MY NEW PROSPECTING MACHINE

Gidday guys,

Picked up my new 2 seater quad today. This will get Dad and I round the goldfields of WA next year carrying all our gear, searching for that elusive patch !
500cc water cooled, 4x4, electric winch, about $4000 new.
Cheers,
Rick

Very cool. I like that. And I like the name. Sort of like family.....

$4000 that is a good price i would love one
cheers
stoppsy

Does anyone know how to start these things without the key. We might have to borrow it while Rick is asleep one night
It will be fun doing some after dark bush bashing

Looks great Rick, get some thick goo for the tyres & an el cheapo 12 v pump & its no stoppin ya. cheers albo.

Gday Rick,
I dont want to rain on your Parade mate,but is that a Chinese Quad?
Just a heads up,a mate bought one and took it to Leonora in July. Not an hr off the trailer, the wheel studs all sheared on one of the back wheels
He p*ssed it off quick smart and bought a CAN-AM. No dramas since.
He was just lucky he wasnt going flat stick when the back wheel came off.

Gidday Crusty,

Yes it is Chinese, but bloody well built. I went over them with a fine tooth comb before I bought it, and am satisfied with the build quality.
The Chinese are actually building some good shite now.
A bit like Korea when they first started building cars, but now you can't fault their build quality ! ( Hyundai springs to mind )
I've still got a chinese made generator that is 10 years old and has done many hundreds of hours, with only routine maintenance.
At 1/3 the cost of a Polaris, and for the limited use it will get ( 4 months next year plus some running in ), the Jaguar 500 is excellent value for money ( so long as the wheels don't fall off ! ).

Cheers,
Rick

G,day Rick,ya quad looks great mate but as Gus has pointed out things fall off them, just make sure every nut and bolt is tight and you wont have a problem, mechanical wise they are supposed to be very sound, carnt wait to have a look when ya get over here, Stu

Hey Gus, that will be one big black cat i carnt wait to see Stu

snapper wrote:G,day Rick,ya quad looks great mate but as Gus has pointed out things fall off them, just make sure every nut and bolt is tight and you wont have a problem, mechanical wise they are supposed to be very sound, carnt wait to have a look when ya get over here, Stu

Hey Gus, that will be one big black cat i carnt wait to see Stu

Gidday Stu,
I will be either loc-titing every nut possible, or replacing with nyloc nuts.
I still have more than 6 months to run it in and iron out any problems.
I've heard the same, these new Jaguars are supposed to be very good.
Can't wait to get over to WA, it's been on my to do list for about ten years now !

Cheers,
Rick

snapper wrote:
Hey Gus, that will be one big black cat i carnt wait to see Stu

Touche Stu...Touche!


Gday Rick,
Im sure it will be all good for you Mate. Might pay to take a few spare studs just incase....for both the Quad and the 4by.

Gidday Gus,

Yes, we will be bringing a small crate full of " vital " spare parts, for the quad, the trailer and my old Patrol ( Maverick ), although it will have many new parts on it before we set off.

I have already put new Ironman shocks in, and replaced all the rubber bushes in sway bars, sway bar links, panhard rods etc, and have replaced the standard lower trailing arms with heavy duty models. A new aluminium radiator will be going in soon, new exhaust, new brake calipers all round, new brake flexible lines and new clutch and brake master cylinders. I have also just fitted brand new alloy rims and KM2 mud terrain tyres all round.

Spending some money on the old girl ( 1988 GQ ), but that's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a new one !
Cheers,
Rick

Nice lookin Quad there Rick

But mate, dont forget...........

Every 2-3 secondes your bum is in that seat, equals ONE SWING of tha Tecta your missin out on
And one possible Nugget you just drove over...

:study: (Confucius once say - "Only rubber under me is me Fongs" & "Man who walk through airport door sideways is going to Bangkok")


Pete

Crazy Pete wrote:Nice lookin Quad there Rick

But mate, dont forget...........

Every 2-3 secondes your bum is in that seat, equals ONE SWING of tha Tecta your missin out on
And one possible Nugget you just drove over...


Pete

Yeah, I know Pete, but it sure will help to cover some country looking for juicy ground.
From google earth, I have identified numerous old scrapes and dry blow areas, so we will be able to drive straight to the edges of these on the quad, then fan out from there on foot.
My Dad isn't getting any younger, so what distance from base camp we don't have to do on foot is time saved anyway !

Cheers,
Rick

some country looking for juicy ground.

One thing you can rule out when looking for nice ground over here...its all nice looking. You will need to look for other indicators because iv not seen a bit of ground not worthy of a swing since been here. You'll know what im talking about from the time you turn off at Norsman.

