time with at least 2 passengers or maybe 3. I will not say anything and see if anyone notices. If not, it may just be something that I am hypersensitive to.

I really only drive it in Low Range. I only use Hi Range on the road or when crossing flat fields. All around my house or on the trails on the farm, I only us Low Range. Hi Range doesn't have enough compression braking for me.

 

[Crow_Hunter]

If I feel like it's shuttering or in too high of a gear I just reach the fingers on my left hand up about 2 inches and smack the paddle shifter down problem solved.

I have never felt it do it at any time that was an option. Unless there is a secret gear below 1st gear in Low Range.

 

[sharp]

There is a secret gear, it's in a accessory catalog and very hard to find like a pokey man!

 

[sharp]

I think crow hunter is a good sport by the way he handles criticism on this forum!

 

[Plumber101010]

I think crow hunter is a good sport by the way he handles criticism on this forum!

I have to say I missed most of that. I was driving and by the time I really had a chance to read what was taking place it had been deleted.

Hard to make comments on something not read but I did catch one thing that crow Hunter was being labeled a troll??!

I found that to be really absurd. Trolls bounce in and bounce out and say things like "Honda sucks".

Crow Hunter has made several hundred Posts and that's just not something trolls do!

 

[joeymt33]

I have to say I missed most of that. I was driving and by the time I really had a chance to read what was taking place it had been deleted.

Hard to make comments on something not read but I did catch one thing that crow Hunter was being labeled a troll??!

I found that to be really absurd. Trolls bounce in and bounce out and say things like "Honda sucks".

Crow Hunter has made several hundred Posts and that's just not something trolls do!

The troll comment was directed towards another member not Crow Hunter.

Also, I think Crowe Hunter has been a great sport because he has put up with a lot here recently.

 

[Plumber101010]

Well, he is a crow Hunter, so I'm sure he's used to eating crow

 

[Stauvo]

I know it's messes with my head when I pull up to roads from the ditch trails and as I usually put the front wheels on the shoulder but often a car comes just as I'm cruising up the approach and don't want then to think I will hit them so I stop halfway up. Have spun the wheels a few times but I am getting more comfy with the pedal control. It's reminds me of when I was learning to drive a manual trans as a teen. Ha.