High altitude ATVing question???

Im joining a couple buddies for an early season Elk archery hunt in Colorado. We are going where atvs are allowed and will be camped at around 9000 ft. We will hunt at around 10000 to 12000 ft. We live in central Mn and are woundering how the atvs will run up there..Do they need to be rejetted or will the non fuel injected atvs run with out rejetting them? Any one try using them in the Mts withoout rejetting them…thanks Jay

Jay what brand of ATV and size? Carb or Fuely? I have been using ATV’s from the flat land out there for 7 years. Depending on what you have you may have to make some changes.

I have a polaris 700 Sportsman carb and we will have a Polaris 500 Sportsman carb as well.

I have had my 2000 Polaris Magnum 500 at 11,000ft. and it ran just fine.

The 700 should be just fine as far as power. I would do some clutch work to the 500 to help with the thin air. I have never taken Polaris machines out that were 4 stroke always 2 stroke and never an issue just rejet.

We take out the Arctic Cats and the 500 carb we do re clutch it as lugs down quite a bit when not, we found that out the first time going out. The 300 Cat had more power because it was a manual shift and did great. When we go out with the 650 Cat we do nothing to it because it has plenty of power to over come the altitude.

The rule of thumb is that in 2-stroke applications you lose 3 HP for ever 1000 feet above sea level. I don’t think it is that much with the 4 stroke but you do lose power in the thin air.

Where are you going to in CO Jay? We hunt in the Grant county area near Steamboat Springs. Good Luck.

We run 99 500 Polaris Magnums up to 11,000 and over without changing anything. They will haul 2 quartered elk and a rider

BTW what unit you hunting?? I do need to get back out and get another.

Thanks for all the info guys …I think Ill just take em out and se what happens…I also was told if I have issues with it running that if I take the air cleaner top off it should get er goin…thanks again…jay