My buddy has an 07 Artic Cat M1000, It has reverse. when put into reverse, the engine rpm almost stops, so that the engine will spin backwards. Its slow going on his in reverse, but he doesn't have to kill the engine to do it.

Several models of SkiDoo and Bombardier that use a Rotax engine have pushbutton reverse. These engies have a crankshaft position sensor on both ends of the crank so when running backwards the engine still has the correct ignition timing. A 2-cycle with reed or rotary valves doesn't care which direction it's running. You can't do this with a 4-stroke and poppet valves because what would be an intake valve open in forward rotation would have to be the exhaust valve in reverse. 4-strokes have a mechanical reverse via the chaincase. It would be quite a chore to adapt a chaincase to a Yerfdog but I think it's been done before on larger buggies.

An electrically-reversible Rotax in a buggy would be sweet. One big hurdle is the enormous exhaust on a 2-stroke. I keep snapping muffler hangers on my little aluminum Twister muffler--I can't imagine that big 2-stroke steel pipe & expansion chamber lasting long mounted on a swingarm.

All things considered I think a small 4-stroke quad motor with reverse is the best bet in a small trail buggy.

my project.... PROJECT TR-X-Fire:



john