All right, so diving in on the front end of this Sportsman, what makes this suspension so good and the legendary ride and handling? Well, it all starts with a bunch of smart suspension engineers that look at the kinematics. And what that really boils down to is where are the points that the suspension connects to the frame and out to the wheel? So as this wheel is going up and down, there's three things that we often talk about a lot, and that's camber, caster, and toe. Camber is basically how the wheel is pitched in and out, uh, from top to bottom this way. Caster, think of that almost like the wheel on a shopping cart or how far the Kingpin angle is this way. And then toe is basically how the wheel is pitched in and out this direction. So the dual A-arm setup allows us to control those three things throughout the travel as that wheel goes up and down a little better to give you a more planted feel on the front end.
Now the other nice thing on this model that you can see is we've actually got an arched lower A-arm. So we actually get a wider, bigger ground clearance on this model. So instead of having to just aim right down the center of the frame, you can be a little wider when you're going over rocks or ruts or stumps or other trail obstacles. As we move up, we've got the upper control arm or upper A-arm. Um, again, it's got an upper ball joint out on the wheel end, uh, just like the lower control arm has a lower ball joint out on the wheel end. Those connect to this steering knuckle. Uh, it's this big casting here, this black part. And the nice thing about these ball joints is that we get really good articulation of this wheel throughout the suspension travel. So when you're turning those handlebars, whether you've got one wheel up in the air or dropped all the way down, you get really smooth easy operation because these ball joints can actually articulate as that wheel is moving up and down and steering at the same time. On the back of that, you can see the tie rod end, uh, gets connected up to the top. That's what allows the wheel to actually rotate. Uh, that tie rod end gets connected back to the tie rod itself. That tie rod connects to a steering frog at the bottom of the steering post. As you go up the steering post, this trail model's actually got power steering. So inside the power steering, there's actually an input shaft, an output shaft, and a torsion bar that links the two together, uh, and that's what allows a little bit of flex in the steering to measure how much force are you putting in, uh, versus how much is being applied down to the steering to the wheels.
What's different about an ATV versus a side-by-side is that it most ATV models don't have a rack and pinion set up like you would on a larger side-by-side or a car or truck you're used to. So you get a direct feedback and and feel on this. The handlebar is going down to that linkage. And the nice thing when you've got power steering on a unit like this 570 Trail is that it actually assists your steering, but it gives you some anti-kickback as well. So if your tire hits an obstacle and causes it to move a little bit, it doesn't force all that motion right up into the bars even with that direct acting steering frog linkage. Um, the other nice thing about that steering frog is that there's a stop built in right on the frame to keep you from turning the handlebars too far. And when you think about that, the handling characteristics or how the steering goes, we actually do put a little bit of Ackermann into the front end geometry. So what that means is that as you go into a corner, your inside wheel is actually going to turn a little bit more than your outside wheel and that's going to help you be able to go tighter around corners. So it's a nice feature that's been in Sportsman's for a long time, um, that it's basically built on how the points are in that suspension that allows us to do that. Um, as we go up, we've got the shock absorber here, goes from the, uh, upper A-arm up to the frame. Uh, that's got a spring, uh, right around it and then the, uh, spring retainer here is actually adjustable. So one other cool thing to remember is in the toolkit on most ATVs, there's actually a small spanner wrench that you see that looks about like this, might be a little different on one end versus the other, but it's got a small notch that actually will fit into the, uh, groove on this spring retainer. You can hook it in and actually rotate to get that up to a stiffer position. So make sure you do both sides equally, you don't just want to do one. Um, but kind of you you can adjust that and dial it into your riding preference. So when you think about ride quality, think about how smooth this is going over bumps. The tune of a Sportsman really set up for kind of mid-range, mid-speed trail riding. Um, but overall, super comfortable machine and really responsive to you as an operator.
