Towing in Reverse?

Actually you should never really pull or tug anything in reverse with any vehicle including atvs, trucks, cars, etc. Reason being is the ring and pinion gears in the differentials. One side of the ring and pinion teeth are cut straight (forward motion) and the other side is cut at an angle (reverse motion.)

Here's a picture showing what I mean. Take a close look at the ring gears teeth in the bottom right of the picture...




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BigTcommander said:

Don't know about axles and diffs, but towing in reverse is the quickest way to smoke a belt.

Click to expand...

There's no reason reverse will have any effect on the belt that I can see. Only thing I can think of is the gear ratio of reverse vs low and it's probably pretty close, if not the same. I tried looking up the ratios of low and reverse and I can't find anything. But reverse doesn't feel any taller than low. The clutches function exactly the same in reverse and forward. Keep on kind, the gearing is done after the clutches. I hope you don't think these are like sleds that actually run in reverse for reverse gear and turn the clutches in reverse direction. Just curious why you think you'll smoke a belt.

Edit: Thinking people smoke the belt in reverse is maybe because of operator error? And I only say that because i find myself correcting fellow riders all the time for this when stuck or trying to pull someone out.... They'll hold the throttle to raise Rpms but they won't be moving. THATS the quickest way to smoke a belt. These aren't like automatics in a street vehicle with a torque converter, if the clutches are trying to engage but you're not moving, you're gonna smoke the belt real fast. Can't tell you how many times I see people do that. Gotta ether stay at idle, or hit the throttle fast enough to get the tires moving as soon as possible. The longer the Rpms are above idle without the tires moving, the more your wearing the belt. This may be obvious to some, but I'm surprised how many people have no idea.


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