Suzuki King Quad 700 Project Review

by: Lance Schwartz

The “Scene”ario
Elvis was “The King”, Howard Stern is “The King of all Media”, Mufasa was “The Lion King” and our Joe Tolle and test rider Tommy Farr like Burger King! What about the Suzuki King Quad? Is it worthy of being titled “The King”? Better yet, can the proverbial “King”, be made more royal with the help of the aftermarket companies? Let’s find out!

It’s been a little over a year since we first threw a leg over the 2005 Suzuki King Quad. Most people in the market for a sport/utility are going to spend the majority of their time doing leisurely trail rides, and maybe some light utility work.

Here at ATV Scene, we do things differently. While most people are making race machines out of 450Rs, YFZs, and maybe even Kawasaki Prairies, we went an untraditional direction and cranked out two similarly equipped race ready 2005 Suzuki King Quad 700EFIs – one yellow one red.

More Power
Under the generous plastic bodywork, we find a single-cylinder, DOHC, liquid-cooled 695cc monster with a bore and stroke of 102mm x 85mm.

The four-valve, four-stroke power plant is very impressive, but throttle junkies who add better tires will immediately notice that the performance suffers.

So, where do we start to add power? How about a Yoshimura exhaust, Twin Air filter, and a Dobeck Performance TFI unit! Making more power in an engine is done by flowing air into and out of the quad as efficiently as possible.

Twin Air filters do a phenomenal job of inhaling while the Yoshimura belches melodious exhaust tunes. But, the Yoshi is LOUD, so make sure you make nice with your neighbors before firing it up!

 

It’s one of the coolest and most efficient replacement exhaust systems available for the King Quad.Gone are the days of playing with jets and tuning your carb. The Suzuki fuel injection system handles all of this with no input at all from the rider. What this equates to is spending more time riding than wrenching. The word on the street is that there are a few manufacturers developing modules that will unleash the beast beneath the plastic.

There has even been talk that Suzuki purposely de-tuned to this quad to keep the general population from hurting themselves. We appreciate their concern, but we would like the ability to go from mild to wild. The modules in development should do just that.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the companies continue developing this performance module necessary to really wake up the King!

Wheels and Tires Please

Any hard core rider or racer ditches the stock wheels and tires in favor of aftermarket replacements. We liked the stock wheels and tires, but they would get destroyed with the type of riding this machine was subjected to. Since nothing but the best will do for a king, we opted to bolt on a set of OMF Beadlock wheels and 25” Maxxis Bighorn Radials on one machine, and a set of Douglas Rokstars wearing Bighorns on the other. OMF makes a wheel that is second to none, but they are very expensive. However, considering that they could likely be the last set you ever need to buy, maybe they’re not expensive. The old saying of you get what you pay for applies to the OMF rims. The wheel starts as a Douglas .190 25” utility wheel. OMF then welds a set of their beadlocks on the outside and reinforcing rings on the inside. Additionally, the wheels are finished off with OMF’s Outlaw machining process. They drill holes into the Douglas’ solid wheels, delivering striking looks while also cutting a bit of weight. The Douglas Rokstar is also a great wheel that can be had at an affordable price. We have about 1,800 race miles on our two sets with no issues.

When it comes to building tough tires, Maxxis is right at home. The Bighorn Radial is phenomenal. You’ll own the mud and rocks with its 6 ply radial carcass. We also have about 1,800 race miles on our two sets without any failure. One downside to this setup is the added weight. The Bighorns are HEAVY! But, we tend to overlook the weight because of their grip and strength.

Don’t get Shocked by Approaching Rocks

Suzuki supplied our King Quad with plastic bash protection. To be honest, under most circumstances, this protection is more than adequate. But, we’re pretty hardcore and plastic skid plates just don’t cut it when it comes to beating our King Quad into submission. So, we chose a set of Pro Armor skid plates and bumpers for ultimate protection. They did a handy job of protecting the machine from the rocks at The Wisp GNCC and the 6 Hours of ATV America. The King’s innards came through unscathed, thanks to Pro Armor. The aluminum on these seven skid plates surely adds weight. But, think of the few pounds of added weight as an insurance policy to protect some very expensive parts.

More Cushion for Hard Pushin’
The Suzuki King Quad has really good suspension from the factory. The rears especially give a very comfy ride. When pushed though, the front shocks reach their limit very quickly. Bottoming out a 600lb. quad repeatedly isn’t the most pleasant experience, so we looked for a solution. All it took was a call to the gents at Elka Suspension to get us on track. We opted for a set of Elka’s Sports and Racing Series shocks. These units are both compression and rebound adjustable and feature remote reservoirs to keep things cooled down. The Elka’s gave us an additional 1.1” (total 7.4”) of travel up front and an additional 2.1” (10” total) in the rear. It also lowered the King Quad one inch from the factory units. This was the best single addition to this machine. Gone is the bottoming front end and the tendency to roll in the corners. These shocks made the King Quad feel like a totally different machine.

