There has been a very good discovery made with the KQs and shifting from low to high without having to stop. It's not my own discovery, but I liked it so much, I had to share the idea.

The idea was noneother than our own Glenlivet, and he posted this on another site, nyrocatv.com. I did not want to simply offer it up as my own, but I did really want to share it.

Thanks glenlivet for giving me permission to share your tech tips and mods with the Frontier!

This tech tip provided by Glenlivet

Ever been on a ride with other machines of different brands, and when you finish a technical section on your King Quad in low range and are speeding up there comes a time you realize that you will have to shift back to high, but to do that you`ll need to come to a near stop?
No more!
Here`s the simple trick: You keep your speed, pop it straight into neutral, wait a half second, and THEN into high, and the shift occurs just as smooth as glass.
No kidding!

At speeds of 10 Kmh (7 mph) or less you can smoothly downshift the King from high into low as long as you blip the throttle, but low to high has always needed slowing to a crawl to avoid the shifter dogs chattering.
But due to the design of the `transfer case` gears on the King Quad, even at speeds well over 30 Kmh(22 MPH) in low, as long as you zip the lever straight into neutral, give it a half second for the gear to speed up, and then into high, the quad goes into that gear just as smooth as you could ask for.

Here`s why it works: Viscous friction.
As seen in the service manual, section 3-63, the shifter fork doesn`t solidly cram the gear dogs into engagement when you select `high` but rather they are pushed toward engagement by the spring labelled `8` in the diagram. It`s made that way because the King Quad has no manual clutch to disengage the drive. If you try to put it from low into high on the move, this spring makes the dogs chatter away until the speeds match and then it goes into gear. Not very elegant.

But if the shifter is pulled down PAST `high` into neutral then that spring does not immediately try to engage the dogs, and that moment in neutral is enough that the viscous friction of the free high gear speeds it up to the speed of the shaft on which it rides, and high range can be engaged without any fuss or strain. It`s just low-to-neutral quickly, pause a bit and back into high. It works beautifully.

I modified my shifter gate to help with this move. The big tooth on the left side between low and high is removed but the neutral bar was left full width to make it hard to miss. Have fun with it!

i guess that might work on the vinson, its shifter has no "gates" just straight forward and back.Thats one little detail i really like especially when doing alot of forward and reverse movements.

No problem MeYammy.:D
Share away.

I am going to make myself a little rearset shifter shaft extension , so I don't have to reach forward quite so far to shift ranges.
I think that this will not only help me to better see the shaft as it lines along the notches of the shifter gate, without my big old ham hand in the way, but the extra 3 inch or so length ought to make it even easier to select the desired shifter notch just right on the fly.



This is what my shifter gate looks like now that I have trimmed it to where I want.
Notice anything else different? (besides that the ATV needs cleaning, that is)

Yeah.....your quad doesnt run very warm at all.
(Nice job on the jewled piece)

I think the temp guage is one of the smartest things I've seen in a while glenlivet! That is another great idea!

Thanks for letting me share your shift tip!

Cheers,
MeYammy

I just got a new KQ450, took it out once so far, I love everything about it.
Other than shifting from low to high, what about pressing the 4X4 button while on the move, will that adversely effect anything or is it best to stop before switching to 4X?

you don't have to stop to push either the 4 wheel button or the diff lock. Just be sure you aren't under power, spinning the wheels.

Thanks for the response,
when it comes to meshing gears I don't want to make a mistake.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=koI9MqtqXQw

How it's done.

Excellent. Looks mighty easy once you see it in action.

Wicked.

Hi Glenlivet,
Just wanting to know if you have any other pictures you would like to share showing how you mounted the fuel cell and even your rear winch if you don't mind.

s161.photobucket.com/a...ng%20Quad/

You a fabricator Electric Al?

Sweet setup. I only have an 1 1/4" receiver front and back.

doesnt seem to work like that on my 2008 kingquad 400as ??? can ya tell me why ???