Goal: Silent ATV exhaust for trailriding
The sound is widely recognized as the number one challenge by those who work hard to keep our riding trails open. A loud exhaust is also one of the major obstacles when looking to open up new trails to motorized recreation riding.
In later years, the problem has become even worse with large four-stroke engines entering the scene. These bikes tend to be a lot louder than the two strokes, especially when installing performance exhaust systems.
On one hand, you have ATV riders that just want to enjoy their trail rides in nature. They feel that others need to accept the occasional ATV passing by.
On the other hand, you have those that feel loud engine sound is completely ruining their experience of being out enjoying the silence of nature.
In-between you find a great number of ATV enthusiasts that are able to understand both points of view. These riders are frustrated with those that install screaming aftermarket exhausts on their big four-stroke machines just to achieve an almost unnoticeable power gain.
It’s not hard to understand why there is a conflict of interest here. And it really doesn’t matter which side you are on.
The reality is, that riders running loud aftermarket exhausts on open trails are contributing to heat up this conflict up to the boiling point. As a result, we see an increasing number of trails and riding areas being permanently closed.
Being allowed to ride on public ground is a privilege that is directly influenced by the opinion of the majority. On the private land, all it takes is to annoy the landowner, and the trail is closed.
It all comes down to upsetting fewer people. Over time, this strategy will increase the number of ATV trails and riding grounds available for us to enjoy.
Another great benefit of having a silent exhaust on your trail machine is being able to communicate with your passenger without having to scram your lungs out. After longer rides, you get home feeling much less exhausted as well.
Goal: Quiet ATV performance exhaust for racing
It’s not only trails and open riding areas that are in danger of being permanently closed or heavily restricted because of sound issues. This is true for many race tracks as well.
Not all tracks are located out of reach from people’s homes and need to apply sound limitations so that they are allowed to stay open.
As a result of this, more and more manufacturers are now offering high-performance exhausts that keep sound output at reasonable levels as well. 96dB maximum sound level is becoming the norm. Some places even operate with lower limits.
Goal: Quiet ATV exhaust for hunting
If your goal with quieting the exhaust is to sneak past wild game completely unnoticed, you are most likely wasting your time and money. No matter how silent your exhaust is, most animals will pick you up long before you get within sight.
It is not only the exhaust which makes noise on your bike. Even when leaving exhaust sound out of the equation, the noise still present from your bike’s transmission, drive train, airbox, and mechanical engine noise is enough to make your ears ring.
Bikes with CVT transmissions are particularly noisy, where bikes with manual transmissions make for much better candidates as silent rides.
Even when riding an electric golf cart, the deer will hear you coming from far away. In addition, you have the smell from grease, oils, and exhaust that will blow your cover even if you were moving completely silent.
A quiet exhaust may allow you to drive closer to wildlife without scaring them away, leaving less disturbance in the hunting grounds. But they will still hear you coming.
Why bother using ATVs for hunting at all then?
As operators of loud forestry machinery and farming equipment will likely testify; the sound of their machines has never scared the deer away. How can this be?
The trick is not removing the sound and smell, but making the animal used to it!
All you have to do is take a few rides through the area in the last few weeks before the hunt begins.
Use the bike to check up on your deer stands. Use it to get to know your hunting ground by mapping out important spots such as water sources and food plots. Check your trail cameras.
Make all this a part of your season preparation routine and your riding will soon no longer be an abnormality that scares them.
On opening day you should be able to ride out with little chance of spooking them. In fact, walking in by foot will usually cause a lot more disturbance, than an ATV they are used to from before.
Can modifying the exhaust hurt the engine?
When you make modifications to the exhaust system to make it quieter you will alter how the exhaust gasses flow through the system.
When you add a muffler you make it slightly harder for the exhaust to pass. Therefore it will require a bit more pressure to blow the same amount of air through the system in the same amount of time.
If you restrict air flow too much, backpressure may start building up inside the engine. You may experience issues like misfiring, stalling loss of power and the engine running too rich. None of which are likely to cause any damage to the engine.
But you may also experience the engine running too hot, which is not something you want.
As long as you stick to a reputable brand of mufflers that design and manufacture their mufflers for each specific ATV model, you should have little to worry about. These usually add very little back pressure.
But if you decide on one of the DIY alternatives, you are completely on your own if you mess up. Making such modifications will most likely void warranty, so be careful.
It’s always a good idea to have the jetting checked or to get a fuel programmer when doing modifications like described in this post. You want to make sure the fuel/air mixture is still within acceptable limits.
Aftermarket muffler manufacturers will often claim that you do not need to worry about the jetting, and I have no reason to doubt that they know what they are talking about. But if you want to be completely safe, it’s worth having looked after.
How does an aftermarket ATV exhaust affect performance?
More noice equals more power, right? This is not always the case anymore.
Both European and American manufacturers are now offering systems that are capable of keeping the sound output well below the recommended 96dB limit, without any power loss.
The tradeoff is usually that you get a physically larger and slightly heavier muffler. A small price to pay for keeping the trails open if you ask me.
And as long you stick to a reputable brand, you should have no noticeable loss of power by installing a muffler silencer neither. These systems add just about 2% of back pressure that will make very little impact on the engine performance.
In fact, you may actually experience a slight increase in bottom end power after installing the system.
Some of the DIY solutions, however, may cause some power loss, especially at higher RPMs. This makes such modifications best suited for hunting, Sunday rides or utility work.
If you’re into racing aftermarket systems are really your only good option.
It’s worth noting that if you ride at altitudes above 5000-6000 feet above sea level, you are advised to have the jetting adjusted for best performance. Some manufacturers will even offer specially designed systems made for high altitude riding, that will assure proper air flow and performance where the air gets thin.
Related Questions
Does ATV muffler silencers work?
An exhaust muffler silencer can reduce the sound level of an ATV exhaust by up to 60%. It dampens the popping or crackling sound from the engine backfiring and changes it to a lower pitch rumble. The actual sound reduction depends on the brand of silencer and ATV engine size.
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