Top Five UTV Maintenance Tips
UTVs are perfect for Powersports and racing across rough terrains but require regular maintenance work. By keeping a complete set of UTV tools ready at hand and upgrading UTV performance parts when necessary, you can avoid lengthy downtimes and expensive repairs. You can ensure that your UTV remains in fine fettle and continues giving peak performance.
Top UTV Maintenance Tips
These UTV maintenance tips may help you with getting reliable performance from your UTV:
1. Maintain the UTV drive belt
The UTV drive belt is a crucial part that transfers power from the engine to the transmission via the clutch. It needs to be in excellent condition, with proper clutch calibration, to ensure smooth shift function and correct drive gear engagement. You can extend the drive belt life by operating the vehicle correctly. Additionally, you can adjust and change the belt’s deflection to keep it in good shape.
By checking the UTV belt frequently, you can find visible wear and tear signs such as breaks, cracks, glazing, and abrasion and determine if the drive belt needs replacing. You can then replace it before it breaks down and prevent various maintenance issues that might otherwise arise.
2. Check the oil and coolant levels
It is a good idea to get in the habit of checking the oil and coolant levels of your UTV before going out on a drive. If the levels are too low, you need to replenish them before setting out. A low oil level can over-strain the engine, and a low coolant level can prevent it from cooling adequately. That could cause the engine to seize up and die away at the most inappropriate time. Apart from stranding you in a distant location, it could also put your UTV out of action until you can get costly repairs done.
Rather than let things get to that pass, adopt the preventive measure of checking the fluid levels routinely. You may need to change the engine oil more frequently than the gear case and transmission oils and the coolant fluids every few years, depending on what the UTV manufacturer recommends and how hard you drive the vehicle.
3. Lubricate the joints and fittings
Refer to your UTV’s service manual about which lubricant you should use and find the exact locations of the grease fittings. By applying the correct lubrication periodically to your UTV’s grease fittings, you can ensure that its different parts like the ball joints, wheel bearings, bushings, A-Arms, driveline connections, and front and rear sway bars remain well-lubricated. If the ball joints, bearings, and bushings show signs of wear, you can replace them.
Regular maintenance work will keep the suspension system in excellent form and give you a smooth drive. The frequency of greasing the parts depends on how often you ride the UTV and in what environment.
4. Examine the brakes
Checking the brakes and making sure they work is an essential safety measure that you should never overlook. The last thing you need when you are out and about in your UTV is brakes that fail and hurtle you from an off-road adventure into an off-road accident. Using your UTV toolkit, you need to routinely check the UTV brake rotors, brake pads, brake calipers, brake and speed sensors, brake fluid, and brake lines.
You will need to fix or replace these UTV performance parts if there are any obvious signs of wear and tear, such as thinning, holes, grooves, or loosened parts. Replace the brake fluid as per the manufacturer’s service manual recommendation.
5. Clean or replace the air filter
Maintaining the air filter is a simple matter, but it often gets overlooked. Accumulation of dust and dirt is inevitable when driving your UTC, and if you do not clean or replace the air filter, it can negatively impact the engine function. By creating a regular schedule for checking the air filter, you can keep up the vehicle’s performance.
Most UTVs have serviceable foam or pleated air filters that you can clean and oil to keep in good shape, or non-serviceable air filters that you have to replace when they get too dirty. You might also want to fit your UTV with outerwear to give it extra protection from dirt particles.