Iv thought about one of those quads, iv even had the pleasure of taking a mates one bush prospecting this season (Honda).
They sure do cover some ground and you can become very reliant on their use. And thats the reason i think thats keeping me from any serious thoughts. The distance you can cover in a very short time is scary.
On average id cover 5-6klm a day walking out from camp.....on the bike i did that in just a few minutes and as you do you keep on looking for ground that looks good. Not being my bike i treated it with much respect, cause the thought of walking back to camp was not comforting should it fail for what ever reason. Remember this when your out their two up or alone.

Your little UHF radio is good for x amount of distance, half it when there is heavy bush/hills. I used a 1Watt Uniden and found its limit was much less when the terrain changed. Id never use/own a UHF that takes AAA batteries either.
I also only NOW use Sonyo Eneloop to power my goodies...UHF GPS and headlights.


I like the look of the ones that use a similar engine to the honda postie...adapting a honda engine for its reliability would be nothing if buying one of these cheaper quads second hand.

Other than the obvious negatives on the use of quads....id still like one.
Amusing myself with thoughts and possibility's.

Nice looking bike Rick.

Nice lookin quad Rick and the old mav looks the goods too.That set up should see ya pull a bit of W.A. yella.

K town swinger wrote:Nice lookin quad Rick and the old mav looks the goods too.That set up should see ya pull a bit of W.A. yella.

Thanks K Town Swinger,
That's the plan !
Good advice too Narrawa.
Some people say they would not go back to WA without a quad, some say they don't need one. Time will tell, I guess, just how valuable it is to Dad and I !
The quad will be set up with a Furuno GP32 GPS and a 9dB gain mobile phone aerial, and we will both be carrying 2 watt UHF radios.
The way I see it at the moment, it will be a help. ( Until it breaks down 5km from camp, then I'll probably throw rocks at it ! )

Cheers,
Rick

Hi rick the chinese ones are ok , the weak point is the the electric side of things .. a bit poor. Get yourself a roll of denso tape & wrap the plugs & anything that looks like it it may get the green death. looks ugly but will save ya dramas up the track. albo.

albo wrote:Hi rick the chinese ones are ok , the weak point is the the electric side of things .. a bit poor. Get yourself a roll of denso tape & wrap the plugs & anything that looks like it it may get the green death. looks ugly but will save ya dramas up the track. albo.

Gidday Albo,
Thanks for the tips. We will be carrying some electrical spare parts like CDI unit, starter solenoid, spark plug, rectifier.
We won't be tare-arsing around either, so it should do the job !
Cheers,
Rick

hi rick
nice set up
to be on the safe side
i think we should test it out for a couple of weeks before you take your dad out, if you cant make it, ill test it out for you.
just tell me where to pick it up from
no need to thank me
cheers john

dilligaf wrote:hi rick
nice set up
to be on the safe side
i think we should test it out for a couple of weeks before you take your dad out, if you cant make it, ill test it out for you.
just tell me where to pick it up from
no need to thank me
cheers john

Gidday John,
As Al would say in that TV show " Home Improvement ", " I don't think so Tim " !!
Nice try though !
BTW, love the name dilligaf, brings back memories of Kevin Bloody Wilson !
Cheers,
Rick

Hi All,

Sorry i havn't kept up with things but now that we have quit the caravan park we should have more time to ourselves

I've had a chinese 150cc quad and boy did i have troubles..anyone been to Gaffney's north of Meeka, we were out there a couple of years ago thinkin we were miles from anyone and as we drove in another car drove in from another direction and we had to share the area, bugger!

Anyways i jumped on the quad and went cruisin way out back, this thing was auto which had a lever for forward and reverse, as i was cruisin along, tears in me eyes, there was this almighty bang and instant stop. I get off and have a look and all the oil was drained out of the rear diff...????,what had happened was the lever had jumped into reverse as i was cruisin all on it's own...bugger!!

I had to walk back for miles and first came to the other guys camp and asked if they could give us a tow back they had a big yammy grissly i think it was and they said no!!!, i was flabbergasted.

I got back to camp and grabbed the cruiser and trailer picked up me quad(i felt like burnig the bastard) and drove back to camp and packed up everything and took off leaving those bastards to it

At home i clamped the casing back together and welded her up and she's like new, although i wouldn't trust my life with it...but waite there's more!!

On the side of ararat's beast there is a vent, alongside that there is a cutout where a cover sticks out, inside that there is two v pulley's these allow a belt thru centrifical force to change the dia of the pulleys, no gears just a constant changing dia. of pulleys to go fast or slow...well these pulleys have counter weights which when the diff went these counterweights jammed in the full on position.

The bike would not start because it was "geared to go flat out", that took a while to find that problem, because it was like a carby problem, now the starter motors got no grunt but at least i can kick start it and the auto choke keeps burning out so i have to pour petrol into the air filter to start her up

The tyres leak air so i had to pour plstic vinyl paint into the rims to get them to seal because it was taking alot off my grease just to seal off the tyre...should i go on!!!!

Chinese, i don't think so!!!

Ron