Permanent Modification, Oldest Rows

The string, and the one word that matters in it

The catalogue carries Permanent vehicle modification on 7 applications across 3 makes. Most of the condition strings in the set describe something about the fit — a lift kit, a cargo box, body parts. 2 of them begin with the word permanent, and this is the one that applies it to the vehicle rather than to an interference between vehicle and system. That is Camso’s wording, not a severity ranking.

What the word does not come with is a description. There is no published statement of what is modified, where, by how much, with what tool, or whether the machine can be returned to standard afterwards. On a machine of the age these rows cover, that is the difference between a reversible winter setup and a quad that is permanently something else — and it is unpublished.

Every row that carries it

This is the complete set, oldest first, not a selection. The rear-suspension value and the sprocket pair are printed because they are the fields that separate two applications with similar names, and because what they have in common across these rows is the most concrete thing the catalogue says about them.

Three things in that table are uniform, and uniformity across a set this small is worth printing rather than glossing. Every row publishes the same rear-suspension value, Rigid rear axle. Every row publishes the same sprocket pair, 16/16. And every row is published by the same pair of systems, T4S, X4S, with no Commander WS4 row among them.

Camso publishes nothing about why those values coincide. What the two columns are for is narrower and more practical: the rear-suspension value and the sprocket pair are the fields that separate two rows carrying nearly the same machine name, so check both against the machine in front of you rather than inferring them from the model year. On a machine of this age the rear end may not be the one it left the factory with.

One more thing the table shows: this flag never appears beside another one. Every row carrying it carries it alone, which means there is no second string anywhere in the catalogue that qualifies, narrows or explains it.

Do the oldest rows carry the harshest flags?

It is a fair assumption that the worst conditions land on the oldest machines. For this flag it is true. As a general rule about the catalogue it is not, and the difference is worth having before you read anything into the year on your own machine.

For this flag it holds, and holds strongly. 5 of the 7 applications begin before 2000, and by records 71% of the rows carrying it do — against 4% of the catalogue as a whole. The earliest first model year on any row carrying it is 1986, which is the earliest model year published anywhere in the catalogue. The latest is 2001, so the flag’s whole footprint is older than most of the catalogue rather than merely skewed old.

As a general rule about harsh flags and old machines, it fails — and the failure is in the same table.

Camso’s own wording gives 2 permanent-class strings, and the other one — Permanent interference — reaches no further back than 2008, and puts no records at all before 2000. Irreversibility and age are not the same axis in this catalogue.

So the precise claim is the narrow one: 1 of the 6 published condition strings puts a majority of its records on rows beginning before 2000 — Permanent vehicle modification, and 1 reaches the earliest model year the catalogue publishes at all. All of that says where a flag sits in the catalogue, not what it does to a machine. The same arithmetic by decade rather than by flag is on tracks for a thirty-year-old quad.

Remark D: the flag exists, the definition is unpublished, the expansion is unsourced

Three separate statements, and they are worth keeping apart — run together, they turn into a definition nobody published and it gets quoted back at a parts desk as one.

One. The flag exists. Camso’s application guide prints remark letter D against rows, including rows for machines in the table above. Read 2026-09-26.

Two. The definition is unpublished. The remarks legend printed at the head of the same document defines 9 letters. Verbatim, spellings included:

A* Certain rectriction apply
B* Suspension lift kit required
C* Temporary body parts removal
E* Important speed reduction
F* No compliance with accessories
G* Permanent interference
H* Vehicle with cargo box
J* CVT/AIR intake vent kit recommanded
K* Temporary vehicule modification
Minor modification and light interference are possible on any modelCamso ATV/UTV Track System Application Guide, August 2026 revision, remarks legend, read 2026-09-26. Published as a PDF.

The letters defined there are A, B, C, E, F, G, H, J, K. Remark D is not among them. Camso publishes no revision history for these codes and no concordance between revisions, so what the letter means is not recoverable from anything Camso publishes.

Three. The expansion is unsourced. The ATVtracks.net fitment catalogue renders the flag on those rows as the words Permanent vehicle modification— a full expansion where the manufacturer’s own document has a letter and no definition. Matched against the legend above, that string has no counterpart at all: it is not one of the 9 definitions, in any spelling. So the words carry more confidence than the source behind them supports. Treat them as the catalogue’s rendering of the flag, not as Camso’s definition of D.

What that means if you own one of the machines above: no published document tells you what would be permanently modified, and no published document confirms that the words describing the flag are the manufacturer’s own. So get the answer from a person, in writing, before you order — what comes off or gets cut on your model year, and whether it goes back on.

What the other manufacturer publishes here

Nothing, and the shape of that nothing matters on old machines more than anywhere else.

Kimpex publishes no per-application condition data at all: every Commander WS4 record in this catalogue has an empty remarks field. The absence of a WS4 entry below means nobody has published a condition for it — not that none exists. Camso is the only manufacturer here that publishes these flags, so this page is necessarily a Camso view of the catalogue.

No row in the table above is a Commander WS4 row. That is a statement about these row titles and not about coverage: the two manufacturers do not spell model lines the same way, so a machine can sit under two different titles and a title match is not a coverage test. The makes and families Kimpex genuinely does not publish for are worked out on the families Kimpex skips. What can be said is narrower and still useful: no condition of any kind has been published by Kimpex for any machine in this catalogue, so on a machine this old an owner has one manufacturer’s flags and one manufacturer’s silence, and the silence is a blank field rather than an all-clear.

Where these machines’ applications live

The rows above are spread across 3 makes. The full published application list for each make — every row, not only the flagged ones — is on its own page.

• Arctic Cat — 5 applications carrying this flag. See the Arctic Cat applications.
• Honda — 1 application carrying this flag. See the families Kimpex skips.
• Suzuki — 1 application carrying this flag. See the Suzuki applications.

On the Arctic Cat rows there is a naming trap worth knowing before searching anything: the manual-shift and early automatic machines pre-date the Alterra name entirely, and the model line reads as displacement and trim rather than as a name. Decoding a pre-Alterra Arctic Cat maps those to the published rows. If the machine turns out to be newer than it looks, Arctic Cat or Textron is the other half of the same problem.

What to ask before ordering for a machine this old

The flag is the whole of what is published, so everything past it comes out of a conversation with the dealer. Ask these, and ask for the answers in writing:

• What specifically is modified on this model year, and where the answer comes from — Camso, the shop’s own experience, or an inference off the remark letter. All three get offered; only the first is a manufacturer statement.
• Whether it can be undone, and what undoing it takes. “Permanent” is Camso’s word for the vehicle, not for the kit.
• Whether the parts needed to reverse it are still available for a machine of this age. A reversible modification with no replacement part behind it is not reversible in practice.
• Whether the row is still orderable at all. A published row and a stocked part are different things, and Camso encodes availability as a colour key rather than as text.
• What the install voids. On the Camso systems the warranty is stated as valid when an authorized dealer installs the system; doing it yourself and the warranty quotes the terms and dates them.

What to have in hand before you call

Two fields decide which row you are on, and neither of them is the model name. Take both off the machine rather than off the title or the year — and if the quad is one you are buying, check the third thing before you hand money over.

• The model year, from the VIN rather than from what the seller called it. The catalogue files these rows by year span, and a year either side of a span is a different row or no row.
• The rear-suspension type, which is the column above that separates two rows sharing a machine name. Look at the rear end; do not assume it from the year.
• Whether anything back there has already been altered. On a used machine that has worn tracks before, the modification this flag refers to may already have been done — which is a thing to find before you buy, not after. Cut or re-drilled brackets, missing guards and non-original fasteners around the rear are what to look for.