Show Me Your Trad ATV

[Pete W]

My used to be best moose spot is now an ATV race track.

A natural area I hunt that does not allow motorized vehicles  is also a race track.

Walking 2 miles to a clear cut and having an ATV or 3 pass you in the last hundred yards is frustrating to say the least.Especialy when they can see you for half a mile.

Last week I saw one submerged in a beaver pond in a natural area that does not allow vehicles.

The destruction of the land from thees is incredible. Even old roads that were accesible by car a few years ago have been torn up so badly I have trouble getting a 4X4 truck thru.
 The corners are banked up so bad now I bottom out.
 The sand hills have a few inches of soil over deep sand deposits and these are being eroded as if a cat went thru with the blade down.

County roads are over run with them, Racing at full bore, they have no insurance to cover them if they are in an accident traveling on roads.They rip thru town like they are on a race track. Again they are not insured/licensed for "on road" use.

Many places we could access to hunt on foot are now posted , and gone for us ,thanks to ATV's going in and tearing up the land.

I just saw an advertisement for a 1000cc model that "will bank up the corners". The legitimate/responsible users are a very small minority. There needs to be a major crack down on the abuse or an outright ban.

The ATV industry has no concern for the land, it only wants to sell machines. The try to appeal to the iresponsible abusers, not the responsible users.

These are without question the most abused thing ever invented.

Pete

[John Nail]

you need that whole load of stuff to deer hunt?

[wahoo]

Ditto on Dave and Pete. In Idaho atv's are a nightmare. In the last 10yrs they have harmed hunting in are area more than anyone can imagine and the end is nowhere in sight. Too bad too sad

[Ray Hammond]

I've seen very little positive come from the use of ATV's. They're noisy, shift animal movement patterns, and change the landscape.

All you have to do is look at the way they market them- always racing at top speed, dirt flying all over the place, spinning, airborne- that appeals to a certain class of folks I guess, and that's the way I see most of them driven.

I've spent a good bit of time out west...and one of the things that hurt the most is to see the trails of ATV's across country that will hold those tracks for the next 150 years before they even begin to disappear from the landscape.

For what? So some guy didn't have to get off and use human muscle. No other reason. "I want what I want and I want it now"- I don't have time to ride a horse, or walk with a heavy pack, to get to those elk. I'm gonna ride there in two hours and kill one, so I can get back home and sit in front of the tube and watch my football game on Sunday".

I'm sorry if this offends...it's my opinion...everyone has one.

[Earl E. Nov...mber]

Not saying there isn't a problem, because there is. But saying ATVs ruin hunting is like saying guns kill people.. People kill people and people make a mess of out wilderness with mechanical equipment of all kinds. Education will always be the better answer over legislation.
Pete, I hope you got a picture of the ATV buried in the swamp, It could become a poster child for sure.
I still wanna see the 34 flathead.

[Pete W]

No photos. I don't need my truck vandalized.

 As for education, thats a politicaly correct cop out.
 It don't work .
 Every ATV owner knows what is right and wrong.
They just don't care as long as there are no consequences.

 There is the school of sales,fun and frolic that is selling these machines with far more graduates buying up the most destructive accesories to add to the problem than any education will ever overcome. Thrill seeking has much more appeal than a Sunday drive to the majority.
 Now how can you sell parts and more agressive tires, performance exhausts , insane horsepower ,etc if the customer rides like a naturalist?
 Not much need for winches to add on  if you refrain from going where you shouldn't go in the first place is there?
99% of winches are sold for getting swamped machines out of where they "ought not to be" in the first place. Very few are installed for work, like moving a log, or getting an animal, stretching a fence line.

Reasonable people don't drive into mud quagmires just to see if they can get thru them , only to turn around and try it from the other side, over and over again.

There is just to much money to be made from selling parts to the destruction crew to ever convince the ATV industry to act  a bit more responsible.
 As long as sales are geared to machines and riders going into the impossible and getting home again the problem will continue to grow.Riding on the brink of danger has great sales  returns.

 Have you ever met an ATV rider that does not profess to be responsible? I am sure that there are some, but I know from what I see there are many more that could care less about the mess they create. The more they tear up the land the better the fun, and the greater the thrill.

HMMMMMM, perhaps responsible has a new meaning I don't understand.Maybe it means "not getting caugh in the act by someone that cares".

Laws are usualy created out of necessity, and this "sport" desperately needs some tough laws that will be enforced.

Pete

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

It sounds to me like what we really need is better enforcement, not more laws designed to impact people who aren't the problem.

[adkmountainken]

there is auctualy a big get together here in the spring which is referred to as "The Mud Run" around 75-85 four wheelers ride straight through my favorite ridge and over many miles of beautiful land tearing the snot out of it! this is thought of as fun by all except the few of us who it disgusts! many who ride are friends of mine who feel it does not hurt anything. theses are the same who ride the machines to get to their stand during season. they should walk there once and then would see the mess they have made. such little thought or caring involved about others or land.

[rabbitman]

Guys...This thread has strayed off topic and has turned into a "for or against ATV's" and has has just about been beat to death. Time to close it.