Arctic Cat 400 4X4 (ACT)

Best bang for the buck!

• Currently 4/5 Stars.

by Pfaltzgraph 5 years 167 days 3 hours 56 minutes ago
Pros: Soft suspension, shift indicator, 4x4 selector, halogen lights, ground clearance.
Cons: Poor tires, gas guage, brakes, misleading cc (actually a 371cc)

This is actually a review of the 2002 model. I should begin by stating that I no longer own this machine as I've traded it in for something bigger.

This was my first 4x4 quad. I chose the Arctic Cat for their value. They are a company that is trying to get into the ever expanding world of ATV and need to offer more value for the consumer to consider them.

First off, the engine. It's a suzuki engine and is very solid. I never once had any issues with this engine at all. It always started the first shot in any temperature and never once let me down. I really loved the manual shifting. Arctic Cat is known for their "rocker shifter". It's very similar in design to that of a Harley. Once you put this baby in low gear, the torque was scary. It would crawl over pretty much anything you could throw at it. It was nice to have a visual indicator to tell you what gear you were in. It was simply a lit up LED with the number 1 through 5. I did have to have it replaced once.

The suspension on this machine is amazing. It was so soft and plush that you would swear you were riding on a cloud. The only time this was an issue, was if you tried to do any donuts or crazy riding. The plush seat is one of the most comfortable I've ever ridden on.

Arctic Cat is one of the industry leaders in ground clearance. Even with a solid rear axle, it was one of the highest ridding quads in our group. My model didn't have adjustable suspension, but the next year it was made available.

I truly loved the 4x4 shifter. It is a manual lever that you simply push in to engage the system and pull out to disengage it. No electronics to worry about. It's only flaw is that the simple dash panel has no indicator of your machine being in 4x4 mode. Not really a big deal though.

Ok, now the cons. The brakes really need some work. This company is well known for it's "squeaky" brakes and did they ever prove that with my machine. I was instructed to simply "apply some brake pressure to clear the dust and it will go away". It sure did...for about a minute then started all over again. When they were wet, they really didn't offer much stopping power. Even though they were disk brakes all aournd controlled by a single lever, I still think they could have used some work.

The only other minor issue was the poor gas gauge. It was so horribly inacurate when driving that it would make you crazy. The float was all over the place and you never really had a clue how much gas you really had left. Kinda gave you a surprise if you forgot about it.

Overall, this was a great machine and it served me very well. As I previously stated, I don't own it anymore. I really wanted a big bore engine and that was the only reason I traded up. I would have gone back to Arctic Cat but the biggest they had to offer at the time was a 500 version and the 400 class was really only a 371cc to boot.

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