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4 Wheelers

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Best Brand

  • Honda

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  • Polaris

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I believe, and I could be wrong, but the John Deere Buck shares a lot with the Cam Am... Cam Am is almost dead around here, the dealer that does cary them doesn't sell many at all.. I don't here to my complaints about them except the ones I hear about Arctic cat.. Poor dealer network. The Deere dealers around here used to carry a lot of AC's but just stoped carrying them because lack of demand and the advent of the JD Quads...

The tracks they put on Quads are pretty cool NR.. Ever Price them? Goood god, might be able to buy an old Sherman tank for that much money, lol.
 
JD is a Cat eh? Believable. Iwasn't going to buy one or a Cat so I didn't look to far into it... The Cats, when I looked at them 3-4 years ago weighed a ton and shared a lot with Suzuki.. I really like the old Suzuki's but didn't like the newer ones when I was looking.. All I know is that they are all way too darn expensive these days, lol...
 
I've always thought Can Am = Bombardier = John Deere. Same machines.

As far as I know Arctic Cat builds their own machines using Suzuki and/or Kawasaki engines/drive train. I think AGCO made a deal with Arctic Cat to market atvs in Europe under the Massey Ferguson brand. Not available in North America.

I'm on my second Polaris and have been satisfied with them. Had a '92 250 2x4 and now have a '99 Express 300 2x4. These are both the old school 2-stroke chain drive models.

I have no experience at all with the newer models. Don't plan to either as long as my old 300 hangs together. The 2 stroke is crude but dependable with lots of power in a small package. Chain drive is a nuisance but really doesn't require that much attention, and I can easily do it myself.
 
I don't know if towing capacity is less on independent, but from my own experience, the heavier the hitch weight the lower the hitch will go. Then add your own weight of sitting on it. On a solid axle the hitch will stay at the same height, except for the tires squatting. I have owned several yamaha's the ones that have independent are the ones we get on first, much smoother ride. Solid axle ones don't get near the miles because of driver choice. Like the yamaha because of no need to shift between gears, but I think fuel economy is sacrificed. People say they like the smaller ones, but for overall use, I'll never go back to a small one.

It almost crazy, but have considered getting a four legged one :wink:.
But I am concern about the suspension :wink:
 
GO HONDA ALL THE WAY!
They run forever on routine maintainance and always start. We use them in the cold and we have never had a honda that wouldn't start. We use them A LOT!! Just got a new 4x4 Foreman last spring and already have 2500 miles on it in less than a year (no road miles all ranch pasture). We would't run this ranch without them.
 
In many ways I regret buying both of mine.. Would have been better off spending the money on horses or at least only having one and than buying a horse. Our problem is hired help or day help don't ride horses anymore (And to be honest, I am far from handy on a horse) so you are kind of forced to use them.. We are working on changing that but if we get rid of the quads our neighbor might stop calling for help rounding up his cattle... Hey... Bonus :lol: :lol: Nah, he rarely calls anymore, at one point last year they had something like 6 Quads on the place.. A Kawa, a Suz, 2 Polaris, 1 honda and a Yamaha.. They keep looking for another old Suzuki Kind Quad like the one they bough 8 -10 years ago as their current one is going to die soon, probably gets 20 miles on it a day...
 
I stand corrected, IL. BRP hasn't made the Traxter available in their lineup for a couple years (2005 was the last year for the Traxter), but they are apparently still manufacturing them for JD. Prior to the Buck, JD quads were Cats.

Bear in mind that the Buck is not the higher end Outlander that I was talking about. The Traxter/Buck are purely a utility ATV. I rode one, and wasn't overly impressed. According to BRP, they dropped the Traxter model from the lineup to concentrate on sport/utes and try to lose the image of being "work only ATVs".

And Horseless, I now understand what you meant. Even on my solid axle quads, I never used the light hitch on the axle, but rather a frame mount style that was heavier duty. As such, I always had hitch squat.

Rod
 
We have had a Honda 450 Foreman ES (electric shift) for about 5 or 6 years and it has been a pretty good machine.

The ES feature is starting to act up a little, but I think that it only needs adjustment - it's going in for service right soon and they will have a look at it.

The fulltime 4x4 makes for some fairly heavy turning, which might be a consideration if she is doing a lot of sharp corners. My wife handles ours O.K.

It is a little stubborn starting in this cold weather, but we don't use it much when the snow comes. Not much fun digging it out of deep snow!

I just simply love the machine. The cows don't. Because they soon learned that they can't out-run it! It makes shortwork out of breakouts!

It wouldn't hurt to drive a few different brands before you buy. But if you have a dealer right close by, that is worth something, too.

I always thought those Bombardier's looked like a good machine, but choked on the price.
 
Rod, dang, now I remember another reason I didn't get a can-am.. Ouchie prices, I thought Polaris was bad.. yikes.. Unless the dealers will come in wel under MRSP than Wowza... I could always go to the Holland dealer who sells thems as they generally have nice end of season clearance on them but I won't be in the market for at least 3-4 years I hope.
 
