Who thinks a quad bike (ATV) is a good prep as a patrol or bug out vehicle?

Daddyusmaximus

Daddyusmaximus

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Minuteman
May 3, 2020
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#1
My little old 2001 Kawasaki Prairie 400 has seen some trail riding, but mainly served snow plow duty over the years. With things looking more and more like this place could go tits up at the drop of a hat, I started to think of it as a patrol / bug out vehicle, and not just a work tool. Anyone else entertain such thoughts? Obviously, not good for the "family plan" escape, but they are quick, capable, nimble, and can haul a good bit on the racks. I just added waterproof tool boxes to mine to make it even more useful.

 
#2
How's that gas situation going to be?

We have 6 horses on our ranch. I much, MUCH prefer to work off of an ATV or SxS...but I see the value in true "horsepower" once that fuel dries up.
 
#4
I have a bad boy buggy gas 2wd but thinking bout a ebike for SHTF ,not bugging out staying put , have solar and looking to ad battery backup so charging shouldn't be a problem, live in a semi rural area on a lake and am a closet prepper and think I can make it for a year or more with the preps I have in place , the e bikes or esxs have really came a long way in the last few years .
 
#7
I've heard and read everything from staying put, to staying mobile when it comes to society crashing down and everything shitting the bed. I think the most realistic thing you can do, is hope for the best. Having guns, lots of ammo, some food, and a lot of survival knowledge, is a sure thing for nearly everything. You can't plan for everything, but you know what you need to survive. Food, Water, and shelter. Know how to find food, no how to clean water, and know how to make shelter. If you can do those 3, you probly have a good chance. Not being a overweight slug like me is probly a good idea as well, although I call my excess weight my emergency food supply I carry EVERYWHERE with me.

In my mind, grouping together with neighbors you like that have usable skills, is a good idea. The more people that are part of the group, the shorter the watches for each person. The wider the variety of skills, the higher the quality of life amongst everyone.

Having several tons of gear, food, water, and resources stockpiled is great if you can stay put. What do you do if you have to move because of environmental factors, or perhaps nuclear fallout coming, or any number of issues where staying put isn't an option.

This is the shit that keeps me up, and fucks up my beauty sleep. Odds are, if shit gets spicy, i'm gonna get clapped by one of my neighbors that I would gladly form a group with because they are sure I have a stash of stuff they want.

Anyway, rant over. I don't see how a ATV of any sort is a bad idea for bug out. Only downside for me, is the noise. Range is limited by the fuel you can bring with it, and they're difficult to hide, and it'll draw attention. If it draws attention though, you're going to be able to move quickly through rough terrain. These thought excercises are almost always a zero sum game. You can rationalize a reason it's good, just the same as you can rationalize why it's bad.

It could be insanely handy for one scenario, and worthless in another. Keep it because you can use it now, without the concerns of unrest, war, or zombies.

Branden
 
#8
My concern would be noise like has already been mentioned.
People would hear it and know where you are.
They would also wonder if you have a working quad and fuel to drive around what else do you have?
You would leave a set of tracks right back to your place.
It's all situational. No wrong answer.
 
#9
I've been reading a book by a guy that survived for a year and a half in Yugoslavia during their Civil War, and having a network of trustworthy family or friends is absolutely essential according to him , although he was stuck in a urban environment and said that in a rural area a single person might could survive a social collapse it would be much easier with a small group and that's my problem because none of my neighbors are like minded ,I have one couple that live 20 miles away that I could count on but they plan on bugging in too , so guess I'll just have to test the waters when I get there. Gotta get that battery system for my solar going.
 
#11
The terrain in the area a big factor, but here in the mostly gently rolling hills one would beat the hell out of carrying a 70-100 pack frame. My 450 Honda shouldn't have a problem with ~250# of gear plus my fat ass. Mine likes gas, a 50-60 mile range on rough terrain, but a lot of gear & even with easy riding it might use more. Two of those flat 2.5 gal. gas caddies would be my min.
30-200 acre farms here mostly, farms that grow various crops & graze cattle,,,,,,,,,,fences everywhere. I carry a good pair of fencing pliers/cutters, for emergency only BTW.
Aftermarket add on "stealth" mufflers are available.

Good clothing, camping comfort, weapons/ammo, food, & gas all a juggling act for quantity like any other transporter. Side by sides heavier, greater fuel consumption, but room for another person plus more a lot more gear. Keep the physical size down on one of these & they'll fit a trail nearly as well as an ATV.

IMO, an ATV or SxS is a great tool for the box.
 
