XATV Yama 400 Buggy Review

Posts: 2641

Awesome amp and speaks!!! lol...

FYI... did you know you can post multiple pix in a post?

lol.. After you click attach when you selected a pic, the screen loads the pic, and a second box appears to add another pic. You can add up to 5 in one post!

I also wanted to see how you got that amp wired and where is the stereo??? What about water????

John Very Happy

Posts: 113

Guess he hasn't woke up yet. Surprised

Posts: 113

Guess he hasn't woke up yet. Surprised

Posts: 18

Sorry for the delay, I got caught up in a unscheduled diversion. Here is the beginning of my review... based on my initial experiences of course.

First off, let me say that I don't have any experience with other buggys or atvs for that matter. The exception being that I grew up riding an early 80s Suziki 125 Quad and Honda 100cc dirt bikes.

Over 20 years ago...

Anyway, I chose a buggy because I wanted something that I could get my wife into and hopefully allow her to share and enjoy this hobby with me.

Other requirements where size and the trailer it will fit on. (I live in an apartment and the trailer and buggy have to fit into my garage.)

I did lots of research looking for the right ride. Almost everything was to big for my garage. My budget was 3-8k, maybe more if I found something perfect, but some like a RZR would have been too tall on the trailer to fit in the garage. So... I was never tempted.

A couple of the factors heavily considered in my decision where (In this order)
1) Quality. I would have paided 3k more for a similar buggy made in the US with quality parts.

2) Ride. This is something I want my wife to participate in and enjoy with me. If it has a harsh ride the wife will not have a good time. If the wife is unhappy, no one is happy.

3) Performance. I wanted something quick and toruqey. Because I live in NC (with hills) it needed to be able to climb decently.

So... Goal 1 is was not really accomplished. Is it a Chinese Kart and is built like such. Despite the video I saw where the guy is at the factory and applies lock tight to a bolt while claiming all the bolts have lock tight, this kart doesn't appear to have any on the external bolts. Not even on the steering linkage.

Things like finger tight bolts and screws not screwed all the way in where common. One bolt was even stripped. Fortunately there where 6 more holding that half of the bottom skid plate on.
The steering was out and I had to adjust the tie rods. I removed nearly all the bolts and applied lock tight. Some of the ones I skipped have already loosened. The wheels have not bolted on right since day one. I just noticed that the lug nuts are not drilled in the center and I suspect that is causing the issues. I plan on getting new ones tomorrow. Hopefully that will fix this.

Having said all of this, I am fairly handy with a wrench and I really am not disappointed. I have come to expect things like this from these Chinese karts.

Also note worthy, I don't intend on really being hard on the buggy. Unlike some of the stories / videos I have seen, I don't intend on getting the thing really wet and muddy. Hopefully this will keep the issues to a minimum. Time will tell.

Another thing to mention was that I draind the oil after about 2 hours riding time to swap it out. In the oil was a tremendous amount of debris. It looks almost like a gasket deteriated or some thing along those lines. The material wasn't hard enough to score the cylinder wall but it is still a concern of mine. Not sure what the deal is.

The cart also arrived damaged from shipping? They are looking into replacing those parts now.

Second on the list was ride. Wow, I am impressed! My nephew has a 6hp go kart with poor suspension. That thing rides like crap and I was really concerned with how my choice would handle bumps. When asking dealers they said all the bigger carts ride about the same. The only thing I could find for reference was a few videos and the suspension looked softer to me than 250s out there.

The XATV rides awesome in my opinion. Perfect for my wife to enjoy it, and that says ALOT!
How ever, I did bottom out the travel on the front right wheel once. No biggie as I know the limits now. If it where my opinion only I might tighten up the suspension a hair (which can be done with a wrench) and sacrifice the ride for more sporty handling.

Third is performance. I really wanted to get something that I wouldn't out grow over night. Again, I am really happy with the performance. Of course more cc's would be better. However, the Buggy accelerates quickly and goes faster than you should be going through the woods. On packed dirt I was flying by nearly all quads around me. (Families and joy riders mostly but still, power and performance is a non issue)

Oh yeah, and it is a climber too. In the power band and in 1st gear, I would probably flip the thing backwards or loose traction before running out of torque. Shallow hills seemed fine for 2-3 gears.

Bottom line,
This thing is awesome. Get a metric socket set and prepare to hit the maintenance issues I have mentioned and then prepare to blast off! If the manufacture keeps parts on hand, the buggy is going to be great!

Gullie

Posts: 18

Posts: 64

Looking good for sure. Can I ask what you paid for this? Did you have to assemble it? Have you checked out the rear diff yet? I have the same buggy and my rear diff had about 1.5 oz of black looking water in it. I drained it replaced with 85/140. Does your fuel gauge work? I have one in the dash but it always reads zero (1 bar) as I am unable to locate the sending unit for it. Even the docs I have for this do not show me this. I have emails into my supplier on these things now. Just wondered what your experiance is with these items.

Dig the tunes but I get mine wet running down the riverbeds and such so this would not work for me.

Thanks!

Posts: 64

one more question. Is your A arms round tubing our square?

Thanks again.

Posts: 18

I bought it from Awesome buggy about 1 week before they raised the price from 5k to 5.5k.

It arrived in a crate and I assembled as much of it as you would have to assemble any crated buggy. Wheels, top of the roll cage, etc.

I took heed to your warning and drained the oil from the rear differential. It all looked normal to me. I replaced it with marine 85w/90SAE weight lower unit gear oil.

Have you driven the buggy in water that was over the rear differential? If it was leaking, you would get water in there.

The fuel tank on mine doesn't have a sending unit either. I have spoken with the retailer and they are going to send a new fule tank and sending unit out.

The A-Arms are tubes.

Gullie

Posts: 64

I went out for ride a few weeks back to a place here in Arizona called four peaks and wound up in a river bed, but nothing over the axel. The leak is very very minor and coming from the seal were the axel slides into the rear diff. I am not that worried about it at this time and will order a new one direct from the manufacturer in the near future.

I also have a new gas tank on the way. I think it went out on a truck yesterday or today.

I have started the mods on my Accipiter also. I have a new FMF pipe on it and it looks and sounds sweet. Power was greatly increased and midrange is very smooth. I have also put a Unifilter on and will replace the carb jet this weekend. I will not get a chance to ride much this weekend as I bought a little sea-doo jet boat and will be playing with that most of tomorrow.

I will post videos of all three of the mods soon with step by step instruction of each. The pipe is the only one requiring a custom bracket. After screwing around in the garage for a few hours my father had a great idea for this and it worked very well. Looks nice also. We have the pipe perfectly lined up with the hole in the rear and as secure as the factory one. I am going to pull the pipe back off and add an extension to the end so it will stick out about two inches past the back plate, through the hole. This makes it a bit quieter for the people in the buggy.

I am very happy with my Accipiter 400-B buggy (ex Yamabuggy) and feel I made a good choice on getting this.

I have just started my own business and I am selling the full line of Accipiter Buggies now. I will have to inform the admin of this site as such and get the ok to still participate on this great site and get my name changed also.

Good luck with yours and let me know how it goes.