I see from a lot of the pictures on here that very few ARGOS have roll Bars and almost all Max and many other brands have them so my question ? are ARGOS more stable and most of you feel they are not necessary or is there some other reason , my kids are going out more by themselves now and I am wondering if a roll bar is needed or just more for looks , I am really looking for your honest opinion .
i think it's more a matter of oppinion and how each person will use a machine. my argo doesn't go anywhere fast, so i didn't put rollbar at the top of the list for it (although it will get one eventually) my Attex will probably go fast better than it willl do anything else, so the cage is a high priority. just my 2 cents, kids + AATV = need for rollbar and belts
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
amen race . jest depends how and where you use it . me i have turned my max II over a bunch of times . but i put it in places i know that it a good possibily it will turn over so i know it needed one my max IV will probley see it soon enought . so it got one asap . rool bars save lives with seat belts . robbieOriginally Posted by racerone3
1999 max 2 18 b&s 22 tires custom . new max iv 23 k 26 i/n tires brown . ht cable promark winch . new toy 1972 attex st400 400ccjlo and she will be bad . ( the frog )if it don't float with out you getting wet . don't bring it !
R.I.P sage rogers 4 11 09 .
Depending on your riding conditions, rollbars can be good or bad. I have seen guys hurt VERY bad, and almost killed, on several occasions, becouse they had rollbars on their machines.
Some of the trails we ride have lots of bent and broken trees. The following examples hit pretty close to home for me:
I was riding with a friend, he had rollbars. He drove over a stick, that "kicked up" the tip of a small, pushed over Spruce tree. The Spruce tree tip was caught inside one of the forward rollcage bars. Before the driver knew what happened, the tree had DRIVEN into the passenger area of the Argo, straigh at the base of my throat. Shear LUCK and INSTINCT brought my hand up enough to deflect the stick just enough to miss my throat (It DID drive through the collar of my t-shirt and scrape my neck). Driver catches the action out of the cornner of his eye, and slammed on the brakes. I was holding the tree away from my neck, the tip was at least 2 feet past me, and almost jammed into the eye of the drivers wife (She was sitting behind the driver)
Another VERY similar incident happened to a friend, although he was not so lucky. While driving his machine a "redirected" tree DID drive through his neck. The pain was enough to cause him to pass-out, he woke up about 2 hrs later with his dog licking his face. He still had the tree through his neck, it was kinda keeping him propped up in the seat. The FOOL, broke off the end of the tree, then pulled it out of his neck. He made it to the hospitol, and has fully recovered, but has massive scars. The doc said he missed his jugular vien by 1 mm (less than 1/16")
This one scared me the most:
Driving my Argo, (I had my top on, I don't have a rollcage) I had the end of a tree drive into the fabric of the passenger side. I was going slow, and watching for just this kind of thing, but by the time I stopped, the end of the tree had driven into the back of the Argo and stopped within about 2 inches of the side of my 10month old daughters head (She was strapped into her carseat, behind me).
I don't know of anyone that runs a rollcage up here anymore.
Argo's are not impossible to roll, but where I ride you would really have to work at it (within reason, of course). My view is that "Youngsters" should be supervised untill they are good enough to keep the machine out of that kind of situation to begin with.
On a less serious note, I have found that rollbars are nothing more than a PITA when trying to navigate a tight trail, hanging you up in the trees all the time.
I find that Argo's ARE very stable, and it seems to me that most drivers will "Chicken out" long before the machine is in danger of rollover.
Nothing more than my 2 bits
Take it easy, and be safe
RD
I,ve had thoughts some times of removing the factory roll bar off of my Max IV when I could not drive under a fallen tree or a large tree limb hanging down because of the roll bar. But , at other times the roll bar on my Max IV is a big advantage when I,m trying to drive through a thick mud hole with little water on top of it. At times like this I,ve hung off the sides of my roll bar, locked my throttle on with a zip tie , and used the roll bar for leverage. So for me , my roll bar is more of an advantage than a disadvantage.
some interesting views , I would like to hear from some other ARGO owners as to how they feel about the stability of thier machines , as I stated in the original post I do not see many ARGOs with roll bars and I am only guessing it is because they feel the machines don't need them as badly as other machines ????
And helmets and training
I would say that there are two forces at work here; one is the argocat that has in the sales brochure a figure quoted regarding the % of gradient that the machine is capable (safely) of traversing. But then we all know that in actual fact the machine is capable of far more than that. Then we have the second part which is the driver who may be quite confident of the machines and his own ability up to a certain point, which may be similar to the figures quoted in the sales brochure. It follows that there must be hundreds of machines that have never been stretched to their limit and likewise many who have operators who regularly put their machines in situations that many others would never dream of attempting. The type of terrain that the machine has to regularly operate on will surely be the deciding factor as to having a ROPS fitted or not.
I have seen a few track vehicles tip over that had ROPS fitted and at least one that killed the driver, I have however never seen an Argocat upside down and no I dont have a ROPS fitted.
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