Age: new Cost: about £2000 Insurance: £240 TPFT Economy: about 60 mpg Good points: inexpensive, lightweight, simple Bad points: long-term reliability uncertain
All set for a day in the woods? Er... in fact I took this photo on
the way back from a trip to the local supermarket to buy groceries.
Quadzilla (a.k.a. Ram, a.k.a. Adly Moto) ATVs are products of Her-Chee
Industrial of Taiwan. Her-Chee is probably one of the better respected
Taiwanese manufacturers, although that isn't saying very much,
to be honest.
The ATV described in this article is significantly cheaper than
the nearest Honda equivalent (probably the Fourtrax 250S),
and has the advantage of being fully
road-legal in the EU, which the Honda is not.
The Quadzilla can be obtained for about £2000, taxed, delivered,
and road-ready. Very few road-going vehciles are available in this price range,
let alone all-terrain road-legal vehicles.
But you get what you pay for, don't you? There are reasons why these ATVs are so
cheap; whether these reasons are sufficient to deter you from buying one depends on
your needs and expectations.
Overview
The Quadzilla 300E SUV is a two-wheel drive ATV with a 280cc engine, chain drive,
and a single-range manual gearbox with five forward gears and one reverse gear.
It is marketed as a `utility' vehicle, and it certainly has `utility' styling.
However, a `sport' version is available
with almost exactly the same characteristics: the `sport' has the same engine, gearbox, wheels,
tyres, suspension, and transmision; it is, in fact, identical except for the bodywork.
In reality, the `sport' and the `utility' models are both a compromise between a true
sports and a true utility ATV, allowing the same major components to be used for both
models. This, of course, reduces costs to the manufacturer.
Is this a bad thing? I would say that it isn't entirely a bad thing. The 300E SUV is
over a foot shorter than the Honda Fourtrax 250S, which makes it more useable in
confined spaces, and perhaps better able to cope with undulating ground. The 300E, as
delivered, has a top speed of about 60mph, compared to about 40mph for the Honda. In
practice, many Quadzilla owners fiddle with the gearing to increase the top speed even
further, as the stock gearing is more suited for `utility' than the `sport' usage. The
300E is quite large enough for me to sit on comfortably -- and I'm 6'5" tall -- but will
fit in a 6'x4' trailer.
On the other hand, the shorter frame does limit the carrying capacity. The front rack,
for example, is not long enough to carry the proverbial bail of hay. What's more, there is
no internal storage space -- not even room under the seat for your lunch. And the list of
desirable `utility' features that is missing from the Quadzilla does not stop there:
there is no fuel gauage, no accessory socket, no oil or temperature warning lights, no
carb heater, no hour counter, and no manual backup starter. Of course, you can fit an
accessory socket for a few pounds in an evening, but fitting a manual starter is a
bigger job altogether.
General handling
The Quadzilla is car-shaped, but has motorcycle-style controls. In particular,
it has foot-operated gears and a hand-operated clutch, along with both foot and
hand bakes. This means that,
although you can, in principle, operate it on the road on a car licence,
unless you're familiar with motorcycles you're going to find the controls extremely
unfamiliar. For my part, I prefer motorcycle-style manual gearing on an ATV,
particularly for towing and negotiating obstructions. And it's almost certainly
easier and cheaper to service than the various automatic systems on offer. But
if you've never ridden a motorcycle, you shouldn't expect to be able to drive
this ATV away from the dealership with only a few minutes' familiarization.
The 300E has five forward gears and one reverse gear. First gear
is very low -- necessary for towing and negotiating steep hills, but not much
use on the road. Engaging reverse is a bit of a pain, and not something you'd
want to do in a hurry. The procedure is to disengage a separate clutch, which is
coupled to the main clutch lever with a button catch thingie, then pull a big lever
on the side of the engine. In practice you then have to engage the clutch(es) slightly
while maintaining tension on the lever, otherwise the reverse gear doesn't
engage properly. You know when it's engaged -- there is a very obvious clonk from
the gearbox. One small, but deeply irritating, observation is that if you
stall in reverse, you can't start the engine even with the clutch pulled
in. I don't know if this is a safety feature -- you can start the engine in
forward gear without restriction. Anyway, it's a real nuisance because, if you
stall, you have to go back into forward gear, start the engine, and do it all
again.
