Hensim hs400 4x4

[JimW]

My wife bought this for me the weekend before this past thanksgiving. Tim was even nice enough to meet us at his store that sunday so we could pick it up. He had a black one in the crate and a green one assembled on the floor. I prefer black but after thinking about it, we live 30mi from any decent sized town and since my wife works in town and is gone all day, I didn't want to manhandle 600lbs by myself to assemble it so the green won out. All I had to do was go over it and make sure everything was tight and adjusted and it was ready to ride. Besides, have any of you been in an arguement with an invisible version of yourself that only you can see thats offering advice? :wink: Well, I'm glad I listened and I'll get to that later.

It was a bit ornery at first about staring in cold weather but after a few aggrivating moments of adjusting the cv carb on it it started and ran pretty decent. Those cv carbs can be a little irritating at times because if you adjust one thing even just a little bit something else has to be adjusted too so once you get them running pretty good ya best leave it alone and threaten to kill anyone who even pretends to get thier hands near it. It'll start in 10degree weather now without even choking it. In all reality it took several times adjusting over a handful of days to get it to run like it does. Thats why when one of my friends come around and start doing the hands on thing, I just grab a bat and give them one of those looks :twisted:

I was pretty easy on it the first 100mi or so running what we call "the loop". Where live we can ride 30-40mi of dirt roads and never see a soul so we have a loop layed out about 10mi long that circles around and ends up back home. It's a nice run to break one in. The closer it got to being broke in the faster I ran it then a problem began to appear. It would push oil out the vent tube on the rear differential. Alot at times, and for some unknown reason to me the man on the assembly line must of thought it would be funny to put the hose where any overflow would drip directly on the exhaust. I also noticed a drip coming from the input shaft seal on the front dif, but that didn't bother me as much as the rear vent. First I tried changing the tar they call gear oil and put in something a little better. It got worse after that and someone said try some lucas oil in it. It'll even stop the drip in the front seal. Ok, I thought and gave it a try. Bad idea cuz it got even worse and would literally belch oil out the front seal and spray it over the front of the engine. I won't even say what the rear was doing. I got to thinking about my dad after that and all the things he had taught me over the years. He started as a mechanic for Ford in 1926 and worked for them till 73 when he opened his own shop. I got to thinking about something he said once about gear oil on some differentials being so thick it wouldn't flow down the inside housing like it should and would clog the vent up enough to build pressure and start blowing oil out anything it could. He said it didn't happen on all of them just occasionally. Sooo, I decided to try some Mobil1 Synthetic gear oil which isn't much thcker than atf. Ahh, problem fixed. The front seal now only leaks a drop once in a great while and on the rear dif vent I added an automotive inline gas filter up high in the line setting straight up. What that does is makes a small reservor to collect oil in if it decides to push oil out again but no probs since. I did add a length of line on top of the filter and run it back so it will drip on the ground if it ever does it again. I get the feeling the front seal will evenually quit leaking when warmer weather gets here. If not its an easy fix.

Next problem which was my own fault by the way I took off down the road one day and thought, I'm going to open this baby up and see what she'll do. I never did get it all the way open and havent to this day. when the speedo hit that 55+ mark, I thought holy sheeeeeit! It was still climbing and seemed more like flying, and to top it off, I didn't have my helmet on that day. Stupid me!! So I started slowing down got to smelling something and stopped. Smoke everywhere. I couldn't even see the machine thru the smoke when I jumped off. I started gathering handfuls of dirt in case of a fire an waited. When it all settled down, I started searching for the cause. I hadn't thought about checking engine bolts, and I wanted to slap myself upside the head. The three cam cover screws had worked thier way loose and it was spraying oil out. I was 5mi from home, not a soul around and all I had was a cheap tool kit, but it didn't have what I needed since the cover screws were allen head. Great!! The cover is surrounded by plastic and is a bear to get to and the only thing I could think of was maybe I could get the flat end of the cheap screw driver in the allen screw and tighten it enough to get it home. Of course it's to long to fit between the plastic and the cover so I stick the screw driver into the footpeg and try to bend it enough to fit it in there. SNAP! That cheap, hard steel screw driver broke sending the end I need flying to parts unknown. However, I did catch a glimps of it as it flew past my head at the speed of sound. Now thats just great!! I thought to myself. I was left with getting them finger tight and hoping I could get it home. It holds nearly 4qts of oil and was only a half qrt down so off I went and did get home with it.

