How Do ATV Snorkels Work? + Video

How do ATV snorkels work? This is the question we dig into on this episode of our “You Asked, We Answered” video series.

The series is designed to answer the Internet’s most commonly searched ATV and UTV questions. To find the answers, we turned to resident ATV expert Rick Sosebee.

An ATV or UTV snorkel system is built to keep water from entering your belt drive or your air intake. Water in those components has the potential to ruin them.

An ATV or UTV snorkel system actually moves the intake for your air box, which is where your fresh air comes in for the engine, to a higher location. But you have to remember that the CVT also has an intake and an exhaust, so you have to move those to a higher point as well.

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Typically, ATV snorkels are made of PVC pipe and couplings underneath the plastics up to the front rack or right around the gauge pod system. However, some manufacturers offer mud-ready machines with their own systems in place.

The Can-Am Outlander X MR comes standard with a factory installed snorkel system. The CVT intake and CVT exhaust, as well as the breather for your air box, are all at the highest possible point on the ATV.

If you are going to add a snorkel system to your ATV or UTV and you’ve never installed this type of device on a machine before, you may want to have it professionally done. Any little mistake, any little leak in the system, any little gap somewhere that materials can get in – any of this can absolutely destroy your machine.