Tracks for a Thirty-Year-Old Quad

How far back it goes

The oldest first model year published anywhere in the ATV catalogue is 1986. The catalogue was read 2026-09-26, which puts the reach of the catalogue at about 40 model years. Those old rows are not leftovers: Camso’s current application guide, the August 2026 revision, still prints rows for the oldest of those machines, with a part number in the T4S and X4S columns and a sprocket pair beside them. Read 2026-09-26.

The depth is not shared equally. Each system reaches a different year, and the difference is most of a decade.

Grouping every row by the decade its first model year falls in shows what actually happens as you go back. The row count thins, and the proportion of rows with a Kimpex Commander WS4 application beside them thins faster.

At the thirty-year line the two catalogues barely meet

Thirty years back from the capture year is 1996. 13 application rows begin in that year or earlier. Of those, 12 carry a Camso application and no published Kimpex application, 1 carries a Kimpex application, and 0 carry both.

So on a machine this old, one manufacturer is usually the only published route — and the catalogue as a whole does not look like that at all: 32% of all 1023 rows are Camso-only, against 92% at this depth.

Two cautions on that, both of which cut against the headline. First, the catalogue files a machine by title, and the two manufacturers do not spell model lines the same way, so where the same machine appears under two spellings it appears as two rows. The table below shows the rows as the catalogue files them, not as a reconciled machine list — see the families Kimpex skips for how far a title match can be trusted and where it breaks. Second, an empty Kimpex column means no published Kimpex application for that title. It does not mean a WS4 will not go on the machine, and it does not mean nobody has ever made one fit.

The rows

This is the complete set, not a selection. The rear-suspension value and sprocket pair are the fields that separate two applications with similar names, and they are blank on every Kimpex row because Kimpex publishes neither.

The oldest rows are flagged several times more often

3 of the 13 rows above carry at least one published manufacturer condition — 23% of them. Across the whole catalogue the figure is 6%. The oldest rows are flagged several times more often than the catalogue average, and which conditions they carry is the more useful half of that.

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.

The last column needs a baseline to mean anything. Rows beginning in 1996 or earlier are 1% of the catalogue — 13 rows of 1023. A condition spread evenly across model years would show about that share. One shows far more than that: Permanent vehicle modification puts 29% of its applications on rows this old.

Only 2 of the 6 published conditions appear on these rows at all — Permanent vehicle modification and Suspension lift kit required. The other 4 — Temporary Vehicle modification, Vehicle with cargo box, Temporary body parts removal and Permanent interference — appear only on rows whose first model year is later. Both permanent-class and temporary-class flags sit in that second group, so do not read this as old machines collecting the irreversible flags and new ones the reversible — the table does not say that.

Camso publishes the code and a one-line legend definition and nothing further: not which bracket, not which panel, not what gets cut on a particular machine. A letter is not something to read a shop procedure off, so take the letter on your row to the fitment desk and ask what it means in parts and labour on your machine. Where a flagged machine has been documented in detail, the entry is in Field Notes.

Camso’s legend, verbatim, including its spellings:

“Minor modification and light interference are possible on any model”
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 modificationCamso ATV/UTV Track System Application Guide, August 2026 revision, remarks legend, read 2026-09-26

One thing the legend does not do is cover everything the catalogue prints. 1 of the condition strings that appear on the oldest rows — Permanent vehicle modification — matches no definition in that legend. The guide also prints at least one remark letter against its oldest ATV rows, D, which the legend at the head of the same page does not define. Neither has a published definition anywhere, so if your row carries one, Camso itself or the shop that would fit the system is the only place the answer exists — and it is worth getting before the parts are ordered rather than after.

Three things to settle before you buy for a machine this old

• Ask whether the row is still orderable.A published application is not a stocked part. Camso’s guide carries an availability column alongside the part numbers, with values running from new item now available and available to order through to modified, phase out and obsolete (read 2026-09-26) — so a row can be printed and the hardware behind it can be out of production. The guide marks that column by colour rather than by text, which is worth knowing if you are working from a printout. Ask the fitment desk for the availability against your row by name, and ask it about the vehicle-specific mount kit as well as the track units.
• Do not read an absent Kimpex row as a refusal. Kimpex publishes no statement about which model years the Commander WS4 covers, no reason, and no note on any machine it does not list — the product page publishes the kit, the additional components an order needs and a vehicle search, and nothing about coverage limits (read 2026-09-26). No published application is all an empty column means, so if your machine is missing from it, ask rather than conclude.
• Budget for the drag on a tired driveline. Camso publishes an average speed loss of about 30%, up to 50% on some vehicles; Kimpex publishes 35%. Neither figure is qualified by vehicle age, and neither maker publishes anything about the condition of the machine underneath. That load goes through parts you already own, so on a thirty-year-old quad the things worth checking before the tracks go on are the ones that carry it: wheel bearings and hub condition at all four corners, play in the driveline, and the state of the metal where the mount kit and the anti-rotation hardware have to bolt up. A fresh set of tracks does not make any of those better.

Ordering for a machine this old

The part that decides an old install is the vehicle-specific hardware, not the track units. Camso ships it as one item and Kimpex as three:

The Camso systems come “with adapted mount kits to fit most popular ATV models”. Kimpex lists the WS4 kit alongside a track adapter and front and rear anti-rotation hardware, each chosen for the specific ATV, and directs buyers to its vehicle search.powersports.camso.co ATV T4S page and kimpex.com Commander WS4 page, both read 2026-09-26

There is a second wrinkle specific to old machines, and it catches people. A replacement part for an already-fitted system is ordered against the model year and serial of the track system, not of the quad. A thirty-year-old machine wearing a fifteen-year-old system needs the system’s year and serial; the machine’s year is no help at all. If the system pre-dates the current naming, a 6622 serial is ambiguous and the model year is what separates the generations.

So photograph the serial plate rather than retyping it — one transposed character resolves to a different generation of the same system — and have four things ready at the parts desk: the system’s own model year, its serial, the machine it is bolted to, and whether that machine’s rear axle is rigid or independent. Those are what select the diagram a part is ordered from.