Originally Posted by
mudbug3
Buzz
In my previous post I stated that on the second day of owning my Mudd-Ox demo ( 42 hours on it ) the altenator belt broke ,and the automatic fan swtich that cools the hydrolics stopped working. I was able to put the fan switch on manual, but since this was on sunday, I could'nt buy the altenator belt that I needed. Even on monday only one auto parts store in this small town had an altenator belt that was close to the size that I needed. When I installed the altenator belt it was so short that it barely fit over the pulley. In your post you stated that at 560 hours you had to replace the electric fuel pump. After the problems that I incurred on my used Mudd-Ox the second day that I owned it , this left a HUGE question mark in my mind what could possibly happen next. My friends and I ride at an atv park with several large swamps ,and most of the places that we choose to take our machines are very remote. You can pull a dead argo with a Max IV ,and you can pull a dead Max II or Max IV with an Argo 6x6 or 8x8 back to camp, but you can't pull a dead and heavy Mudd-Ox with either an Argo 8x8 or a Max IV with out smoking the belts on either machine.Even if you disconnect the chains on the Mudd-Ox, or by pass the hydrolics. This leaves a 4x4 truck , jeep or tractor. The atv park that we ride at has all three of these vehicles, but where we choose to ride at , neither the tractor , 4x4 truck , or jeep would be of any help to us. Because I could rarely get Matt on the phone, and none of the Mudd-Ox dealers in the US could answer any mechancal questions that I wanted answered, I always had to call the Mudd-Ox dealer in Alaska. This was another frustration that I had when I owned a Mudd-Ox. From what has been posted recently about Matt ,he has now hired some additional staff at his shop and some one to answer calls too. This did not help me in 2010 though with my Mudd-Ox problems. When you are 125 miles from home ,and some thing mechanical happens to your Mudd-Ox ,and you know so little about it, or any one else that you ask, taking your Mudd-Ox very far from home leaves a huge doubt in your mind that hangs there like a dark cloud. I always worried about a mechanical break down in some remote area of the atv park and no one to help me tow my stranded Mudd-Ox back to camp. From trying to work on my Mudd-Ox I found out that you need the flexability of gumby to be able to change the hydrolic hoses or grease the inner bearing on the second axle. Wildtexasranger had to change out the second axles on both sides and also change the inner and out axle bearings too, and he was so frustrated after working on the Mudd-Ox at his shop, he told me that he'd never work on another Mudd-Ox again! The video's that I see of Mudd-Ox's are always out in open feilds, open areas, or Haspin acreas, which are very accessable if you ever had a break down on a Mudd-Ox. Not being able to call a Mudd-Ox dealer on the phone for parts when I needed them, plus having to remove my tracks each time I had to make chain adjustments really soured me from owing one.