Welcome back- My new Argo 950SX testing, comments and feed back

[oz argo]

Very nice rig how did the tires perform in water when facing the other way?

[mightymaxIV]

These new mud tires swim poorly with the V's facing backward and as far as I can tell they don't swim at all facing forward, All the machines I have owned with Adair tracks swim about 2 MPH, 8x8's seem to have a little better swim speed.

[john swenson]

just think...we will see it '' live at busco '' . worth the trip !! j.b.

[mightymaxIV]

I would like to tell you the good and bad of the new machine. One the APS is absolutely super for trail riding or medium mud conditions. The rubber floor mates are great but you have to remove the metal plates to get to the chains. This beast is fast and powerful, I can actually hit the gas on pavement and spin both tracks. FAST! Bad side, the APS is great but in heavy duty mud (really bad stuff) trying to steer the machine brakes one side to the point that it will cause issues requiring you to put a lot more power through your system than you want. Under extreme mud conditions the old Admiral transmission worked better. I was never able to bog my 8x8 or 6x6 Frontier with the old style transmission while they were in low range, however I must say the mud at Busco was the worst I have ever seen. It was the clay type mud that sticks to your tracks and builds up on the body creating a lot of resistance to turning tracks or tires. (Maybe it was just the extreme conditions) (90% of the mud I have run in is watery mud which has never been a problem). Other than little issues the machine is a beast and more fun to drive than any thing I have had. I do miss my MaxIV (those machines require a lot of maintenance but they are fun). Love the 8x8 ride but hate that the machine is so big that you can't man handle it like a MaxIV or a Frontier.

[john swenson]

i got the pleasure of a ride in dan's aurora at busco on saturday as he took me out to the power line area where me and 5 or 6 others











i had the pleasure of riding in dan's new machine when he gave me a ride saturday morning at busco to retrieve my max 2 bogged down at the power lines with 5 or 6 other machines , including ralph's 8 wheel tracked mud ox. the mud was brutal ! my first impression was how fast and smooth it rode . after seeing the mud ox get stuck , i was very nervous about him getting stuck too . but he plowed thru stuff that surprised me , and never got stuck. it's a strong, powerfull machine and very comfortable . thanks dan for your help , sorry it was so hard just to get to that area ! p.s. 2 machines were able to pull me out . i had lost 1 track before and had not known it . johnboy va.

[mightymaxIV]

For anyone who owns one of the new Argo Aurora's, you have probably noticed a loud clunking rattle coming from some where on the left side and from somewhere in the rear area. The noise was driving me crazy. At idle you could hear this loud noise coming from the rear, what the heck??? I thought I dropped something into the tub that was being thrown around by the chains making a banging noise. Well I finally isolated and found out what was making all that noise. Argo has installed a wiring harness that goes down the left side of the machine and into the upper area of the rear tub. This is the harness that supplies power to the rear tail lights, it's a heavy wrapped wiring system and YES IT RATTLES and knocks against the tub! Whew, I thought it was much worse. Whew!

[john swenson]

dan...so glad you found it . it's so hard sometimes to isolate noises in the tub as we all know. hope you come up with a good solution to quiet it down . johnbo va.

[mightymaxIV]

A little video of the fix for the Argo rattle, and some video of me running the Aurora SX around my home.

[Noel Woods]

Thanks for the report Dan. A few little design fixes and your off to the races. Every new machine will have a few design flaws. Probably should have some rubber grommets under the metal flooring to keep the rattling down.
Funny that you used the noodle for the wiring noise, I've used noodles for years between the upper and lower body panels to keep water out and to keep the noise down on the Max vehicles.
That's such a good looking machine, I'm proud that you got it.

[john swenson]

and you have such a fun place to run it right there at your house !! johnboy va.

[mightymaxIV]

Just a little update on my Adair equipped 950 SX. I spent the day at big Nasty running through every mud hole I could find, I didn't get any video because my camera got wet and is acting up. But, I run down some heavy duty swamp trails, went back into the swamp area. I could look at the water in the swamp area and could see that no one had been back there for a LONG time. I was running with several side by sides and quads and of course none of those machines were even willing to try. One guy with a lifted Polaris said he went back there once and couldn't get his machine turned around and was back there for hours trying to get out. Well the Argo performed absolutely flawlessly and went every where I pointed it faster and with greater ease than any other machine I have ever owned. Took the machine swimming and got a guesstimated 2 mph out of it. (It swims better with the tracks then it does with the Argo mud tires)

On the smooth trails with a lot of switch backs I could run my machine faster the quads. The 950 is an incredible trail machine on smooth trails, I could also plow through the mud holes hitting the power before I entered and make short work of holes that were difficult for other machines. Even I was surprised by how fast I could power through difficult situations.

When I got home I parked the machine on a couple of ramps, I was able pull out the front and rear rubber mats, wash them off with a garden hose, wash out the machine inside , open the drain plugs and wash everything out with relative ease. The rubber mates went back in with no sweat, they actually do make clean up easier.

[john swenson]

glad you had such a fun,positive experience with your machine . i'm not surprised after my ride in it that it performed so well . sounds like you got a '' keeper ''. johnboy va.

[teddybear894]

Congrats Dan! Any videos of it with just the tires? Looking forward to the track videos with the 950!

[mightymaxIV]

Congrats Dan! Any videos of it with just the tires? Looking forward to the track videos with the 950!

I went one time with tires, I was very disappointed with the swim speed and I got stuck several times in what I consider very easy holes for an Argo. After that I went straight to the Adair tracks. I can tell you for sure that this machine is a beast with Adair tracks. It eats mud better than any machine I have ever had. There were some excellent mud conditions at Busco by I didn't get any video because the mud was so intense that I was afraid to lose concentration for even a minute. Then my Camera got wet and has been acting up since. I got a new camera today so hopefully I will have some pretty good video up soon. I went to Big Nasty last week and the mud trails were awful but I didn't have another Argo to run with me in the bad stuff. Maybe this week end.

[john swenson]

dan...some guys have all the fun !! but we may be getting 8 to 12 inches of snow this coming middle week, so i'll put the tracks on and be ready for some fun of my own . johnboy va.