This web page is to document that it might be 'risky' to do business with Wesley Layden Bowen (phone: 252-431-4747 facebook: https://www.facebook.com/layden.bowen/) from Henderson / Kittrell North Carolina ...
In January 2022, Layden advertised a 2004 Polaris Sportsman atv for sale on Facebook Marketplace. He has since deleted the ad, but here is a screen-capture I made:
I asked him several questions about the atv. He said the atv had been owned by his family since new, and he therefore knew all the 'history' of it, and he claimed it was in great shape. I bought it for $2,500 cash.
When I got it home, I decided to take the big 30" swamp tires off, and put on some 25" factory wheels/tires
When I removed the swamp tires, I found that the wheel spacers that Layden used were a mismatch for the nuts (he used the factory nuts with a 'flat' back, and the wheel spacer needed nuts with an angled 'acorn' back). This mismatch causes the nuts to not seat properly, and to loosen as you ride. Several of the nuts were "hand tight" for example, and I was able to remove them without even using a wrench. The wheel spacers had several 'gouges' in them, indicating that the loose wheels had been wobbling/moving behind the loose nuts.
All the left/rear wheel studs were gone, and replaced with hardware store bolts/nuts/washers (pretty dangerous/improper, imho) ... I suspect they were replaced because the mismatched nuts loosened, and the tire came off while riding, and broke off all the original/proper wheel studs.
When I got to the front/right wheel, I found that it was missing a nut ... because it was missing a wheel stud ... because 1 of the 4 mounting arms on the wheel hub was totally broken off. Probably more carnage from the mismatched spacer/nut combination(?) But in any case, a seriously dangerous pre-existing problem.
When trying to find part numbers to order a new wheel hub & proper wheel studs, etc, I did a VIN lookup (https://atv.polaris.com/en-us/vin-search/) to get more info about the atv, and found that it is a 1999 model, rather than the 2004 Layden claimed in his ad. Therefore it's 5 years older, and that makes a pretty big difference in what I would have paid for it.
I tried to contact him and ask about the age of the atv being different from what he had claimed, but he did not respond, and 'blocked' me on Facebook.
Layden Bowen lied about the age of the atv by 5 years, and did not disclose the problem that the wheel nuts kept loosening (because he used the wrong spacer/nut combination), and wheels would fall off if I rode it (which could have killed me!)
Update: After seeing my post about him, Layden finally un-blocked me on Facebook, and we had a discussion. He says he had been told wrong about the year, and the wheel stud/nut problems were not a problem in his opinion. And that it must have been me that broke the right/front wheel hub (umm ... that break does not look fresh at all, and I only gingerly rode the atv about 50 feet from my trailer to my driveway). Anyway, that's where it stands, and I assume that's the end of it.