Breaking Axles is a Hastle
We admittedly push our test quads to their limits and beyond. The King Quad project was no different. While doing so, we broke a total of three stock axles. Oddly, it was always the right rear and in the exact same spot on the axle shaft. Each break happened when landing from a jump. And finally, each and every axle failure became more frustrating than the previous. It didn’t seem logical why they would do this. We knew of other hard core guys having the same problem, so with a little research, we found Daniel Turner of Turner Cycles in Humble, TX. Turner builds custom drive lines for hard core 4×4 customers, including Four Stroke Tech’s new “Mudzilla”. After a number of conversations, Daniel agreed to create a custom set of rear axles for our axle-eater. The Turner axles took much more abuse than the stockers would allow. but, after a really hard landing, we were able to also break our new Turner axle. Coincidentally, it broke in the exact same spot as all the stockers did, which leads us to the assumption that there could be a geometry problem with the rear suspension. The axle seems to get a lot of side load in a spot where there shouldn’t be any. Since the Turner axle comes with a full warranty, breaking an axle isn’t as hard to accept now. We were shipped a replacement right away and back in business.

Giving Your Steering the Fix
Every King Quad magazine article we’ve come across has commented about the “turn-in” issue that the King Quad has. During extreme riding the King would turn full-lock on us, without warning. We were’nt going to settle for any problems with this project, especially with something as vital as steering. It took a while to figure out the problem, but in the end we fixed it and gave the King the type of steering it deserves.

First we tried out a very simple and easy fix. By simply adding a steering stabilizer, like the Denton unit made for a Suzuki Z400, we took away a lot of the “turn-in” effect. The stabilizer does a great job of slowing down the response and keeping the machine from turning full-lock, without warning. That solution alone makes a huge improvement by masking the effects of the problem, and we highly suggest you at least complete this mod for your King.

As we mentioned we weren’t going to settle for any half fixed problems. For those of you looking to completely fix the problem the correct way here’s how to do it. After a few measurements and calculation from some of the industries ATV Einsteins, an all-new ATV aftermarket product was born. It’s purpose – the ultimate King Quad steering fix. The reason the King steers like it does is because of a geometry problem in the front end. Tommy Farr and his fabricating cohorts at World Class Racing Products have come up with new lower A-arms with the correct geometry. You simply unbolt the stocker and bolt the new unit on, and the steering works the way it should have been designed from the factory. While researching we’ve heard of another way to fix the problem as well. We’ve read that some riders are machining a small amount of materiel from the upper A-arm and adding a spacer. We did not test this fix, but we can assume in this the same type of fix can be attained. Unless you are very confident in your fabricating skills however, we would opt for the A-arm replacements from World Class Racing Products.

With help from Tommy Farr, World Class Racing Products have come up with a set of replacement A-arms to correct the steering geometry issue on Suzuki’s King Quad.

With its fuel injection and high mounted air intake, the King Quad eats king-sized portions of mud for dessert!

Sometimes it’s the small things that count
Rounding out the King Quad build were some small parts that definitely added to the overall feel of the modded King. Diamond G supplied us with a set of their custom heavy duty tie rods and tie rod end spacers, which we played an integral part in developing. The spacers fill in the taper on the spindle, allowing you to run the stronger and cheaper Honda 450R ends. This was a welcome addition to the King Quad because the tapered tie rod made removing it in a hurry nearly impossible. With the Diamond G spacers installed, replacing a bent rod can be done quickly and efficiently. A set of TAG X5 bars were added and wrapped with Spider Grips. This setup made hanging onto our beast an easy chore. Additionally, some PowerMadd hand guards did a very nice job of keeping the sticks and stones from breaking bones! Finally, a custom set of front and rear bumpers from Ryan’s Fab.com gave our King the trophy truck look that scared the competition right out of our way.

Is the King Worthy of Crowning?
The Suzuki King Quad is a good mount. It does a lot of things the way that it should. Admittedly, the King Quad does have a few quirks. Most of them are easily fixed by repeating what we’ve done in this article. The steering and suspension can be tuned very easily to become a back trail rocket or a full bred racer. Anybody who has ridden one of these can attest to how comfortable they are.

Team TPC PowerCenter’s took our KingQuad Project Red to runner up at the 6 Hours of PA

The only reservation about the whole machine that we still don’t feel confident about is the axle breaking issue. We’ve talked to enthusiasts with several thousand miles who have had no problems. We’ve also talked to enthusiasts who have a few hundred miles on their machine with multiple axle failures. For 99% of the people that ride a King, they’ll never deliver the punishment required to break an axle.

On the flip side, you might be one of the 1% that wants to push this machine to its ultimate limit. Hopefully Suzuki will take a serious look at this issue and come up with a fix for next year’s model. Then, the Suzuki King Quad 700EFI might have a chance of going down in history as being considered the King of the jungle, the trail, or the GNCC circuit.

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