5 Essential ATV Mudding Upgrades & Accessories
Who says only kids can enjoy playing in mud? A favorite pastime of ATV owners is what’s known as mudding (or muddin’), and it’s basically playing in the mud for grownups.
Part of the thrill of owning an ATV is to have fun getting dirty with it. There’s a rush that comes with riding your quad through sloshy pits of mud. However, if you’re a beginner at ATV riding, you’ll want to take your time and gain some experience before tackling mud pits. Along with experience, you’ll want to fit your ATV with the proper equipment. Here are 5 essential upgrades and accessories for ATV mudding.
Lift Kit
A lift kit raises your quad’s ground clearance by a couple of inches. Fitting a lift kit to your ATV serves to elevate your ride over nasty obstacles like rocks and tree stumps hidden in the mud.
The extra ground clearance a lift kit provides makes it possible to install taller tires, because the lift upgrade also raises plastics away from the tire. Just don’t raise your ATV too high, because it can have a negative effect on your vehicle’s handling and suspension, which creates instability and poor performance.
Mud Tires
Stock tires on an ATV won’t cut it for serious mudding. Yes, ATV stands for All-Terrain Vehicle, but it doesn’t mean the stock tires it comes with can power through mud pits.
Manufacturers often fit machines with lightweight tires to deliver more power, but stock tires tend to wear quickly and provide insufficient traction for muddy conditions. Mud tires are bigger, thicker and designed to not sink fast into mud. Have thick mud tires with bead lock rims installed on your ATV. But keep in mind how much weight the wheels and tires add to your machine, as heavier tires might take some power away. Also take into account how much weight the mounts can handle.
Clutch Kit
Adding the extra weight of mud tires and rims might overburden the factory clutch your ATV came equipped with, which could damage the belt or overheat your machine.
Upgrade your ATV with an aftermarket clutch kit capable of handling mudding conditions and improving performance beyond what the OEM clutch can withstand. If you’re mechanically adept and can do the installation yourself, a quality clutch puller and spring compressor will come in handy.
Snorkel Kit
A snorkel kit sounds odd for a machine, but even ATVs need to breathe underwater. If you're planning on taking your quad deep into muddy water, you’re going to want to fit a snorkel kit onto your machine.
Allowing mud and the moisture it brings into the exhaust pipe and engine are serious ways to damage your ATV. A snorkel kit includes the parts and hardware such as extended air intakes and outlet exhausts needed to help your ATV survive being submerged in muddy water.
Winch
The snorkel kit protects your ATV’s parts in muddy water, but what about actually pulling your ATV out of it? That’s where winches come in.
A quality winch is more of a necessity than an essential accessory for mud riding. Winches can be mounted on several parts of an ATV’s frame, but depending on where you mount it, you could be facing some challenges for ease of use. Get a multi-mount winch system that allows moving the winch from the front to the back of your ATV. Winches are easy to mount and only require basic wiring skills and tools to install.
These 5 essential ATV mudding upgrades and accessories, along with the proper riding gear, will help prepare both you and your machine for years of muddin’ adventures and memories to come.