#12
Bug out?
I've got no plans to bug out.
I am busy bugging IN right now.
I do have a Ranger SxS 1000. I'm mobility challenged, so its my mobility scooter around my 6 acres.
I need some implements for it, and it could use a winch. I'd like to have a decent grader implement and disc harrow for it. I put a lot of hours on it every year. It is priceless. Worth every dime I paid for it.
A rifle rack would also be a great addition.
Mine is currently rigged for gardening and a sprayer platform.
I sprayed 15 gallons day before yesterday. Sprayed around and under the barn, moved to the back "40".
When I was empty I headed to the barn, I saw that the wife had gone out and weed whacked all the weeds I sprayed around the barn.....🤬🤬
 
#14
The way I see it, IF society takes a BIG sheeeit. I'll use what I have, and when that runs out, I'll plant my old, fat, arse on my porch with smoke in hand, and pray for the red glow.
I've got a couple of neighbors that I trust, and we can support each other, along with their families. We can fish, poach a deer or two, take a rabbit or two. But when your stockpiles run out, welll... . I live in a small town. No bunkers around here. I really don't want to think about mounting a MG on my SxS. It would be kick ass fun tho. But...
Mac
 
#16
I feel like weve been talking about bug outs and shtf for years now. Anyone know when im gonna get to use use all my bug out shit? Im so bugging tired of waiting. If I buy a fan, will somrone please throw some shit at it?.....just so I can bug out.

Ive got so much bug out shit at this point, im gonna need to bug in.

If shit hits my fan, can I use your bug out atv, to run to the store for some cleaner?
 
#21
Never have yet, but I suppose I could.
To be honest, I have zero plan to bug out. I'm largely in favor of the "bug in" plan. Not only is all my stuff at my house, but I'm way to stubborn to let some assholes run me out of my own place. Even if I did get over run, it would only last as long as it took for me to kill them all and recapture my home (or die trying). This quad bike has been a snow plow, and off road toy most of it's life, but I want to adapt it so it will be useful for patrolling, scrounging, or other possible post SHTF missions.
 
#22

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

And you got that last one right.



My particular quad bike is over 20 years old, is a 400, carbureted (not EFI) automatic, and full time 4x4...
STILL, it will do 50 mph, is pretty damn nimble for a 500 pound machine, can go damn near anywhere it will fit, and is 100% stock, so it's no louder than a lawn mower. (a NICE mower)

One thing though... being over 20 years old, carbureted (not EFI) having an automatic, and full time 4x4... it's not the most fuel efficient. It gets 16-18 mpg. I'm sure a newer machine with EFI, selectable 4x4 or 2WD would get better mileage, but then again, this thing only cost me 3K. (with bran new tires, winch, and snow plow, just over 1,000 miles on it)
 
#24
Bugging out is retarded. If you live in an area where it would not be advantageous to stick around should we enter a period of WROL you should consider moving (yes I know easier said than done). You just make yourself a target and your supplies will be limited and you won't have a defensible position.

Not to mention, what do you do with your wife and kids if you have them? Silly concept.
 
#25

If I need to go fast I'll take a bike. I can cruise about 10x faster than you can beat yourself to death with a quad.

They're noisy when you're out in the woods alone. Even stock they can be heard and ambushed.


That's pathetic for a quad. My Honda rancher 420 gets 60mpg putting around the trails. I can plow all winter on 5 gallons of gas.
 
#27
I should say the odds of surviving a cataclysmic event, as described which would warrant a buggin out, are poor if one is "Out & About" when the disaster situation pops off. Better to be buggin back to the designated stay in place spot and then stay in place. Grand hypotheticals I know. Just one take on it.

The 4 wheelers, motorcycles don't offer any protection from bullets or weather. I imagine it would be pretty easy to get shot riding either. An unarmed vehicle is easy to get shot in also, but at least there is more between the bullet and body than nothing offered on a bike/ATV.

Opinions and such.
 
#28
Bugging out as your first plan to deal with TEOTWAWKI is not a good plan. You need to move to where you want to be now. Near likeminded people. Form a crew of families that you can rely on. Be able to grow your own food, etc.

Even if you do that you need a bugout location in case the powers that be decide to poison an entire geographic area where you are at. It needs to be in another geographic area. Also need to have an alliance with someone even further away where you can go to their place with reciprocal rights for them at your place.
 
#30
No shit fuckstick... EVERYTHING is noisy when you're out in the woods alone.
Why do you think we practice "noise and light discipline", when on dismounted patrol... taping down our equipment, rifle slings, dog tags...
A fart can get you killed if you cut loose at the wrong time.
 
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#31
Putting around trails & plowing a 20 ft long driveway ain't the same as riding 50 mph down country roads.
I can put around trails at the Badlands Off Road Park all day on less than half a tank... Hills, sand, mud, rocks... and I'm 270 lbs.

Is your Rancher 22 years old?
Is is fuel injected or carbureted?
Is it FULL TIME 4x4?
Is it automatic or manual?
"Your milage may vary"... as they say.
 
