In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
4x4 ATV question?
Nighthawk
Member Posts: 12,022 ✭✭✭
Ive been thinking about buying a new 4 wheeler, hunting Season opens soon. Ive got a 2004 Honda that I have babied since I bought it new back then, would like to trade it in while it still has some trade in value. Im looking at another Honda but the Artic Cat is looking back at me. It has to be a 4x4 450 CC's or above and water cooled. Anyone have any comments on the above 2? Or any other recommendations?? Or good history with any particular ATV?
Comments
Our hunt club wanted it more than me so iI sold it to him and bought a pPolaris ranger 800 xp. Buy what ever make you can get service on locally. I like Polaris products.p
KC
"Ive got a 2004 Honda that I have babied" .........good lord, why?...these are bullet proof, stick with it.
+1
Suzuki King Quad is great but the frame breaks at 10,000 miles. Also the transmission has no "Park".
Can Am does good but drive line breaks at the u-joints after 5,000 miles. 4wd doesn't engage until 1 revolution of wheel.
Honda runs forever but doesn't have the range or suspension to run with the big dogs.
Polaris has the range and suspension, has solved the lurching problem with the new frame (XP models).
I have 2 Polaris 500 Sportsman. No problems, not a service bay queen.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
A lot of the people I have worked with over the years that bought something else wish they had gotten a Honda. If you are into racing then maybe something else.
Not racing them but we do regularly ride over 100 miles in a day, over very varied terrain. Belts I have seen last over 10,000 miles. So belts are not a problem.
Again Hondas are great and the farmers up here use them and abuse them and they run and run.
But they don't have the suspension and range to ride 100 plus miles in a day.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Can not go wrong with a Honda. EVER
Yup. Screw Polaris
quote:Originally posted by shilowar
Can not go wrong with a Honda. EVER
Yup. Screw Polaris
Unless your preference is for rattles and squeaks and breaking down.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
quote:Originally posted by rscoleman88
quote:Originally posted by shilowar
Can not go wrong with a Honda. EVER
Yup. Screw Polaris
Unless your preference is for rattles and squeaks and breaking down.
Indeed. Or having to pull the cover to dry the belt so it'll move again.
I think you are blowing smoke when requesting a water cooled engine. Ive yet to see one in that size range in Honda engines?
Then you my friend have not been to MK IV Honda have you? Neither did I say what I was buying, or did I??
select-fire, My Bro in law says he wants it for what they offer me for trade in. If it dont work out I will let you know first. Its a good 4 wheeler, just has 13,500+ very babied miles on her.
I used to work part time at our local Gander MNT, and we sold them there for the first two years after we opened. Gander dropped them because of all the breakdowns & returns. If you baby them they may hold up, but they seem to resist being put through any rough paces.
You probably will not go wrong with another Honda, unless you want to haul a lot of weight. The transmissions are the weak area on a Honda ATV. Can Am's are nice but costly. Polaris has been around for a long time, and seem to have a corner on most of the ATV market.
I have a 2004 700 Sportsman that is a brute & I have had almost zero trouble with it.
Trinity +++
You never see an Arctic Cat these days. A few years ago you saw a lot of them and the owners all had the same thing to say. Avoid them at all cost for they have to many electrical problems. I have saw them go into a full electrical wiring melt down to blowing every fuse in the fuse block four or five times in one day. Then parts were a pain to get. One dealer went completely out of business and the other closed down and reopened as a Polaris dealer.
Polaris makes a good riding ATV. A lot of people have had the front wheel bearings, tie rods, ball joints and axles (both ends) to fail them. Same problems with the Rangers. The 2011 and newer 900 RZR's. I have yet to see or here of one making it past 5 to 600 miles without the carrier bearing blowing apart. The RZR owners will not pay Polaris $300+ for a drive shaft assemble like Polaris says needs to be done to fix the problem. Instead they are installing $80 Carrier bearings for a 2011 Toyota Tacoma pickup in their 2011 and newer 900 RZR's. Which happens to be an exact fit.
Kawasaki Brute Force 650 and 750's. 2004 to 2010. Love and hate relation. People loved them when they ran correctly. Hated them when the front axles, CDI boxes, Coil, Cams or drive Belts failed which was often. Ride a wheely on one for long after it started smoking and the front cam gets fried from lack of oil. The 2012 up models Kawasaki designed the engine and I have not saw or heard of any failures in the electrical or cams. 8 out of 10 people that have them to use around a farm or to hunt here wishes that they had bought something else. All say the same thing. To much power for what they need.
Tons of Hondas around here. The 500 Foreman and Rubicon line are nearly bullet proof. The thing that knocks them out of the top is the out dated suspension systems. Of the two the Rubicon is the smoothest riding due to it having dual rear shocks and more articulation in the rear than the Foreman's. The Rincon's have independent suspension. But their Hondamatic ($1500 each) transmissions lacks the top speed of the Kawasaki, Polaris and Kawasaki's in its class.
Look around here and you would thank that Suzuki and Yamaha has gone out of business.
I beat the crap of of it. Ride it like I stold it every time I get on it. Wheelies, donuts, top speed on grass gravel and blacktop.
Last week I was pulling a trailer of hay bales with it. 50 bales @65lbs each on the trailer at one time. Multiple loads.
It ice fishes, runs the trap line and fords the river
Nothing has broken. It just runs and runs.