Does 2019 KingQuad Live Up To Its Reputation?
Part of our answer to whether the 2019 KingQuad, a brand which has been around for more than a dozen years, lives up to its reputation came from a sprint through an abandoned chicken house. Yes, a chicken house.
Once we were turned loose and could traverse the trails around the Joe Gibbs (yes, that Joe Gibbs) property outside of Charlotte, NC, at our own pace we were able to really see what the new 2019 KingQuad 750AXi was all about. We spent our day of riding in the North Carolina countryside on two models: the 750AXi Power Steering model and 750AXi Power Steering SE. The primary difference between the two models is the SE has cast aluminum wheels.
Back to the chicken house. Suzuki officials literally carved several trails through the trees for us to test the new KingQuads, which were tight, featured water crossings, lots of tree running as well as some open race track stretches with jumps and turns. And the chicken house, which was long, wide open and dusty. A couple of Suzuki’s changes to its KingQuad for 2019 were to the engine and CVT. In the chicken house we could open the throttle up and see how responsive and smooth the changes are. The powerband on the 750AXi is smooth, not peaky, with power building quickly on the bottom end. The power trails off a little on the top end but there is a sweet spot just before midrange where when you stab the throttle the KingQuad practically bursts with power. The ATV seems to jump to life in that stretch of the powerband and it’s impressive.
In the tight woods where we had to slow down and use the bottom end of the powerband, it was smooth and responsive as well. A couple of times in muddy sections and one stretch of a creek we went through, those powerband benefits were very much appreciated. Of course the CVT has to work in concert with the engine to get the power to the ground, which in the KingQuad, both are in harmony.
The Quadmatic transmission is smooth-shifting and it’s so easy to shift from high to low to neutral to reverse, even on an incline. You don’t have to fight the vehicle to shift from gear to gear like you do on some ATVs and even side-by-sides. It’s very smooth. And the placement of the shifter—on the left fender—is easy to reach and use.
It’s equally easy to engage (and disengage) the 4WD by simply pushing the button on the right handlebar. Changing into diff lock isn’t quite as easy as pushing a button but it’s not overly difficult.
When it comes to the ride and overall comfort of the KingQuad, again, Suzuki has done a great job of making sure the vehicle can handle work and play (although we hardly worked with the KingQuad, our ride was all fun). Going from oil to gas-charged shocks helps give the ATV a better ride and the settings that day we rode seem to fit the variety of conditions we experienced from smooth, fast (ish) sections to jumps to logs (literally several logs laying across the trail), to water to rocks and decent inclines and declines.
We also appreciated the KingQuad fenders, which do a great job keeping water and mud off the rider. We experienced plenty of both in North Carolina and came away relatively “clean.”
One other improvement Suzuki made for 2019 on the KingQuad is to the power steering. Suzuki changed from an over-steer to under-steer dynamic to reduce steering effort. We felt, in some conditions, the EPS felt “heavy,” requiring more effort to steer while also feeling more jarring from hitting rocks and roots than we expected. It certainly wasn’t an awful experience by any stretch and the Suzuki engineers who were with us on the ride were alerted of our feelings and have time to tweek the EPS before production (we were on early-production ATVs) so the final product will most likely be even more improved. And we are still sold on EPS and wouldn’t have wanted to tackle the North Carolina woods without it.
Suzuki has been in the ATV business a long time—being the first to the market with a quad back in 1983. Since then the company has had it share of innovations and highlights.
The 2019 KingQuad keeps up that string of innovations and delivers another great ATV in the 750AXi.
