Depending on where you are and the engines readily available you may get away reasonable depending on the market for the 18 Vanny.
If you could find a 23-25 Kohler efi or carbed, a 23 Van. or a injected 27 Kawasaki with computer for near what you could get for your Van. with the same clutch you could win.
Having to buy new Kaw. or Kohler with efi and clutch with exhaust would cost. All should bolt in with little to no mods. in a IV.
23 Vanguard is cheapest hp. bolt in and big improvement.
My new beer holder spilled some on the trails - in it's hair and down it's throat.
Joe Camel never does that.
Advice is free, it's the application that costs.
an excellent option for older or lower HP machines is an elevated belt track which provides many benefits, one being an additional gear reduction. For the easiest turning, grouser shape/traction style come into play, but an 18 hp machine more than sufficient. You can also lower your gearing and/or tune your clutch for more low end.
Certain tracks are hard to turn and require lots of HP to do so and also to climb. This isn't true for all tracks though. Remember the biggest benefit of more hp is to be able to go faster under load (which isn't really necessary), or operate with other styles of tracks that need more HP.
What is mandatory is being able to climb a hill, power through a mud hole, or tow a trailer where you want it. If your machine fails on the low end it fails period. On the flip side, if you just cannot go fast or climb a hill with the wrong style of tracks, then yes you might want more power, but I just don't think that's necessary at all. There are simple ways to fix the common track complaints that people have. Just set the machine up correctly. It is definitely not about HP. It's gearing that is by far more important.
I have a Max2 with Adair tracks, 13tooth output sprocket gears (low geared) a red spring clutch, 20hp Kohler, and with that combination of gearing its plenty strong, I've in fact towed stuck vehicles out of many a mud hole that have been stuck badly, and weighed 1500-1700 pounds.
Low geared does mean not fast, I think this machine will hit 20mph, but that's it. But its a real champ in the bog. I think it prefers a 2-5mph swamp to cruise through.
18hp has worked before, I had a Hustler a few years back, it was geared low, tried it with tracks and it was super slow, but performed very well. As long as you aren't in a hurry, gears work great, but a few ponies never hurt anything either.
update after reading comments on this thread and talking to Matt at mudd-ox I made an executive decision. Realizing I don't have enough mechanical skills to buy a used machine with the 18hp engine and replace with bigger engine I bit the bullet and order a new Max IV. drb
Congrats on the purchase of a new Max4, the new ones are very innovative and some of the top machines out there. Which one did you order? The 29hp seems like the top gun machine out there.
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