There is a neutral indicator on the control pod because, unlike a car, a motorcycle-type
gearbox gives no positional feedback of the gear selected. You can, as mentioned earlier,
start the vehicle in gear, provided the clutch is pulled in.
Like the gears, the brakes are similar to those on a motorcycle. The similarity in this
case, however, is superficial. On most bikes, the hand lever operates the front
brake, while the foot pedal operates the rear. On the Quadzilla, the foot pedal operates
both front and rear brakes, while the hand lever only operates the rear. In practice
you don't get much braking traction from the rear brake, because the centre of gravity
is usually forward of the midpoint -- even more so under braking action. I think the
hand lever is really only intended as a parking brake: it even says `parking brake' on
it, and there is a catch on the lever that allows it to be locked in the braked position for
parking. I wonder if this arrangement is a concession to car drivers, who are used to
braking with their feet? In any event, you'll need to use the foot brake on the Quadzilla
more than you would on a motorcycle.
The Quadzilla runs on ordinary unleaded petrol, and has a capacity of 8L, which should
be sufficient for at least 80 miles of moderate driving. There is no fuel gauge, but there
is a reserve tank.
On the road
You can buy custom ATV luggage, for a price -- the kind of price that
makes you wonder whether the vendor is having a laugh. Alternatively, you
can bolt on some old ammo crates. Price: six quid each from an army
surplus depot. And, for obvious reasons, they're watertight in a way
that few other things are
I'm not sure whether you `drive' or `ride' a road-legal ATV,
but it doesn't handle like any motorcycle
I've ever ridden. In particular, you can't lean it into corners,
nor can you lean to compensate
for crosswinds. Instead, you have to steer like a car, while shifting your body into
corners or crosswinds to reduce the
tendency of the inside wheels to lift off the ground. This weight shift can be quite pronounced
at high cornering speeds -- you're almost sitting on the heel of the inside foot.
The fact that operating the ATV places physical demands on the rider makes it rather
different from driving a car, too.
This odd handling is a partly a consequence of the fact that the Quadzilla -- like most
ATVs -- has a solid rear axle. There is no differential gear to allow the wheels to
turn at different speeds. But that isn't the only reason: the ATV is only three feet wide,
and the centre of gravity of the vehicle-rider combination is probably four feet above
the axles. Compare this to a typical family car: the centre of gravity is probably
only a few inches above the axle, and the wheels are five feet apart. What this means
in practice is that a car's wheels will almost certainly break traction in a corner
far earlier than the inside wheels will lift. An ATV however, is almost impossible to slide
on a dry road. Its high centre of gravity and narrow axles make for a powerful
levering action that lifts the inside wheels very readily. Ignorance of this basic
principle of physics has led to a number of fatalities, particularly when riding
(or driving) with a passenger. If the passenger does not shift weight in sync with the
driver, the driver alone may not be sufficiently heavy to keep the centre of gravity
over the axles.
The brakes are exceptionally sharp. Combined with the grippiness of the
soft tyres, this means that if you stamp hard on the brake pedal
you can easily pitch
yourself over the handlebars, as I discovered to my annoyance when
a car pulled out in front of me this morning. If you brake harshly when
cornering, you'd better brace yourself for an uncomfortable landing.
Having said all that, I should point out that the Quadzilla is straightforward and
enjoyable to ride on the road if you're in no particular hurry,
once you've got the hang of the weight shift; and
the physical effort makes a pleasant change from sitting in a car.
With a big lummox like me riding it, the practical top speed of the 300E is about 60 mph,
but it's noisy and tiring at this speed. I wouldn't recommend long motorway journeys
unless you had no alternative transport -- it's possible, but not agreeable.
Around town the Quadzilla is practical and highly manoeverable. It's much wider than
a motorbike, so the scope for squeezing between lanes of traffic is reduced, but
not eliminated. Naturally it can be parked in much smaller spaces than a car. Whether
it's reasonable to park in dedicated motorcycle spaces, I'm not sure.
Off the road
The Quadzilla is relatively light compared to the surface area of its
tyres, which are knobbly as well as large and soft. Consequently, it handles
wet, soggy, rutted ground with comparative ease. It is not particularly
easy to handle in such circumstances, but nothing is. The manual clutch
allows fine, incremental control of the power delivery (if you're familiar
with it), so you can pick up speed gradually by inching forward on very
difficult ground. My (limited) experience of ATVs without automatic
gearboxes is that they don't always provide fine control of very low
speeds (but modern ones might be better).
