geezer99

I totally agree that beer must stay cold, but for the main meal, a warm, re-constituted freeze dried meal is hard to beat out in the wilderness. A small butane or white gas stove provides the heat, and your canteen provides the water, and ten minutes of time to a hot meal. If the packaging is not compromised, freeze dried foods will handle any environment a human can endure. For disclosure: I used to work for a freeze drying company. tom

Make sure whatever you get to tow your mower will go slow enough to not bog down the mower engine. tom

I'd nick name it "MUD MAX" tom

Thanks for the update on rotella. I forgot that I've been running it for years in bikes I used to have. I plead "old timers disease". tom

Excellent point! I'm glad you pointed that out! Thanks for the reply! tom

I've been using Rotella T in everything from 1949 8N tractor, 1930 Caterpillar model 40, to all my small 4 stroke gas engines. No trouble I can blame on the oil. I bet most major oils would do as well. I would check with engine manufacturer for any peculiarities that would be contrary. tom

I just looked at the display on my Axis 500: 100.5 hours. 3 years. Seems like a good time to update my review. In short, so far, doing pretty well! Nothing that made me walk home. Always starts right up. Original battery. 3 oil changes. Plexiglass windshield getting fine scratches from cleaning. You need glass for longevity, or great care in cleaning with any plex window. Typical use: Original knobby tires about 50% left. Still haven't installed a stereo. I have no regrets and would buy it again. It definitely is lower grade construction compared to the expensive machines, but I don't race it, sand dune climb, or have any competitive use. Except for the neighbors dog, which is deaf, giving me a distinct head start advantage! That homemade trailer is how I brought the buggy home. Old mobile home axle rated 6000#. Bottom line: for my use it is good, and I'd do it again. tom

You got me with mentioning army tanks! I have fond memories of climbing all over the walker bulldog tank parked at the National Guard armory when I was a kid. Even better when they drove it in parades. If it was hot, the tracks would leave conspicuous marks on turns. To put myself through college, I drove HD21 and D8 crawlers pushing scrapers and clearing land. Good times, and I met some interesting charactors. thanks for prodding good memories, tom

Welcome, From another oldster. You've got me beat by a year. I share your motorcycle heritage, and am happy the ATVs are so widely available these days. This forum is friendly and helpful. One of the good ones. My first motorcycle was a homebuilt scooter powered by a lawn mower engine. Got my first ticket on it riding in the city park. I only have owned a ATV for two years. Not as much fun as the bikes, but it hauls heavy stuff like chainsaws, gas, and axes. I've always fixed my own stuff, but for me the this forum has been great for help with quad knowledge. And photos of quads in action. I bet you will find the forum great. Welcome aboard, tom

I've got a little four stroke weed wacker. I think it's a Toro. In the weed wacker world, I've used both and don't see much difference. I've had two and four stroke motor cycles, and prefer the 4 cycles. Simply sound better. I've owned several chainsaws, and they were all two strokers. Power to weight kings in that world. I've used both types in portable water pumps. For fire pumps, two strokes are lightest to pack around, but consume more fuel. As the Brits I've been around say, "Horses for courses". I sent a birthday card to my brother, a horseman: Do old cowboys were boxers, or briefs? Depends! tom

Well, I've made no progress in getting a locking differential for the Axis. But, I discovered drifting, and a solid axle works great for that. To park my buggy in the shed, I approach from the rear, make a 180, and enter the opening. I found that I can make the 180 much tighter by drifting the rear end around. Lots of fun, and I haven't destroyed the shed, yet. So far my wife hasn't noticed the grass out there is showing great signs of distress. tom

I've had pretty good luck with green slime. I know, I know. Half-as*. But in certain situations it has been quite useful: Riding my bicycle in a game refuge, it was impossible to avoid black berry vines on the trails. Green slime in the tires at least enabled a complete trail ride without having to repair leaks on the trail. My 1980 Case backhoe, with 17.5 - 24 ( I think) tires had a slow leak. Take a month or so to flat. Half a gallon of green slime and I only have to top it off about once a year. I'm an old fart, and definitely adverse to wrestling tires that weight twice what I do. I've also used it on riding mower and a small trailer. I would not use it for a high speed vehicle like my truck or car, but in applications where there isn't much to loose, I've been happy with it. tom

I'd run 'em, too. Unless you are riding by yourself way out in the sticks, too far to walk out. I had to ride a dirt bike with a flat rear tire 15 miles back to my truck. Not fun, real squirrely, but going fairly slow, I did not ruin the rim or the tire. Was a dirt road. I paid for school by driving heavy equipment for a gippo outfit. The scraper (earth mover) I drove had very old tires with cracks big enough to stick the first joint of my little finger into. I wouldn't bet on it, but those tires were rated something like 20 or 30 ply rating. The D-8 was always parked for the night on a hill for "coast to start" the next morning. Good times! Tom

