Can a 550 fanner be made reliable ?

When I had one, I wrapped the air intake duct with heat reflective tape. And wrapped the muffler with fiber/ceramic muffler wrap. I added air intake vents in the shock towers, and hot air exhaust vents above footwells and rear edges of side panels. I also swapped the carb jets out to the approximate coldest temps I would be riding in (-20/-30), too keep it from ever running lean. If its a little rich in warmer temps, at worse you'll foul plugs.
Oh yea added air intake vents to dash for more air into air box.

Seemed best to idle for several minutes before shutting off when the liquid cools hit the key as soon as they stop. If a liquid idles at stop temps rise, but a fanner will cool down some at idle.

(My liquids I restart about 3 times to circulate the cool fluid up to cylinders to keep from "hot spotting" the engine, temp at 125, off for a minute and a half, restart temp is like 155 drops to 120, another minute off restart temp around 135 gets it down to 115. )

Was around 6500 miles when I sold it.

It's nice having a fanner in the group, fan exhaust is GREAT for drying goggles, or warming hands, warm air into kids gloves or anyone with cold fingers.

There was like 1 or 2 years where they had issues, otherwise they have been pretty bullet proof from my experience. The local rental fleet had 60 of the Edge RMKs with the 550 in it back in the mid 2000s (2004 maybe) and they never had an issue with them.

sled_guy