#32
I think any movement after SHTF will most likely be done after dark and on foot , to risky to be seen in the daylight , I live in a mostly rural area and across the hyway from the small lakefront neighborhood I live in is a 10k acre ranch so when my preps run low , if I can't catch enough fish or kill deer lakeside I'll be crossing the road and hunting that ranch at night with my thermal rifle and suppressor on foot , more effort but by that time I'll be in better shape or dead.
 
#33
Some might laugh but long-term mobility post-shit hit the fan ,( not bug out per se) is perhaps most easily maintained with an electric quad or motorcyle . Unlike petrol , electriciy can be produced in many ways , gasoline and even diesel are hard to store long term without going bad even more so with any engine developed in past 30+years.

Other options are dual fuel + gas conversions, wood gas generator is old proven tech since before ww2🤪


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#34
^This right here.

It is not going to be a lone wolf scenario. People will form groups and communities and survive a lot longer that way.

Yes, it is reinventing the wheel. But it is the only game in town. We humans build and destroy civilizations. That's what we do.
 
#35
I enjoy bug out or in conversations. Why leave a home feild advantage? Moving around means more chances of ambush, dead ends and on someone elses home turff advantage. I get moving out of a bad area, but if you are a real prepper, i would imagine not living where you'll be ransacked on day 1. Course nobody knows their neighbors plans, but i know what i would do should the thin fabric of civility tear.
 
#37
Never understood the point of bugging out. So, leave my home base and all the supplies in it, in an area I already know well, not defend my home, and bug out to a new area alien to me, where if it is a good area, everyone be fighting for it?

If I am ever defending something, it be my own home. If I am going down, I rather go down at my home while defending it instead of some boondocks somewhere.

Can’t help but feel that bugging out is a myth that the survival companies make up to sell you products that one will probably never ever ever need, much less trained to utilize… First, you scare the hell out of them, then sell them.
 
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#41

There was a huge prepper dork thread on here a long time ago about a guy trying to "evac" his family from town on quad runners. It's a dumb idea for a lot of reasons the least of which is if you have access to roads large enough for quads then you can probably fit something like an old jeep cherokee on them too. Plus quads are expensive these days while you can get a 4seat side by side that will hold everybody and be narrow enough to go 90% of the places a quad will go.

Of course if it has to be an atv then these would be the ticket, reliable and 100mpg:

 
#42

In the mountains here it's hilarious how "fast" the quad riders go. They're nothing but a rolling road block. They're usually putting around at a huge 10mph, while being bounced around and thinking they're flying.

If you're on a road why the hell are you driving a quad?


And yes, the Honda is part time 4wd, fuel injected, and both automatic or manual depending on what you want.... It's still slow and pathetic.
 
#45
I agree, even if you have a bug out location to go to , whats to prevent some tweekers form getting there 1st and taking over, unless it's a family farm or such that is already lived on . I'm bugging in and making plans to defend my preps till the death, if the hoards overrun me my they find my bullet riddled body surrounded by a mountain of spent brass.
 
#47
We will have to resort to pig shit, a la "Thunderdome." But even that is a total fantasy. In a WROL situation, ain't no one refining oil or making synthetic. So, even if you make fuel from pig shit, you still don't have oil. Back to being on foot or human-powered bicycles. Horses. Which takes a bit of food, also.
 
#50

Not saying I'm a "huge prepper dork", but I do like to be somewhat ready for events that may happen, and cause problems, and I would not count myself in the "bug out" crowd. However, if I was to... (and if I wasn't married) I would seriously consider an ATV.. depending on the situation... and where I had to travel.

So let's talk about other uses, like patrolling, or just general use. Even so, a quad bike is an extremely useful tool. I'd hazard a guess that a very high percentage of folks who own a sxs, use them a lot more as toys... rather than tools. If they wanted a "tool" a RZR is the wrong thing, a Mule or Gator would be better suited. A $25,000 SXS is just a 4x4 golf cart for the well healed.

People (myself included) ride golf carts all over town in tiny little hamlets like the one I live in. Gotta go to the post office, the local pub, picl up something at Dollar General, maybe a pizza from Casey's... Hop in the golf cart. However, when you need to go 12 or 15 miles over to the next town, 16 mph in a golf cart down country roads between the corn fields ain't gonna cut it. It would be like having a horse.
"How far is it?"
"Oh, maybe a day's ride."

This is where a 50 mph quad bike comes in. Unlike the small trail bike you linked, (great for just the person, but almost zero cargo) an ATV can have racks front and rear for a damn good bit of cargo capacity. In fact, mine is rated to tow 1,100 lbs. (and it's just a 22 year old 400 with an automatic)
 
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