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high or low gear question for windrock in Tennessee

1302 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  commanderjjones
I have a 400 ranger which should be real similar to the 500 rangers. those that have rode windrock know there are a lot of gravel roads, some flat and some with some grade like climbing to windmills. or the paved road up the mountain. should my 400 be able to climbed the paved road or the gravel to the windmills in high range? how can I tell if high range is too much? I always use low on trails and such, but low is just too short on the gravel roads. the flatter sections I know high is fine, but when I start climbing how do I know when I am pushing too hard and risking burning or blowing the belt? or does the 400 have enough power to smoke a belt? I don't have a tach, and use a GPS for speed. is there a minimum speed for climbing in high range? anybody have any insight??. low tops out roughly 15mph, and is painfully slow running some of the gravel roads, so the reason I want to run high if it's not too hard on the belt.

thanks!! Chris
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Chris, on my 800, the dealer told me 20 mph or below to use low. If your low seems to top out at 15 you should be good anything over that speed.
I really never had a shortage of power with my 400, your best off keeping the RPMs up in the power band and engage the clutch on grades with a bit of enthusiasm

Cheers
I'm not sure about the power of the 400. I'm very familiar with Windrock and where you're talking about (G1 up to the windmills) and I can tell you that the belt will get pretty dang hot in high range. I recently installed a temp gauge in my clutch housing so I could see what was going on before adding 30" tires, and after I added a DDP clutch kit. Even with my '12 RZR4XP in stock form, the belt would get hot enough at moderate throttle levels to be on the verge of belt failure. I would speculate that I could easily blow a belt if I ran it wide open. Of course, then you'd be exceeding the 15 mph speed limit, so.......

The 30" tires obviously made it worse. Adding the DDP clutch kit helped greatly, but you still have to be moderate with the throttle in high range under long, steep grades like that.

Knowing that the 400 is a little light on power and knowing the grade, I would probably keep it in low range if you want to spare the belt. JMO
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