My new Argo Frontier

[GREASEMONKEY]

I have swapped out to an optima yellow top battery & 35lb thrust trolling motor. I looked into the outboard, but due to price of a 4stroke 6.5hp I shyd away from the idea. I was looking into a 4stroke for fuel, no spare tank & mixed fuel for me to confuse. The 4stroke runs on regular gass, and could be piggybacked onto the existing tank! With a good outboard running upwards of $1000 it's not worth it for me. I never get in open water though! The trolling motor will push you along at about 10mph. Battery, and motor I have about $300 invested!

Hope my 2cents helps!

[GREASEMONKEY]

BTW, my buddy has an argo with a 9hp outboard & ended up doing a good bit of reinforcing to stop the body flex!

[Silverbullet75]

Thanks for all the great info!

I adjusted the carb... purrs like a kitten now!
One question though... what's the deal with the backfire after shutoff? I had the same thing with my old riding mower w/8hp Briggs.

One thing I'm not too happy about is the chain tensioning system. It keeps going "wierd".

[RKlingborg]

what do ya mean weired, My right side chain hits some wear. the mecanic at the dealer sead to put it up on the rack <like my boss would let me> and tightened the chain.

[Silverbullet75]

Yup. Same thing. I do what the manual says and pull up on the chain tensioner to manually adjust it, but I'm not sure if it worked or not... (That mechanism is so... Mickey Mouse... to me. Why couldn't they do a hydraulic cylinder style, (like an engine chain tensioner)? BTW... I do admit... I did not have it off the wheels like the manual says.
Oh.. and also, my main chains (I forget the name of them) from the tranny to the brakes, went WAY slacked last week. Had to break out the breaker-bar and a 24mm to fix that. I guess this kinda stuff is normal... the manual warns about it in quite a few places... I just hope it reduces in frequency.

Can you veterans chime in? Is this a normal practice?... tightening/adjusting chains a lot...
Thanks!
---JIM---

[Roger S]

Can't say about the frontier but argo in general, you have to keep an eye on all that stuff. The primary chains off the trans, need to be kept adjusted. And lubed.. with a non slinging lube that won't get on the brake rotors. Someone else might have advice on the chain adjusters.

[MaxRules]

How many hours are on your Frontier? It takes many hours of running to even allow the chain adjusters to begin taking up slack. Sometimes the adjusters might stick in place (rarely) but other than that, they will take care of themselves. I've heard of a few vehicles getting very loose drive chains with low hours on the meter. However on most Argos, these chains require very little attention. I'm not sure how these hit and miss chain slack issues are popping up.

[Silverbullet75]

There are only 8 hours on it. The manual says to check it after the first 2 hours for slack. It says it'll do a "banging" noise... which it did/sometimes does. I'm hoping I'm just being paranoid due to inexperience with chain-driven vehicles... just cautious... I hope.

[Silverbullet75]

Hi,
I just did a really easy and effective mod for the center wheels chain tensioner. I added a "helper spring" to the original spring that lifts the plastic block to give chain tension. It's the small coil-type "puller" spring that's attached to the frame member and the original spring...
So far, it works great... but is untested as of yet. I'll let y'all know if it holds

How do I add a video clip? I have a question and want to show my unresolved chain tension problems...

Thanks!
---JIM---

[Mike]

If you have a clip, upload it to youtube, google, etc and then once it's uploaded where you can view it on their site just copy that link and paste it in your post here...that simple!