Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's yamaha Ultramatic transmission opinions

I've used the Bighorns a whole bunch in snow with my Rokon. ( do you know Rokons?) They never clogged up and always tracked exceptional. The weak link in snow on an ATV has always been depth and diff drag, not traction for me. With that Rokon I could climb anything I pointed it at with a foot of snow, more then that steering became very complicated.

I am down to two options with the tires.

10" front and 12" rear both 25" tall ITP Mudlight XL's
8" front and 10" rear Maxxis Bighorns 25" tall

Both of these sets are within a couple pounds of each other. I really like the bighorns for all around use, but the mudlites have a wicked good reputation and I can get them in the wider set which I really like.

The mudlites should be cheaper in price. The Bighorns are radials though,little smoother ride.Mudlites are available in radial though.

Did you get rid of the rokon. They look like a neat ride.

I had two but just sold one last week. I'm keeping the old 70's mint factory original bike. I won't be using it much but it will be worth a whole bunch some day.

Can you tell me if the 5+2 ITP wheel offset will put the tires way outside the fenders? I want to upgrade to alloy wheels but not at the cost of throwing crap up in the air

With 25's you should be inside the fenders fairly well. 27's would be a differant story.

Well I sprung for the Bighorns 25X8X12 fronts 25X10X12's rear. Bighorns run bigger then marked which is non-typical as most tires a slightly to well below marked sizes.

I'm putting them on ITP Black Spotlocks which wight only 9.5 lbs each. If I get some time I'll post up a few snaps here. I am going to see if the dealer has the over fendres, or what amounts to 2" black fender extensions. I saw these on another 450 and they were just perfect on the Griz. Should have come this way straight away.

I've got a 2004 Yamaha Grizzly 660 and just bought a 2006 Polaris Sporstman 500 HO X2 a couple of months ago(two-up feature with convertible dump box).

I much prefer the Grizzly for its smooth ride, instantly available power and great handling at both low and high speeds. I NEVER experienced ANY belt slippage with the Grizzly. The same can't be said for the Polaris. Even starting off early in the morning I've had belt slippage. Gear changes are no where near as smooth as with the Yamaha either.

If I had my time back, I would probably have bought another Grizzly, rather than the Polaris X2.

I am considering a Yamaha side by side 4X4 ATV. I am 68 years old with one bad knee and the other has been replaced. I probabaly won't be climbing any steep hills that the machine could raise up the front wheels, but I want something capable of crawling down some canyons to retrieve game, and climb over logs.

My Quadrunner is too uncomfortable since my knee replacement.
Are the side by side models too wide or too long for off road use compared to conventional atv's?
Also the Yamaha has some kind of push button drive lock advertised. Is this unreliable as some Chevy Z71 dash mounted 4wd systems were. Or is it a positive manual slide lock?
I am asking all these questions because I can't leave the house right now as the wife is very ill, thus haven't even seen one.

What about carbuerator or efi. I know EFI would be better. I live in Zavalla,TX. Near Lake Sam Rayburn. I would be hunting in Colorado between 8,000 and 10,000 FT.
In y'alls opinion is Yamaha the best machine to purchase.

The Grizzly with selectable 2WD and 4WD is push button activated and has been flawless for everyone I know. Also the Diff lock is Push buttom activated the same way. It's also been flawless on mine. The steering becomes a bit stiffer when all 4 wheels are locked but the machine becomes a real tank set this way.

I posted this on a reply but wanted to make it a new subject, sorry
I am considering a Yamaha side by side 4X4 ATV. I am 68 years old with one bad knee and the other has been replaced. I probabaly won't be climbing any steep hills that the machine could raise up the front wheels, but I want something capable of crawling down some canyons to retrieve game, and climb over logs.

My Quadrunner is too uncomfortable since my knee replacement.
Are the side by side models too wide or too long for off road use compared to conventional atv's?
Also the Yamaha has some kind of push button drive lock advertised. Is this unreliable as some Chevy Z71 dash mounted 4wd systems were. Or is it a positive manual slide lock?
I am asking all these questions because I can't leave the house right now as the wife is very ill, thus haven't even seen one.

What about carbuerator or efi. I know EFI would be better. I live in Zavalla,TX. Near Lake Sam Rayburn. I would be hunting in Colorado between 8,000 and 10,000 FT.
In y'alls opinion is Yamaha the best machine to purchase.

sweetsue sweetsue
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Registered: 11/20/02
Posts: 377
Loc: Zavalla,Tx

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I posted this on a reply but wanted to make it a new subject, sorry
I am considering a Yamaha side by side 4X4 ATV. I am 68 years old with one bad knee and the other has been replaced. I probabaly won't be climbing any steep hills that the machine could raise up the front wheels, but I want something capable of crawling down some canyons to retrieve game, and climb over logs.

My Quadrunner is too uncomfortable since my knee replacement.
Are the side by side models too wide or too long for off road use compared to conventional atv's?
Also the Yamaha has some kind of push button drive lock advertised. Is this unreliable as some Chevy Z71 dash mounted 4wd systems were. Or is it a positive manual slide lock?
I am asking all these questions because I can't leave the house right now as the wife is very ill, thus haven't even seen one.

What about carbuerator or efi. I know EFI would be better. I live in Zavalla,TX. Near Lake Sam Rayburn. I would be hunting in Colorado between 8,000 and 10,000 FT.
In y'alls opinion is Yamaha the best machine to purchase.

I would go yamaha,but I'm biased towards them.

I don't follow the side by sides that much. But I've heard that the Yamaha efi 700 will be brought out this june in the rhino.

I've operated carbed machines at 8 to 10k with no problems.

The biggest problem you'll face with side by side,is the width of them eliminates them from being operated on orv trails. You're seeing more and more national forest implementing a 50inch width maximum. These rhino's,rangers and whatever else are over the 50 mark. So you're faced with using them on the same roads you drive trucks on.

For the price of a rhino or similar vehicle. You can buy a used toyota or suzuki samari and have heat,air and radio,for less.Plus drive it on pavement.

In my area,the side by sides are fined constantly for driving on orv trails. Unless you drive them on private property ,their usefulness is diminished every time a new off road restriction is placed into effect.