The other thing that people often think about, um, on an ATV that's a lot different from a side-by-side is that it's a rider active machine. So when I'm up on this this machine with my hands on the bars, I have the the ability to shift my weight side to side, back and forth. I can even stand up if I need to use my legs as suspension. So the nice thing about a rider active machine is that it allows me to actually move the center of gravity of this vehicle around with my body weight shifting, uh, that you just don't have the ability to do in a side-by-side. And it's a really important thing to remember on a rider active machine like an ATV like this Sportsman.
All right, now swinging around to the back of this Sportsman, there's a few other differences, uh, versus the front that we want to point out to you guys. So the first one is, uh, you know, pretty obvious when you look up at the top and that there's actually a stabilizer bar that runs across the, uh, width of this vehicle and really what that does is it connects to the the upper control arm so that as one wheel goes up, it actually is a torsional resistance member that tries to counteract it to the other side. So as you think about it, what that's going to do is it's basically going to stabilize the vehicle or keep it from the body from rolling and help you stay more flat and level, uh, as you're going around corners and as you're, you know, having one wheel go up or down in its travel. Uh, you'll often hear that that, uh, member called either a stabilizer bar, an anti-sway bar, some people call it a sway bar, but it really does the opposite of that, it makes the vehicle more stable, not less. Um, as we come down, there's drop links. Um, so these actually are what set the, uh, position to connect that stabilizer bar down to the, uh, control arms. And as you look at the control arms, it's maybe a little easier to see in the back end, but where the bushings connect into the chassis, uh, you notice there's no grease zerks on this particular model because we've got fully sealed bushings now. So there's actually an O-ring on either side of this, uh, with an impregnated bushing. Um, so you get a long longevity and you don't have much for squeaks and, uh, rattles that come out of that at the pivot point, uh, of these suspension members. The other thing that's different is out at the wheel end where you see these cast members, in this case, they're, uh, you know, kind of aluminum colored versus the black in the front. These are actually called bearing carriers, uh, not steering knuckles because they don't allow you the rear wheels to steer. They're basically fixed in position to keep those rear tires pointed straight ahead, but they still allow the vehicle, you know, to the wheels to move up and down, uh, because of the pivot points at the, uh, lower and upper control arm. So you don't have the ball joints in the back, you basically have bushings on the outboard side much like you do on the inboard side on the rear end. Obviously, this is a dual A-arm setup, so it's independent rear suspension, um, unlike a, you know, an old solid axle model where both wheels have to move at the same point. Uh, much like the front end where each wheel can move independently, the same is true here on the back end and that's a large part of what goes into the legendary ride of a Sportsman is that you've got that independent rear suspension, uh, with that, uh, rear stabilizer bar to couple it a little bit.
I got my good buddy Caleb out here in Plad I land where we're really enjoying the weather this time of year. Now we've got some cones set up in the background and what we're going to try and simulate a little bit for you is kind of some of the work that the guys that actually do the testing and tuning on these Sportsman do in real world conditions. So we're not going to necessarily take you through every trail they go through or every particular event, but we're going to try and simulate a few of those and give you some demonstrations that showcase how will the steering, suspension ride and handling of this machine actually operate. So Caleb, why don't we have you throw your helmet and goggles on, obviously you've got your jacket, your gloves, got the chest protector underneath, long pants, boots. I mean, once he gets strapped up, this guy is ready to go. But he's going to come down, you know, at a moderate pace, kind of 5 to 10 miles an hour, showcase himself leaning into some of those corners as he goes. We're going to see that front suspension moving and we're going to get to see him go backwards and see the rear suspension as well. Man, it's a nice day out.