Yeah, there is a significant margin on the Can-Am machines. I was looking at a pre-release Renegade and the local dealer was able to knock 2Gs off the price tag compared to only a couple hundred off with Yamaha and Honda.

They were still more money than any of the Japanese bikes though, by several hundred dollars. By the same token though, you got the best 4x4 going, in each of the engine size classes you got the most HP, and you got to buy something that still remotely had ties to North America. For myself, my local Bombardier dealer is one of the best in the province, so that provides me with a little more incentive.

Rod
 
I would consider a 4x4 Kaw mule for comfort and reliablity. It seems the old I get the comfort of a bench seat is nice. Also they are pretty nimble.
 
Most dealers of Japanese ones will come in just far enough under MRSP to use the fees to bring it back up to MSRP. The one thing I get lucky with is signing it off as an Ag machine means no Taxes.. Also means no taking it to trails and the like which doesn't bother me...

Several hundred dollars difference is one thing Rod. 2 grand is another, lol.. I as almost in the market for another one this summer after the dealer trashed my Yamaha. Instead I got a new engine and new transmission put in the old girl at their cost.. Don't know how many miles are on that one as it doesn't keep a running total. The Polaris had a 150 mile break in period or something like that, I think it took 7-10 days to get there. The dealer was stunned to hear from me so quick.. Said a lot of guys don't put that much on in a 6 months to a year, lol.. My philo is if you have them, use them..
 
IL Rancher said:
Most dealers of Japanese ones will come in just far enough under MRSP to use the fees to bring it back up to MSRP. The one thing I get lucky with is signing it off as an Ag machine means no Taxes.. Also means no taking it to trails and the like which doesn't bother me...
Click to expand...

I'm close with both my Yamaha and my BRP dealer, so I was able to get near invoice pricing. I was shocked at how little room there was between MSRP and dealer invoice on the Yamahas. And up here in Canuckville, dealers don't get the same kind of volume kickbacks as they do in the US. My Yamaha dealer feels he makes between $100 and $200 per machine, after sales comissions and whatnot. He makes more on the sleds, so he takes the punishment on the quads just to keep people coming in. He's also the local Dodge dealer, so its not like hes starving either. :)

Theoretically, while the Can-Am MSRP is much higher, you should also be able to get much bigger savings, bringing you to at least within the ball park. You just gotta hammer on the dealer. Unfortunately, the popularity of the Can-Ams in my area means that its getting a little tougher to squeeze my dealer :(

Rod
 
Kind of reminds me of one of my friends who used to sell archery equipment.. There was some bows he made maybe 50 bucks on and that was if he moved them real fast and didn't charge himself interest.. You can try to hammer on the Yamahas or Suzukis and Kawasakis but they ain't moving.. The Polaris dealer was pretty good to work with to be honest.. I bought a big shreader from from the Can-Am dealer and they work nice with you to be honest.. Might on a Quad or a ski-do or sea-do.. Who knows.. Again, not something I am thinking about anytime soon.
 
jtg said:
GO HONDA ALL THE WAY!
They run forever on routine maintainance and always start. We use them in the cold and we have never had a honda that wouldn't start. We use them A LOT!! Just got a new 4x4 Foreman last spring and already have 2500 miles on it in less than a year (no road miles all ranch pasture). We would't run this ranch without them.
Click to expand...

I bought a new 2006 rancher this spring, test drove the new 2007 fuel injected ranchers but way to much plastic. Got a heavy duty grill guard for the unruley cows. They are tough tough tough. Hasn't been a horse around this place for 20 years. Most of the neighbors only saddle the horses up for drives and then it's only for the novelty of it. The new fad seems to be the big bull sellers are marketing 5 or 10 qtr horses on their sales.
 
have a 91 honda 300 fourtrax. my main problem i've had with it is i've had to replace the seat several times on account of horses eating it. had to replace the battery once. other than that no problems. until last year when dad ran over it with the tractor. but it runs like new now.
 
I didn't see this mentioned, but there are some ATV's that have painfully slow reverses on them and/or rev limiters, and some have aggravating safety devices that make it a little slow getting them engaged in reverse.

One feature that I like about our King Quad 700s, and probably some others have this, is that they're really easy to slap 'em into reverse, and there's and "override" switch that you push with your left thumb to override the reverse rev limiter, and then talk about being able to haul ass backwards!! You can probably go faster in reverse than some of those lil'fellers can go foreward, handy if a cow switches directions sometimes.

http://www.suzukicycles.com/Products/LTA700XK7/Features/Default.aspx
 
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/products/modelhome/322/0/home.aspx

Well, I think this is pretty much the one I like and think my wife will also. She's the one that is going to be using it anyways.

The two at the dealerships are 400's though, but I can't seem to find them on the website.

Pretty basic, it doesn't have a speedometer or anything. But then when I got home I was informed she needs a cigarette lighter type plug in so she can plug her GPS and precision ag stuff into. SHe thinks money grows on trees!!! Good thing her employer is paying $2,000 a year for it. Which is actually a pretty good deal since they are paying it off and we get to keep it.
 

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