Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's New 4 wheeler advice?

http://www.lakehillmotors.com/hondaatvs.htm

This place isn't far from me and sells the 350 4x4 electric shift for $4500 out the door, not including tax. Honda replaced the 350 rancher with the 420 this year, they sell it for $4680.

http://www.southernhonda.com/new_ve...cturer=1&Category=2&CatDesc=ATVs

This place sells manual shift 4x4 honda 350 ranchers for $4283 out the door before tax.

Someone is getting royally screwed if they're paying $9k for a $4300 atv. You might be in alaska, but there are roads south and pickup trucks to drive them.

A few years back I was hunting out of a camp near egegik alaska and the outfitter had a fleet of about 7-8 honda 300 atv's. My cousin, a big yahama fan, asked the outfitter why he had all hondas. He replied that they'd tried everything else and the hondas were the only thing that held up. For me, I don't get far from civilization on an ATV unless it's got honda stamped on it. Call me biased but I don't trust anything else.

I'm up in northern B.C.Everything and anything is pricey.

B.C= Bring Cash

I just got the 450 Grizzly hunter edtion and love it. The fourwheel drive is what sold me on it. It's push button so you olny have lock it in when you need it. The other thing is flip the cover over when you locked it in to use the locker in the front so your locked up all around. I've had it up to 50mph and went on a ride w/ a buddy that has a 700 grizzly he used a tank of gas to my 1/2 of tank. I like the yamaha I did alot of looking the past few months and been around hondas most of my life. It's just my 2cents.

Honda's top of the line -msrp for a rincon =$7849 NOBODY in the US pays msrp.

2006-350cc 4x4 =$5099 msrp.Out the door price would be less than $5000.
This isn't directed at you 7STW just stating what hondas web-site states.BC =prices suck !

I have some friends in florida that have far more money than sense.One has a 500 acre farm where the whole group of friends relatives and anybody they know who likes to drink beer and raise hell w/ jeeps -quads -dirt bikes -rhinos mules etc. .

They have slew ditches as they call them and a couple of retention ponds that they take their equipment into to "make a showin".Whoever absolutely abuses their machinery the most is "the man".
This has gone on for 15 yrs plus going to cheeha mountain and other regional swampy places/sink holes to ride.
Between them and their kids they have had basically every brand of machine on the market.And through all of this dubability testing over the years Honda is the chosen quad.
All of these machines get very and i mean very little maintenance.Abuse it all weekend and park it by the barn.
There are a couple of 10-12 yr old 300/400 hondas that they just laugh about -b/c it has been sunk beat-up abused for so many years they can't believe it.
I think most of the jap quads are very good as is the polaris BUT the reliablity a of honda cannot be denied.
Another friend bought 3 quads a few years ago 375 polaris -90cc polaris and a -250 recon honda -both polaris had several problems and the father and son took turns hi-jacking moms 250 honda recon.And both father and son complained it rode so rough you're back would hurt and couldn't wait to get their polaris back.
Anyway i'm in the market for a new quad and will likely go w/a honda b/c of the reading i've did over the past couple of years.
Good luck w/your quads-Mike

10K is nothing on a Honda (or other ATV - although in rural Alaska, "honda' is what ATVs are called mainly because that's what most of them are.) In rural Alaska in many places, a Honda is used much like a car in other places so 10K or more miles in a year is not unheard of. A buddy of mine has over 30,000 miles on his Foreman.

I don't like the Ranchers. too many have made a quick trip from the nursery to the graveyard. I drive an Eiger right now. It's only a year old but runs well. I would imagine it has between 5-7K miles on it. I really don't know as the odometer was crunched with 1100 miles on it when it went rubber side up in the ocean when it was a month old.

Find a machine or two that you really like the features on, then research them hard.

I think you are going to like that machine. In that class it is my favorite machine. Hondas are ok machines as far as how long they last for the most part. The problem is to get them to last like that Honda uses Restrictors so they don't have the same power and they haven't kept up on the technology and their suspension isn't in the same cateory as many of the other brands. I've had Honda but have mostly road Yamaha over the years and certainly have no complaints about them. Right now I've got a couple of Kawi's and so far so good. They are 650's and I bought them because of the price. For several years Kawi just didn't have a marketing program but I haven't run into problems with them. I'm surprised Polaris sells the number they do but they spend LOTS on advertising. Susuki has a couple of winners as well. I wouldn't mind trying their 700 EFI with the box on the back and longer frame.

I see no one is championing the polaris brand. lol. I got one and it has been less than reliable.......

I heard an urban legend/rumor that Kawi's and Suzi's use the same power plant mfg'r. Anybody confirm or deny this?

I'm not sure about the Kawi but I know Arctic Cat uses the Suzuki powerplant.

An old man (farmer) close to my house has a Honda 400 4X4 of mid to late 90's vintage with 34k miles on it. Original clutch, just tune-up parts, batteries, tires, cv boots etc. No major mechanical replacements or repairs. He uses it daily on his farm..........

badger

kawi is kawi

Kawasaki and suzuki have a partnership -sharing technology.

They each swap different models back and forth and do nothing more than change the name and color.

It doesn't appear to happen w/their flagship models like a 1400cc ninja is solely a kawasaki -1300cc hayabusa is solely a suzuki.

Other makers using other powerplants =no idea.Probably though.

My Honda dealer has worked on ranch Honda 300s that have 50K+ miles on the clock and the engines still purr. The rest of the poor rigs look pretty tough but that's the life of a ranch rig, and not Honda's fault.

I've got a Rancher 350ES, and my pop had two 300s (one was stolen) and a Foreman 500. Anything mechanical can be broken, especially if abused. Honda has a great reputation for a reason. They all look purty on the showroom floor, but they're not created equal.

