Proper Winching & Recovery

BEFORE YOU PULL! Practice using your winch before you get stuck. A real situation is no time to be learning how to use your winch. Make sure new wire rope is stretched before it is first used. Unspool the full length of the wire rope, leaving 5 wraps on the drum. Apply at least 500 pounds of tension.You can do this by setting up an anchor point and pulling your vehicle to it on a slightly inclined, flat surface and letting the vehicle roll. Whether you’re recovering another vehicle or pu...

-Only repair Polyethylene with Polyethylene -Heat an iron to 475-525 degrees -Apply heated iron to both surfaces simultaneously(one side of iron to damaged body and one side to repair piece) -Be sure not to melt completely through the surface to be repaired -A 1/8 inch bead around the edge of the iron is what you want to achieve -After both surfaces get a good melt, press together with 50lbs of pressure and hold for approximately 30 seconds or until cool *BE SURE NOT TO BURN YOURSELF WITH THE IRON ...

Max II - Axle and Bearing Replacement If you own an amphibious ATV for any length of time you will probably have to replace a bad bearing or bent axle especially if the machine is older and hasn’t been maintained properly. For first timers bearing or axle replacement can be a daunting task but it is really very simple (and rewarding). This article will walk you through the steps to replace an axle and the bearings in a Max II. While this article is specific to the max, the basic principles ...

This first thing you do is disassemble the entire car. That's about a 20 minute job. Right now is the time to sandblast the frame & take care of any other maintenance problems. You will keep the same inner bearings, but the outer bearings will be the 62 mm O.D. (early Max bearings). If you want to do this conversion, you will need 2 drilling fixtures. One to drill the frame & one to drill the body.

With the frame out of the car, you bolt the frame fixture down with the 2 allen hea...

Max II 6x6 ATVs – Chain Guide Replacement The Recreative Industries Max II 6x6 ATV utilizes four Teflon chain guides to apply tension to the chains. These can wear out over time and will need to be replaced. You can replace the complete assembly but you can also save yourself some cash and just replace the Teflon. This article will walk you through the simple steps to do just that. While this article is specific to the Max II, it may also be applicable to other AATVs as well. At the ...

My goal for this modification was to get rid of the eccentric collars and setscrew type bearings due to failure problems. I have an older Max IV and have the smaller bearings so the thin wall on the eccentric part is problematic. My second consideration was to keep the axles fairly easy to remove. At first I looked into trying to upgrade to larger bearings but I couldn’t find an easy way to upgrade them. Also the setscrews always seem to cause huge problems when they rust in place. Anyone who...

Types of configuration: 1. Direct inline control. This means the switch carries the total current supplied to your winch (this means bulky cables and possibly less torque capacity of your winch). 2. Indirect control by means of current amplification. This basically means that you put an amplifer close to your winch so that the amperage needed by your winch does not have to go through your directional switch. Some current amplifiers are called relays, solenoids or solidstate (transistors, mosfets.....

I've just about put the finishing touches on the poly skid plate on the Chief. The bottom was cracked in a few spots, and quite frankly, I feel there is no "ultimate fix" to a cracked bottom of you want it to be waterproof, and want to be able to actually use an AATV for its intended purpose. Other fixes include riveting steel to the body(heavy), using fiberglass resin and mat (OK, but doesn't stand up to abuse well) and other methods, but I wanted something that would really take what I wanted...

Amphibious ATVs – How to make your own seat! This article will walk you through the steps necessary to recover/restore a Max II seat. While some parts of this article are specific to a Max II, it will also apply to most other machines as well. Just a quick note before we start. I replaced every part of my seat but you can of course reuse as much or as little of your original seat that you want. Also, the materials that I chose to use vary from the factory application but I thought they woul...

I picked up a Hustler 980 BIGFOOT and I noticed that I had a little problem on my hands. The upper body was faded so bad on the hood that it was white (I believe it was because someone was sloppy when they poured gas in it because it was all around the fuel tank hole........let this be a lesson to you, be cautious when fueling up your 6x6). I was going to just try and locate a different upper body. I got a tip from Don on the forum here that said he got the oxidation out of a polyethelene body...

Borg Warner T20 Transmission Rebuild A large percentage of 6 wheelers utilized the Borg Warner / Skid Steer T20 transmission. While they are virtually indestructible when properly maintained many of these skid steer transmissions have been around for over 30 years. It is only natural that at some point in their life whether it is due to improper maintenance or old age, they will need new seals, bands, drums, o-rings, or bearings. This article will walk you through a tear-down and re...

How-To rebuild your Salsbury Clutch Salsbury was a very popular brand of clutch system for many of the amphibious ATVs from the 1960s to around 1980 when they closed up shop. Attex, Hustler, Scrambler and Max used them on at least some of their models, and I'm sure more of the lesser known machines used Salsbury as well. Attex used model 910 for the ST400, Chief, Thunderchief and Superchief and the 780 for most of it's single cylinder two-strokes. I'll try and be clear on how to do a...

If you have a control stick that is sticky or hard to move it is probably the caliper. Unhook the controls near the caliper and try to move it by hand. If it is difficult then the caliper should be removed and cleaned.

To remove the caliper you need to remove the transmission and the transmission cradle. When the transmission cradle is out you can see the calipers are attached with pins.

Here is a picture of underside the cradle showing the pins the caliper is ...

To dismantle the 7000 you have to first remove it from the machine. Best way is to leave the base in the machine and remove the transmission by removing the 8 bolts on top. That makes it easier to get out by reducing the weight. You should probably have a helper there to hand it to while you are inside the machine taking it out. Once it is out and you have drained the oil, you have to remove the planetary (brake/drive rotors) on the drive side (side with the pulley). Not easy but the good ne...

T20 Skid Steer Transmission Removal

This article walks you through the steps to remove a T20 from a Max II. While some points in this article are specific to the Max II, the general process applies to most AATVs that used the T20. I have done things slightly different than the factory recommends so let me post their instructions first. Here is the service bulletin directly from Recreative Industries:



Let’s Begin Unbolt the upper b...