Interesting Wildcat report!!!

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Thought this was a interesting report!!!


This report is from a Huge Rental Company in silver lake sand dunes michigan!


end of the season for the rental wild cats well made it threw my first summer of renting Wild Cats out for use on Silver Lake Sand Dunes. All the cats made it thew pretty well despite a few hiccup's. In the end between 6 cats "5 rental 1 personal" went thru 72 belts, 14 cages, 11 front lower A arms, a dozen doors, 3 upper A arms, 7 rear suspension links, 2 mufflers per machine, 3 rear rims, 1 front rim, 20 rear wheel studs, 4 tail light assemblies, 2 front drive shafts and input cups on differential, 1 wet clutch per machine and 2 engines "1 lost all oil and seized due to bad seal the other blew a head gasket both covered by Cat and both happened with less than 20 hrs". I know it sounds like a lot but if you consider 5 machines started service in June and ran almost non stop in 90+ degree heat on the sand until last week to the tune of cat#1 5603 mi, cat#2 5389mi, cat#3 4982mi, cat#4 4398mi, cat#5 5436mi obviously a lot of the parts were replaced due to customer damage not really a failure. decided to stick with Wild Cats again next year just new ones. Got an awesome deal on left over 2012's so traded them all in and added a 6th rental for next year even decide to trade my personal one" minus all my add on's" in on a new 2012 to start fresh next year. didn't see enough changes on the 13's to pass up such a good deal on left over 12's. Adding utv inc doors to all machines next year along with their fan control, D&P's clutch fan and either muzzy or yoshi pipes and am already stocked up on belts, cages and arms LOL.

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yeah barely profitable but better than not LOL not getting rich here but enjoying what I do and don't have to punch a clock LOL. warranty covered both motors and the mufflers. customers sign a contract stating they are responsible for any damage that occurs during there rental time so customers covered most of the doors all the cages, all of the A arm's and links along with rims and sheared off studs and tail lights, the rest is the cost of doing business. insurance well that is a no go!!! no one will cover the machines for damage in a rental setting, done looked everywhere most company's just laughed the only insurance on them covers public liability/injury and even that is hard to get and very very pricey but is required by the state to operate rentals on the dunes which is a state park. I do have to say the fact Arctic Cat was still willing to offer a warranty knowing they where going to be used as rentals was a pleasant surprise considering no other manufactures I use will "yamaha, honda, and chrysler"

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the upper arms where bent do to renters hitting things, most of the lowers just bent I believe due to landing on front wheels. I am not upgrading arms on the rentals because I am afraid of damage occurring to frame and mounts instead. almost all AC belts, tried a few other brands in the beginning but saw less life than OEM belts and yes are conditions here are hard on belts our sand is very different than out west very lose. that and the fact I have the rentals throttle stopped at about 45 mph I believe adds to the belt wear and wet clutch wear. I have the D&P clutch kit on my personal machine and it works well and greatly extends belt life but am afraid it will allow the rentals to reach the top of the hills with more speed than I want "most of are renters have no experience driving a SXS or in the dunes so I have to dum them down a little" I have also added D&P clutch blower kits to all the machines but it was toward the end of the season "I did see a noticeable increase in hrs per belt". I am looking at changing the studs, I have the AC steel rock sliders on the rentals so it should be hard to clip rear wheels and every time I had the studs shear off I could find no other damage indicating a hit and the center cap keep the broken studs and lugs and they appeared to be still tight just sheared off flush with the hub? and the stud holes on the wheel where fine not egged out at all? the short belt life is not unusual out here at all my personal machine averaged 10 to 15 hrs before the D&P kit and now averages 50+ which seems to be consistent with other cat owners out here on the sand. I was on stock tires with all machines 8 psi on the rentals 6 psi on mine, I have been waiting for 14" scats for mine sense they came out but am thinking about cancelling them and going for the new 14" STU's for next year and even thou I have been happy with the D&P kit am also going to a WCD on mine in the off season. I am also adding UTV inc fan control kits to everything to help with the high temps we have to run in. the cats may have some issues but held up to the all out abuse they receive as rentals better than anything else tried in the past and even thou customers still mange to roll them over it is much more stable than anything else. all of my rollovers resulted in no serious injuries and all but one where end over end which I believe is manly do to hitting short steep inclines that cause the rear to rebound up and in most case once that happens most customers probably slam on the brakes and over they go. had one barrel roll due to the fact a customer thought he could do a 45 mph power slide on wet sand
next year will be better on profits hopefully due to the fact the full price of the cats had to be payed this year and the trade in price on the new ones is much better, so not starting out in a huge hole on day one
but this is a hard business a ton of over head. in addition to the cats we have 5 rhino powered buggys, 14 jeeps and 15 yamaha 2wd grizzly quads so like I said not starving and enjoying life! getting to spend much more than my fair share of time on the dunes makes it all worth it too

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Author "sandfab"
Location

silver lake sand dunes michigan

Thanks for the report!!!

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We have TWO 2012 Wildcats left in stock Brand New Black and Green your choice $15,750.00 plus taxes!!!