Good points. I use mine (in order frequency of use) to get the mail, haul stuff to where ever on our 60 acres I have a project, to haul firewood to the firewood pile from where ever I am cutting firewood, and sometimes just for fun climbing some of our steep hills. These things are all able to be done slower and more tearing up of trails with my '88 pickup, so I'm sticking with the cheap seats with the Hisun. tom

I have no doubt that it could be expensive, so that will mean I'll probably be in "won't get it done" department. I will keep my eyes peeled for a scrapped out unit. As noted, my utv is not a quad, but many of them have much more power than my 450cc engine, so would probably be strong enough. With fully independent suspension, the weight I haul shouldn't be a problem. tom

I have an Axis 500 made by Hisun. I uses a solid rear gearbox with no differential action. I would like to convert this to a true differential with locking ability. I've searched all over trying to find a source with no luck. Has anyone done this before, or know of a source? Thanks, Tom

I had an old Yamaha 250 dirt bike that had the stator crap out. Dealer wanted $300 for it. I couldn't afford that, so I rewound it myself for about $20. I just bought a spool of the same diameter wire, made a jig to attach the part to my wife's sewing machine flywheel, began winding on wire to get the same fill. Worked fine. tom (cheap bastard)

When I was a kid, one of my chores was to polish my Dad's shoes. I always liked the picture of the Kiwi bird on the can of polish. tom

I can confirm that is was a flat six. Mine was the dual carbureted model. A friend had a fancier version with a turbo charger. That was a fast auto. It should be noted that to save $15 per car GM left out an anti-sway bar in the early days. This caused a tendency to roll over in aggressive turns. Ralph Nader wrote a whole book on the topic. GM finally made the required changes, but the car was soon dropped. My buddies car cornered very well. I guess it was an newer model. In my case, I guess it's better to be lucky than smart. tom Here's wikipedia article on the history of the song. https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-of-yankee-doodle-song-lyrics/ Apparently it was written by the British to insult the colonists, but was taken up by the Yanks as a taunt to the Brits. tom

Regarding changing to a higher quality oil after a life of lower quality: Back in 1970 (newly married, and little money) I traded an old farm truck for a early 60s Corvair. I was driving it on the freeway, and a huge bang sound and no drive power. Pulled over, popped the hood, and found a rod poking put of the crankcase. I had recently changed oil. My go to oil was Rotella T, a high detergentcy oil. I later found out that the previous owner had been using a very basic oil with few detergent additives. My take was the higher detergentcy oil loosed some chunks of deposits that then clogged up an oil passage to the failed rod. This is all anecdotal, and I could be way off base, but I would be wary of changing types of oil on an old vehicle. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. tom

I'm with you on testing one thing (connection) at a time. But, I'm impatient. So did 'em all. I figured if the symptom comes back, I'll use the systematic approach. I did examine each connector as I went, but did not see any obvious problem. If the saga continues, I'll update this post. Thanks for the reply, your advise is great. tom

Almost a year on the Lowes-Axis 500. It was dying at idle unless I gave it some throttle. That made shifting into gear result in a big lurching clunk. This problem was intermittent. I first checked the fuel injector. I removed it and let it spray into a coffee can. It made a nice even spray. I used a magnifying lens to examine the nozzle. It had no signs of contamination nor poor geometry. The coil measured a reasonable resistance, and banging it with a screwdriver handle made no difference in coil resistance. Neither did flexing the wires make any change. So I reinstalled the injector and unplgged and repluged every electrical connector in sight of the engine compartment. Yahoo. For over a month now it has been running fine. As an avid tinkerer and builder of electronic projects, I have noticed how many faults turn out to be poor electrical connections. I guess the moral of this story is that before replacing electrically driven parts, check all connections that are remotely related to the system under suspicion. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. tom

Just did y first engine oil change. It was a messy pain in the as*. Access to oil drain is through a small opening in the belly pan. While I like the concept of underside protection, this pan has many holes of varying sizes. There is no way to avoid a gush of oil onto the hand or tool unscrewing the drain plug. Even if you use a really big oil drain pan, it runs out many holes and makes a big mess. The oil filter is even worse. It is located horizontally, near the top of the engine, in a valley. There is no good way to remove it without a mess to clean up. tom

I used to have a 1981 Honda 250 dirt bike. Instead of an oil filter, it had a centrifugal oil separator that caught particles in the oil. You had to remove one of the big case covers to do this. I did it when I first got the bike, (2000), and there was probably a table spoon of debris. It looked like the sludge was mostly clutch lining wear particles with a few metal flakes for decoration. I cleaned it, replaced the side cover, new oil, and rode it another 20 years before I sold it. I don't know if Honda still uses this technique on newer machines. That's why I always like to get the service manual for anything with an engine. tom

Howdy, I'm a mechanical engineer that has been working on, breaking, fiddling with, building, and reading about just about anything with mechanical parts. I have done all my own fixing of stuff since I built my first motor scooter in 7th grade. I was born in 1949, same as my 8N Ford tractor. Consequently I have enjoyed the evolution of technology in so many areas. At 74 I am still having fun learning new things, so this forum will be a great source. tom