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NW Iowa. / SW Arizona | I have a Arctic Cat & Honda 4 wheelers & always use the OEM special high priced oil & filters. I'm just curious what everybody else uses. Off brand or OEM ? |
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Mid-Missouri | Have always used original, which would be the Honda oil, but with a new Grizzly I will be putting in Amsoil front to back after it is broke in. IMO, considering how low cost (maintenance/repairs) our ATV's are, I don't complain about the oil and filter cost, although the Rubicon does take alot of oil, about more than a 350 GM iirc. |
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Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | For us that is Honda. With the oil protecting engine, wet clutch and transmission , which requires a special additive package to do all three jobs, I don't even think of trying to save a buck by using something that MAY not be compatable.
Where I wish I could substitute, is to exchange that darn oiled foam air filter for a good paper filter, but I have not found anything avalible for it.
Edited by Jon Hagen 5/20/2011 19:47
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Near-north Ontario, French River | I've got a 2000 Arctic Cat500 manual shift. It gets the same oil as the pickup and tractors, 15w40. Get my filters at the local car parts store, they just cross referenced with AC number. |
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SE Michigan | Local auto parts store (pep boys, o_reillys, ect) carries Valvoline or other bransd allot cheaper then Honda oil, Just get the MA clasification oil.
I use Honda filters, know that they are more expensive, but use the "name brand" filters on all my stuff.
Edited by BBfarms 5/20/2011 12:43
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Mid-Missouri | Like Jon said, I would recommend the more factory oil. If it has a wet clutch, definately. |
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| In the past I've used regular engine oil on my quads, but I've been using a motorcycle specific oil on my motorcycle, mainly for the additives used to handle wet clutches. I just started using Lucas because it is what the local auto store carries. Seems to have worked pretty well so far. |
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North Central Missouri | 10w30 castrol here but that's for no wet clutch or anything like some has said. if that was the case I'd probably go factory. |
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E SD | Genuine Honda GN-4 for all my Honda machines.
I have an old fourtrax that has to be pushing 30K in miles, a foreman right around 11k, and rancher & rubicon still getting broke in. I don't plan on using anything other than oem approved fluids/filters.
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MN | do not use car oil in atvs. it will screw up the clutch |
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Near-north Ontario, French River | Never had a clutch problem or any kind of engine problem using straight 15w40 after +3500 miles . When I bought the bike I don't think synthetics even existed. |
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| You can use the same motor oil as your car/pickup in the motor , in the trans with wet clutch use ATF or hyd fluid. there's nothing "special" about an ATV/MC engine that requires special oils.
They have the same type bearings , seals , clutch packs as your other farm machinery |
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Columbia Basin, Ephrata, WA | The same 15-40 engine oil that we put in everything else including the pickups, been doing that for 15 years. ATVs in that time include several Hondas (utility and sport), a couple Yamahas, and my DS 650 which is about as hard on clutches as any.
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Mid-Missouri | So I should mix car/pickup oil and ATF and hyd fluid together and put in the fourwheeler? The atv shares its oil between the wet clutch, transmission, and engine.
I think I will stick to the specified oil types. |
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Mid-Missouri | 3500 miles is not a long term study to determine what motor oil to use IMO. I expect much longer life from an ATV than anything near 3500 miles.
Again, I see no harm in using something with the proper "rating" for the machine in question, whether it be name brand or other. Not that it matters to others, but if I were in the market for a used fourwheeler and knew it had been running on 15-40 diesel engine oil, I would not consider it unless it was priced accordingly. |
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Near-north Ontario, French River | From the ArcticCat manual, 2000 ATV 500 4x4 manual transmission. No mention of need for special synthetic oils, just plain old SAE 10w40. If you choose to run synthetic there's nothing wrong with that either. 3500 miles may not be a 'long term' trial in your eyes, but it's plenty long enough to cause problems if I was using the wrong oil. I can see the need for special oil in some of the Honda because they essentially operate as a hyrdrostatic tranny/motor combo but your everyday manual shift tranny in an ATV will run just fine on stock 4 stroke engine oil.
Edited by Thud 5/20/2011 16:50
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| seedcleaner - 5/20/2011 14:46
So I should mix car/pickup oil and ATF and hyd fluid together and put in the fourwheeler? The atv shares its oil between the wet clutch, transmission, and engine.
I think I will stick to the specified oil types.
If that's what you do in your other equip. go ahead. |
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| "Plain old 10W40" is getting tougher to find in some brands. I've always used 10W40 in summer my pickups, cars, and other gas engines for a long time. Last couple cases I've bought 10W30 instead of 10W40.
My Polaris ATV is a 2-stroke. I used to use the OEM mineral oil and then their synthetic. After overhauling the engine I came to the conclusion that I might as well buy whatever TCW-3 rated 2-cycle oil I can get cheapest. One local farm store reliably stocks Mercury Marine Quicksilver and another stocks Valvoline. I even bought a jug of Walmart oil the other day.
I do have factory synthetic oil in the transmission, for now.
Edited by John SD 5/20/2011 17:49
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Sheridan, IL | mobil 10w30 synthetic carquest filter. hard 5200mi. |
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Statesville, NC | Shell rotella T 15w40 now has motorcycle MA on the label. |
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Statesville, NC | If it has a wet clutch in the engine oil, most important is to use a MA spec oil. That is the Japanese motorcycle spec. Do not use any oil that says "energy conserving" on the label. The additives in the "energy conserving" oils can cause wet clutches to slip or fail prematurely. Shell rotella 15w40 now meets MA specs, and there are others. Most gasoline only spec car oils do not meet the MA spec. |
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Ontario | Have always used the same stuff I put in all the tractors for 25 years and never had a problem.
15w40 petrocan. |
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| I use a synthetic motor oil, valvoline . The book for my Rancher says to not use an oil with Molybdenum in it because of the clutches, it is electric shift. I use Delo 15-40 in everything else, but I strongly suspect that it has Moly in it, what makes it so good.!!!!!!!! so I went to a synthetic on the bike. |
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W C Illinios | Use FS 15W-40 in everything but the big V-twin it gets 20W-50 Castrol 4T |
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NW Iowa. / SW Arizona | Thanks for all the comments. Interesting reading. FYI I had to stop at Honda yesterday to get some oil & filter for my Rubican. This is what it cost to change just the oil. It takes 5 qts. of oil.
1 gallon of GN4 10-40 $22.50
1 qt. of GN4 10-40 $5.89
1 oil filter $11.98
Plus tax 7% $2.83
Total $43.20
Kind of high but will continue to use it. It's no different then any other sport related activity. They know they can charge you more for their products & people will pay it.
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MN | Ive been racing quads for 7 or 8 years now and been around it for most of my life and I have seen a lot of good motors blown up by using cheap oil and clutches burnt by using car oil from walmart. You might as well just run good ATV specific synthetic. Its not like your machine is using 5 gallons of oil, usually around 2 liters at 10 bucks a liter, not gonna break the bank.
Edited by bpreuss 5/24/2011 10:01
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What oil do you put in your 4 wheelers?
