Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Yamaha Viking or Honda Pioneer

I'm selling or trading my 2018 Polaris Rzr 1000 xt for something a little more suited to hunting and want to know what you think of the Yamaha Viking and the Honda Pioneer 1000.

Uncle has the Pioneer - it's okay but LOUD in the cab and very hot in the summer. So loud you can't talk to one another easily going down the trail.

IMO - I'd be looking hard at the Rmax 1000 from Yamaha long before the Honda.

I've got a Yamaha Rhino that's the same way. You have to wear hearing protection if you're traveling over 10 mph. I'll be looking at a Polaris between Christmas and New Year.

The new RMAX is quite the upgrade over the old Rino's.

I'll give it a look.

Many of the Rangers in our camp are super quiet on occasion. Just a faint whining noise from the diffs and transmission when attached to the back of the Hondas pulling them back to camp..........

I think I will be staying away from the Polaris Ranger. I had a 900 and it did ok but I wasn't impressed. A third option I was just looking into is the Can Am Defender hd8 or hd10. How do they compare to the Honda and Yamaha. Kawasaki has a great warranty but don't know much about them.

Having my '18 Teryx LE4 now almost 3 years....

Best warranty in the business---3 yrs

4300 miles now or so...not a single issue/problem

Cab noise ? yes.......dependable ? yes fuel mileage ? 18-20 on a good day

4 seater vs 2 seater ? Make a good decision on that....I prob could have used a 2 seater instead of 4

None are perfect..just a note too...Teryx 800 motor holds 4 qts of oil...easy to service machine

Battery location is only gripe

Thanks for the information on the Kawasaki. I will put that on my list to try out. I'm would be torn between the 2 and 4 seat. That is why the bench seat on some of the others would be nice. Most of the time it is just me and one of my boys.

X1000. The RMAX will most likely be my next SxS.

Same - some work things need to settle down but next.

I mean - I'd LOVE the 190hp Can Am race car but the RMAX fits more needs, quite honestly.

I have 2 Yamaha 2015 Vikings good reliable work related UTV, The ones I have are loud .. It is also not a very fast machine. I have heard the new ones are a lot more quiet than the old ones. Also heard the RMax is quite the machine but have not tested one yet.

Looked at the Viking and the Pioneer 700-4 four years ago. Went with the Honda. Just traded it in this week on a Pioneer 1000-5. The 700 just didnt have the ground clearance and suspension travel for some of the places we hunt. I figure I would have had the same issue with the Viking.

The Pioneer 700 had 1900 hard miles, but not a single issue with it. The bed on the 700 had more than enough room for hunting gear and a quartered elk. The 1000 cargo bed is a few inches wider, so even more of a good thing.

I'll always have a SxS or Toyota something on my spot of Earth

This trail on your SxS or quad will make UR azz pucker

about 1000' drop in less than a 1/4 mile

Loose......rocky & full of gullies

I bought a Rhino 660 in 2007 new. It was, unfortunately, the last year of carbs. Had I waited a few months I would have gotten the EFI.
The Rhino was hands down the best machine I've ever owned. in 14 years of ownership I bought two batteries, a carb rebuild kit, a spare carb just in case and the usual oil changes. It got very hard to start in winter a couple years back and after the carb rebuild the idle seemed to not hold well. I got a good (very good) offer for it couple months ago so I sold it. Have not replaced it yet because I can't decide what I want.
Looked at Honda Pioneer but wasn't thrilled. Looked at Tracker (Textron) from Bass Pro. It seems like a well built machine but not the best value IMHO. Everyone I know is happy the their Ranger and I have my sights set on one. Would have pulled the trigger already except for the sales guy kept telling me they couldn't deal because COVID was making inventory tough to meet demand. Think was he had a warehouse full of the damn things!
The Yamaha machines I've owned rank number 1 for me and the Honda stuff a little behind that. Polaris, which I owned a 500cc ATV around 2001, was the absolute worst. If it were not for the hundreds of happy Ranger owners I've talked to I would stay far away from anything that looked like a Polaris.

Has anyone put the Can Am Defender hd10 xt to the test. Beat the crap out of it and survived? I think I am going to rule out the mid size 4 seat models because most of the time it would be me and one other person and I would use the cargo box more often. From what I have read on reviews and on here I like the Kawasaki Teryx 2 seat, Yamaha Rmax 2 seat, Can Am Defender hd10 and Pioneer 1000. I owned the Polaris Ranger 900 about 4 years ago and it was ok. Never put it to any hard use as I only had it for 6 months but wasn't that impressed with it . Maybe the new models are better.

@shoots4fun What should Tracker do to improve the bang for the buck of the 800sx?

@rdd What is your priority list for the SxS? Knowing what you’re looking for will help us help you compare models.

I would like a machine that I can use for hunting and some recreation. Have a box on it big enough to stuff a deer into. Also built well enough to handle some of the trails while out hunting in the in Colorado or Wyoming that I don't want to beat the living crap out of my truck on. Being reliable is at the tops for me. For an example. This last year I hunted an area that had about a two mile long section of road that was very narrow and a lot of large rocks and ruts just to get back to the area where we would walk back into about 3 miles. When I scouted the area in the summer I used my Polaris Rzr 1000 and it took about 20 minutes to travel that section of road. In my truck it took about another 30 minutes and a trip to the body shop to have all of the tree branch scuffs buffed out of the truck when I got home.The Rzr is fun but is not a very good machine for hunting.

Tikka has had great service from his Kawi, and the Hondas have proven themselves over the years. I've owned Yamaha and Honda products and can say that I've never had one strand me yet. I've seen one Yamaha at camp have to be towed back due to mechanical failure, can't count how many Rangers have had to be towed. The only Honda I can remember in 10 years at the club that had to be be rescued, was due to operator stupidity. He managed to roll a soft tire off the rim in rutted soft clay. My Pioneer 1000/3 is perfect for my needs, fast enough, plenty of torque and had good ground clearance. The only thing I could improve on would be upgrading the shocks. The suspension travel is adequate, but the damping could be improved on.