Although certain kinds of ATVs are setup for pushing through
deep mud, the technique for getting to the other side remains the same. When crossing obstacles like mud, the biggest
risk is getting stuck, which means coming to a stop. Because of this, speed is your friend,
although you can hit a mud hole too quickly.
However, hitting the mud with speed will usually give you the momentum
to slide over the mud hole and out the other side even if your tires won’t grip
much. In some cases, you may want to
keep at least one tire on solid terrain, if possible, so that your quad has
something it can grip. You can do this
by straddling the ruts and staying on the high ground, or by leaving one tire
out of the mud. However, if the mud hole
is too deep, you may tip your ATV over into the mud.
Some say that you should stand on your pegs when entering a
mud pit so that you are more ready to respond to the uneven terrain. However, keep in mind that you may meet a lot
of resistance when you hit the mud, causing you to come to a near-stop very
abruptly. If you are standing when this
happens, you might go for a dive in the mud.
Although standing up may work for some people, you need to be
comfortable and balanced enough to be prepared to unseen rocks and roots in the
mud, as well as the possibility of a nose dive, or suddenly catching traction
with the throttle wide open.
One mistake that many new riders make is giving their ATV
too much gas once they start to lose traction.
Once the mud starts to fly, more gas is not always the solution, since
flying mud means that your tires aren’t gripping anything solid. Sometimes a tire that is spinning a little
slower will grab onto something that it would just grind against with more throttle. This is especially true if you come to a
complete stop in the mud. When getting
your quad moving again, easy does it, since too much gas means nothing but
slinging mud. However, to get out of
most spots after coming to a stop, some wheel spin is necessary, but more wheel
speed usually doesn’t mean more traction.
When you get into the mud, keep in mind that the tires with
the most weight over them will be the most likely to get traction. So, if your quad is two wheel drive, you will
want to keep some of your weight over the back axle, which will drive those
rear tires through the slippery mud on the surface and down to something it can
grab. Shifting your weight side to side
can also help one of your tires get the traction it needs to pull you out of
the mud.
Four wheel drive makes short work of a lot of mud that gives
two wheel drive quads a lot of trouble, but four wheel drive is by no means an
end-all solution for deep mud. Some mud
pits may be entirely too deep for a stock setup, and a snorkel kit and exhaust
extension may be needed just to ensure that your engine doesn’t suck in a bunch
of mud and debris. For mud this extreme,
four wheel drive is a necessity, and a set of aftermarket tires with a more
aggressive pattern will also help pull you out of the mud.
No matter what kind of ATV you take through the mud, keep in
mind that you may only have one shot at getting through without getting a
tow. The more you know about the
particular mud hole, the better, but an experienced rider can tell a lot about
a mud pit by its looks and how soft the rest of the trail is. However, a hole you can get through one day
may swallow your quad after a good rain or may change drastically after other
people have ridden through. The key to
conquering mud is keeping cool and having several ways to get your tires to
grip instead of slip.