Thats the extent of the problems and now the good stuff. I've ridden bikes, 3 whlrs and quads since I was 10 or 11 yrs old or 40yrs ago however you want to look at it. Name brands most of that time. I have to admit, I'm impressed with the hensim. It rides better than alot of name brand quads I've rode over the years. No noticeable vibration and a darn nice seat. Some 4x4 quads have a tendency to jerk the handlebars out of your hands encountering an obstacle. This one doesn't. The steering is all mounted in sealed bearings with a nice feel of control to it. The wiring is high quality with high quality connections. The tires are 6ply which stiffens the ride a little but you don't have to worry about something simple flattening a tire on the trail. The 4whl drive is manually engaged with a lever, but I like that fact since it lessons electrical problems. 1st gear is low enough to climb a telephone pole if you could find a way to hang on to it so I usually start off in second when stopped because its so low you find yourself going thru the gears without a reason. 1st is perfect for those technical situations tho. The remaining gears are spaced close enough there's plenty of power and yet still offer plenty of speed for the trails. Plastic is good quality also and has a good fit to it. I don't know yet how uv will effect the color, but it's kept inside when not riding so it should hold up. Comparing it overall next to the Yam bear tracker its as well built and for the most part the assembly line did a fine job of assembling it with few minor qc flaws. In time I think the chinese will have a comparable machine with the big 4 and fewer quality control issues. A friend of mine has a late 90s 350 popo 4x4 and the two run together very well. I wouldn't be afraid to run it next to any competitors 400cc machines. It's showing 510mi on the odo but it's not right. I think its closer to 400. Yes, I have riden it alot since I got it a few months ago.

Ok, back to my first paragraph on the black or green debate. When I went to Tim's place last weekend, I noticed the black one setting in his shop with the engine in pieces so I asked what was wrong. He said the jug had a flaw in it from the factory so they were waiting for the parts to fix it. I smiled, breathed a sigh of relief, and gave my invisable self a pat on the ole back. I'll try to get some pics up today for you. Jim

[Weldangrind]

Your cam cover story is the very reason I ought to have shares in Loctite. I bathe fasteners in it. Yes, I learned the hard way too.

Good news on the synthetic gear oil. Did you use 75W90? I'm using it in my daughter's quad, and it hasn't missed a beat. When you first reported the vent tube and seal issue, my guess was that it was over-filled from the factory.

I think I've examined a quad just like yours next to a Yamaha Bruin; they were virtually identical. The Bruin had two headlights instead of four, and the Bruin had some sensor on the left side engine case that wasn't drilled and tapped on the MIC unit (low oil pressure shut off maybe?). Everything else, including the winch mount, suspension and hardware was all the same.

[katoranger]

This machine?
http://www.vbike.us/index.php?page=s...s=&pz=&scid=85

At the asking price it is good to get a review like this. Not many of us ready to take that chance.

[Weldangrind]

That's the one. It is sold as a Baja, amongst other names. It's a benefit to know that Yamaha stuff bolts on, much like Spud's Zong.

[katoranger]

Also 500 miles is a good test on an ATV.

[JimW]

That's it except mines green. No winch but it has mounting holes for a plate. It's a beast when you sit on it, and it sits higher than most but doesn't give the feeling of being to tall. The other 400 tim has, has the auto trans on it with the jianshe/yam engine. I wasn't overly impressed with it since it doesn't have a low range in the forward gear. It also has the kawa bf looking plastics with the 4 headlights and winch.

Here's a link to a review on it. I believe this one is under midwest name but appears the same machine

http://www.atvmag.com/article.asp?nid=472

[JimW]

Heres a pic of the Hensim. I have a cargo box on the rear now. The towel on the gas tank is because I have a jack russel terrior that loves to ride and it gives her something to grip her feet on, and so she doesn't scratch it up.