The Quadzilla is able to negotiate pools of standing water about a foot deep,
although care is needed because this submerges the chain and brake disks. It
may tolerate deeper water than this, but I haven't been brave enough to try. The
brake cyliners themselves are sensibly mounted on the highest point of the
disks, so they don't get too wet in normal circumstances. I should point out
that when riding through pools of water, I got absolutely soaked to the skin,
even with my feet up on the front rack.
Because of the chain drive and large rear sprocket, among other things,
the ground clearance is only about six inches. More up-market utility ATVs
typically offer seven to ten inches of clearance.
What's more, because the chain is exposed, there's nothing to stop the chain
and rear sprocket being literally dragged through the mud. This doesn't stop
the machine working, but it won't do the running gear any good. Aftermarket
skid pans are available to reduce this problem, although they might reduce the
ground clearance still further. In practice it is relatively unusual for the
chain and sprocket to hit dirt, simply because they are higher up than the
bottom of the rear tyres.
Because the Quadzilla has a relatively short wheelbase for a utility
vehicle, the comparatively low ground clearance is not really a problem,
where tackling uneven terrain is concerned. It might be more a problem
when negotiating discrete obstacles like logs, but this isn't something
I've had to put to the test yet.
Construction quality, reliability, servicing, etc
There isn't room on the Quadzilla's handlebars to mount accessories.
This accessory bar is made from copper pipe left over from a plumbing
job, and bolts onto the mirror brackets. There's room for my GPS
(not shown) and
radio, and a couple of 12v outlets
It is in these areas that most prospective owners express concern. And understandably so --
Taiwan simply doesn't have the reputation for good build quality that Japan (or Germany,
or even the UK) has. There are very few Quadzilla/Adly/Her-Chee dealerships in the UK,
and no firm guarantee of a good supply of spare parts in future. I believe that all
the major components of the Quadzilla ATVs are custom made at the Her-Chee factory,
including the engine and running gear.
To my (not very expert) eye, the build quality, as such, looks satisfactory. All the nuts and
bolts were tight when delivered, and appear properly sized for their respective jobs.
The frame members seem properly welded and are substantial. The cables
and electrical wiring are properly strapped down; electrical connections are well
sleeved to keep water out.
Nothing has flapped loose or fallen off so far.
Where I am less impressed is in two areas: the quality of the metal parts themselves,
and the evidence of cost-cutting by reducing the number of non-essential components.
As to the first problem, I had a nasty surprise when I removed the bolt holding the horn
to get to the ignition switch wiring (fitting the missing accessory socket!) When I
put the bolt back, the head sheared off when I tightened it. Happily, that particular bolt
was not holding anything but the horn, so it's not a tragedy. But I've never known a
new bolt head shear off before. Old, rusty, gunged up bolts, yes. But not brand-new
shiny ones. To be fair to the manufacturer, there is a table of tightening torques in
the service manual (if you can get one -- more on this point later). But most manufacturers
over-engineer inexpensive parts like nuts and bolts. I'll certainly be more cautious with
the wrench in future, but I hope the bolts that hold the engine in the frame are made
of sterner stuff.
The second problem -- elimination of non-essential components -- manifests itself in
a number of ways. There are, for example, no individual fuses on electrical circuits.
What this means is that a short circuit in, say, an indicator lamp will shut down the
entire electrical system. As previously mentioned, there is no back-up manual starter,
although it appears that earlier versions of the 300E did have one. No tools are
supplied and, even if they were, the vehicle is not provided with even the most
rudimentary servicing instructions. There is no indication, for example,
how to check or adjust the chain tension (or even that it is necessary to do so).
Then there is the issue of servicing and obtaining spare parts. There are places in the UK that
can, and will, do routine servicing on these machines; but there aren't many authorised
Adly/Her-Chee dealers. It is not easy to get spares, where they are for proprietary
components. It's not difficult to get spare brake pads, or bulbs, or matching mirrors;
but there are few dealers who can source a spare crank case or ignition module.
On the positive side, however, the 300E is an extremely simple machine, by modern standards.
If you have some basic tools and a service manual, it's not difficult to do routine
servicing and simple repairs. But you might find it tricky to get a service manual, as I did:
it's not the kind of thing you'll be able to buy in Halfords.