Arctic cat uses suzuki motors in both their quads and sleds.

YOu are right Polaris is the LAST brand I would go for.
I belive Kawi and Suzi HAD a relationship where Suzi started with some Kawi power plants that has since gone away. At least that's my most recent understanding. Both seem to be more than adequate and a grade above the polaris.

Suzuki and Kawi split the sheets awhile back thats from the dealers mouth.

I was in the same boat this past winter. I have owned a lot of bikes and always felt that the honda was the only way to go. However I hated the open front diff on my last one. It was disturbing to be stuck with a front tire on solid ground that would not turn. When I decided to buy a new one,... the locker in the front was mandatory for me.

So I went looking, riding and researching them as best I could. I ended up with the Yamaha Grizzly 450. It just had the most features for the money with a great reliability reputation to boot. While at the dealer I asked about various problems and recalls. The salesmen took me into the service area to see 4 660's that were in for routine maintaince. They were all owned by the same ranch corporaton. They ranged from 10,000 to 16,000 plus miles. I was very surprised to see the miles these bikes had. The service guy said these don't have that many miles, plenty come in with over 20,000 used by the farmers and ranchers here. He went on to say they abuse and overload them more then anyone would as a sportsman or hunter. Mostly because the employees using them don't care about them. Most of the employees use english as a second language, (temporary farm labor). They drive these all day every day for all kinds of chores, often pulling heavy trailers.

Anyway, I have no compliants with the one I bought, and it had very big shoes to fill following up my Honda 300 fourtrax. The Diff lock in 4X4 is simply spectacular, add in the low range and it's as good at climbing and slogging through crap that nothing but a tracked vehicle would surpass.

Some of the features that swayed me that the other mfgs could not compete with were: 12VDC outlet, full digital display, trip meter, hour meter, clock, etc, gas guage, 2WD 4WD Difflock, auto trans, argueably the best auto in the business too.

The weak links:
The tires,......way too small and thin, they simply suck. I swapped them out right away with same size Maxxis Bighorns. They are marked the same size but absolutely dwarf the factory tires. What a difference. In 2WD it will climb so well it will scare you.

The plastic skid plates and the lack of CV guards. I added aluminum Riccochet plates and CV guards for about a 150 bucks.

The rear suspension is too soft for farm work with the stock shocks/springs. With my 20 gallon sprayer on the rear rack the rear sags a bit. I've been told that swapping out the rear shocks with those from the 660 or the rhino will fix that and really stifen up the rear end. It's a hunting and utility machine, I'm not to worried about the high speed performance. I would prefer the heavier spring rate.

I've had it now about 5 months and worked it pretty hard. No problems so far, I've mowed 20 acres with a 4 foot wide brush cutter in 6 hours with temps over 100 deg. That cooling fan was running the whole time.

Folks get kinda emotional about the choices they make. Heck I don't care what anyone buys or uses. I'm just adding my opinion to the mix for you. It was a rather easy decision for me when I saw the amount of miles on several of these bikes at the dealer, and with the features. By the way mine was 5700 bucks tax and license out the door. I would not have been able to touch a Honda for that much and it had less features. I really wanted another honda but could simply not justify it compared to the Yamaha.

Let me be the first to dispute that statement.In my opinion,the hydrostatic transmission on the honda rubicon is smoothest automatic transmission available,and it has no belt to slip or break.

I've got no dog in the disput here. Just going by statistics. That belt cannot slip, and has sold many thousands of units without any failures. Smoother? maybe so I have no time on the Honda to have an opinion. More dependable..........I just don't see that based only on the industry statistics of sales. That info is available someplace on line, when I did my research on them I found it but cannot recal now, it's been too long, and I've slept since then.

It was an overwhelming statistic though. Further I would much rather replace a 20 dollar belt with 10 minutes worth of dissassembly then to have to remove the transmission and work on that complex device with the added expenses.

To suggest that the Yamaha belt will slip, or is otherwise a problem is not a very fair assemssment of the design. It's not at all like the polaris which does. The Yamaha belt would have some catastrophic situation causing it to slip or fail in any way. It's not slipping or it would not be rated to outlast the entire machine in its lifespan. The belt is a constant velocity gear belt. It's not on "V" pullys and stays tight as can be 100% of the time. I don't think you fully understand to way it works.

It is however a common misconception which I read plenty about before I bought mine. It's why I did the research to learn about it. All you have to see is the guys running the machine under water up to the handle bars with the Yamaha belt drive and it's not slipping even while under water under a heavy load of mud caked on the tires. I think the Polaris design has made all belt systems steriotypical now. Yamaha is nothing like the others. If you looked into it further as I did you will be surprised at the differences.

Actually,I have a great deal of experience with centrifugal belt drives,and I do fully understand how it works.Firstly,I am a mechanical technologist and power transmission was a large part of my training.Secondly,I hold a millwrights ticket,and have extensive experience with belt drives including infinite ratio belt drives as used on both snowmobiles and atvs.Thirdly,I raced competitively and spent many hours tuning and adjusting centrifugal belt drives such as those used on the yamaha and polaris atvs and snowmobiles.I have changed more drive belts,and serviced more centrifugal belt drives than most people will do in several lifetimes,so yes,I am very familiar with how they work.



The hydrostatic transmission used on the honda rubicon is one of the simplest and most reliable transmissions available.It is for this reason that both industrial and agricultural equipment use a lot of hydrostatic drives.The track record in industry,agricultural equipment and with the rubicon,has proven the reliability of the hydrostatic design many times over.Have you ever bothered to research the hondra hydrostatic drive yourself?
On the other hand,I have no use at all for the automotive style three speed automatic transmission used on the Rincon.

Well then....... there you have it right from a very experienced and knowledgable guy. I have nothing to gain from this thread, so go well and be happy!