[FastDoc]

I really appreciate the time you put into an excellent and informative report. You've got a better sense of humor than I do! I'd have been pissed a couple of times during that adventure. At least with the main bugs sorted out you'll have some good and hopefully trouble free times to come.

Fact is even the name brand Japanese brands break too! Ever hear of Toyota?! :P

[katoranger]

That is a good looking machine. The chinese forgot to put all the "bling" accessories on it.

[JimW]

That's a fact, doc. Toyota is sure having thier share of it now.

The differential episode had me stumped and I can't say I didn't cuss it a few times. See, I was just a youngin in the 60s when my dad was talking about seeing it less than a handful of times in his career, and he wasn't directly talking to me. My comment about what he said was really aimed at what can happen when a person steps back and takes time to think things thru.

The cam cover deal had me worried more than pissed. First concern was fire. The second was the fact it was close to sundown in mid december. Some people don't think it gets cold here, but it can get down right cold. The high that day was upper twenties with a north wind, and that was one of our warm days during that particular cold spell. An example of how cold it can get here. In dec of 83 being young and stupid, my brother and I loaded up the bare essentials for a short survival trip. A tent, sleeping bags, matches and food on a honda atc110 and my new at the time suzi lt125 quad, and headed down a frozen creek. The day time highs were running -15F and the ground was frozen so hard we couldn't drive the tents stakes in. We were probably 10mi from the nearest person and 20 from home. No cell phones back then and our families had no idea where we camped. After breaking nearly all of the tent stakes we did manage to get enough in to hold the tent up. Well, we got thru the night and late the next day decide we'd had enough and headed home. Personally what I learned from that trip was, I'd rather have my testicles nailed to a post than do it again. Anyway, thinking back at the few problems I had with the 400, I have to look at the comical side of it.

[JimW]

Thanks katoranger. No bling, just brawn

[FastDoc]

Originally Posted by JimW

That's a fact, doc. Toyota is sure having thier share of it now.

The differential episode had me stumped and I can't say I didn't cuss it a few times. See, I was just a youngin in the 60s when my dad was talking about seeing it less than a handful of times in his career, and he wasn't directly talking to me. My comment about what he said was really aimed at what can happen when a person steps back and takes time to think things thru.

The cam cover deal had me worried more than pissed. First concern was fire. The second was the fact it was close to sundown in mid december. Some people don't think it gets cold here, but it can get down right cold. The high that day was upper twenties with a north wind, and that was one of our warm days during that particular cold spell. An example of how cold it can get here. In dec of 83 being young and stupid, my brother and I loaded up the bare essentials for a short survival trip. A tent, sleeping bags, matches and food on a honda atc110 and my new at the time suzi lt125 quad, and headed down a frozen creek. The day time highs were running -15F and the ground was frozen so hard we couldn't drive the tents stakes in. We were probably 10mi from the nearest person and 20 from home. No cell phones back then and our families had no idea where we camped. After breaking nearly all of the tent stakes we did manage to get enough in to hold the tent up. Well, we got thru the night and late the next day decide we'd had enough and headed home. Personally what I learned from that trip was, I'd rather have my testicles nailed to a post than do it again. Anyway, thinking back at the few problems I had with the 400, I have to look at the comical side of it.

I got lost in the Eldorado Nationla Forest in the Kalifornia Sierras on my XR250L many years ago. It was November, getting dark, and starting to rain/flurry. Other than a .357 and a cell phone, I had no survival gear. No cell signal.

I managed to climb to the highest peak nearby and get a signal to call 911 and get in touch with a ranger who talked me out of there.

I usually have a good sense of direction but I was 180 degrees turned around. Had I followed my instincts I'd have met the Donner Party for dinner.

I was scared, cold, and ashamed. I still did not get home until about 11.

[JimW]

You were lucky to get thru that ok, doc. Lesson learned, I take it? I'd been scared to. Might even panic a little :wink:

[FastDoc]

I thought about panic. I knew I would have lived and found my way out the next day, but what a miserable night it would have been. The more I think about it the more I realize God's bailed me out more times than I deserve.

[SpudRider]

You got a great price on a 400cc, 4X4 quad, Jim. Please keep us updated regarding this quad's reliability.

Spud