All right, so you guys might be able to see in the background that we've got, you know, a few practice runs in with these cones already so we could get some tight end zoomed up shots for you. But we figured we'd kind of do this real time and just talk while Caleb's riding here. So as he goes, he's going to come around these cones and you can see that body, you know, moves in a little, the suspension's going up and down just a little bit. He's shifting his weight around to kind of keep himself centered over that CG. You can really see him turning those handlebars and those wheels moving. Um, so overall, you know, really enjoyable experience for him, not too hard. He's got power steering to assist him, makes it real light and easy. He's not going to have a lot of shoulder pump at the end of the day. And we'll get him going back. Now there might be a little dust as he goes the other way here, but you can see there's a little less roll in the back end because of that stabilizer bar. So as he loads up the outside, it's going to push back to kind of level out the back end. But overall, really nice handling vehicle about this Sportsman and hopefully this simple demonstration can showcase a little bit of that for you.
All right, so we moved Caleb over to the next demonstration area and what you you can see behind us here is that we've got a bit of an overpass with a rock pile down at the bottom. So he's going to loop around, he's going to go up the top, come down and then go through this rock pile. And what you're going to see is that he's going to lean forward as he goes up that hill, he's going to lean back as he comes down. You're going to see a little bit of body roll, but you're going to see all the wheels articulating as he goes through these rocks, really trying to simulate more of a rough trail condition or, you know, kind of a rock event that you might see out in the real world. And as you think about what we're doing, you know, as the guys are testing and tuning these machines, they're looking for events like this out in the real life in the real world to make sure that this Sportsman is going to ride and handle just the way you'd expect it through all kinds of different terrains. So Caleb, why don't we get you geared up and have you go. All right, so as we see Caleb coming around here, he's going to go up this hill and you're going to see him get up a little bit off the seat and lean forward to keep his center of gravity up. As he comes down the hill, he's going to lean back, kind of push his arms out, slide his weight back really to help keep himself stable on this rider active machine. As he enters the corner down at the bottom, you're going to see that front corner roll in a little bit because of that independent suspension front and rear. When he gets to the back though, it's going to level out and you're going to see all four wheels dancing as they go through these rocks. His hands are going to be locked on those handlebars and that power steering is going to keep it from ripping his hands back and forth even as those rocks are pushing the tires around a bit.
All right, so I got Caleb moved over to another spot on the field for our third and final demo of the day. And on this one, we've got a couple cones lined up behind us here where we're going to have them start down on the far end, accelerate pretty quickly so you guys can see what the machine does as it weight transfers back, squats a little bit. He's going to come down and when he hits the last set of cones, he's going to hit the brakes pretty aggressively to get that front end to dive down. Now what you'll notice on this Sportsman is that it does it a little bit, but when you compare it against a lot of competitive ATVs, it's not nearly as much as what some of the other guys out there are doing, which means the ride quality, the braking, the handling and that pitch capability of this machine is way more confidence inspiring than some some of the competitive set. Unfortunately, we don't have those out here today to show you, but we can show you what the Sportsman looks like. So Caleb, why don't we have you throw your helmet on and get to it. All right, so we're getting Caleb lined up on the far end. He's going to be in all-wheel drive in high gear and he's going to hammer the throttle down when we give him the signal. What you're going to see is that ATV roll back a little, pitch the front end up and then as he comes down to the braking zone, he's going to hit the brakes and it's going to flatten out and do kind of exactly the opposite. See a little bit of front dive out of that. But again, it's not too bad based on the kinematics and geometry of the front end of this Sportsman and the suspension. It basically makes it so that the machine doesn't dive way down, you don't get a huge amount of a nose dive out of it.
All right, so Caleb just got done with the last of the demonstrations that we're doing here today. And really this was around trying to showcase how we go from clean sheet drawing board to taking the types of riding that you guys do on the trail and other terrains that you ride a Sportsman in, translates those into the design, the tuning, the validation, the testing of this machine. So Caleb, probably not your worst day at work ever. No, great day to be out riding. Yeah. So with that, we just want to make sure you guys got kind of an introduction of the Sportsman, what some of the pieces are, what they do, how they interact, and really how that translates into the legendary ride and handling of the Sportsman, in this case, demonstrated on this Sportsman 570 Trail. Hey, that's it for this episode of Shop Talk. Make sure you guys like, comment, subscribe, let us know what you want to see next time.
