Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska For ALASKA Only - What ATV

I could use help with purchasing a "NEW" ATV. Budget is $15,000.00 (Can go more if necessary).

I will never hunt with it or recreational trail ride with it. I only need it to get the mail and haul groceries up the mountain. "BUT" it needs to be re-sellable when they put me in a Pioneer Home. So, I need to purchase what will appeal to an experienced "Alaska" hunter utilizing an ATV. Feel free to ask questions. It will need to be a new ATV. I don't need to spend the whole $15,000.00 but it needs to be re-sellable to the Alaska market. THANK YOU.

I like my Polaris 6x6 Sportsman. I use mine around the place dragging a mower and to get up the hill during breakup when the road is crappy. Has a nice size bed in back for groceries, a double up seat in case you have another future Pioneer Home visitor stop by and it's not big and wide like a side by side. I paid about $10,000 for mine in 2018. Still has the tits on the tires. I think resale depends on how new it looks and how bad a guy wants it.

the most reliable and re-sellable would be the Honda 500 Foreman, it's also far better on gas mileage than the bigger ATV's and still gets you to the same places at the same time, the straight axle ATV's don't rip up the trails as bad & as quickly as the independent suspension quads, they are absolute hell on destroying trails

Honda ATV's also last far longer on the salt beaches than any other brand, and this was tested continuously over the last 40 years

I wouldn't pay dime for anything Polaris

"WOW" a million THANK YOU'S. Exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks.

Polaris uses a belt you don't want that Honda is shaft drive. try the rest buy the best Honda

The "GOAL" here is what ATV has the broadest market. I suspect most would choose a $17,000.00 ATV over a $5,700.00 ATV as a gift. But the "BROADEST" market is likely in the $5,700.00 to $7,500.00 price range. Hell, anything will work for getting the mail. But my goal is to have a marketable ATV when I need to sell it at a loss.

I say Honda, or Yamaha, not Kawasaki. I have all 3 parked in the shed. I've been running a 2005 Rancher since I bought it used in 2011 from my hunting buddy- probably less than 200 on it- he used it mostly for driveway snow-plowing. Ran it in Kotzebue, tundra, beach, street, ice pack, fresh and salt-water crossings until 2018 - since then here in Soldotna, beach and trail riding.. Been using it caribou hunting on the Steese too. I'd go Foreman, tho, if you, and that's your flavor.

Wife bought herself a used Yamaha Kodiak 700 after our 2nd year on the Steese. I REALLY like that machine!

A friend in Ambler has a Kawasaki 600 Brute stashed here and we use it trail here, and on the Steese if son is hunting with us. (She bought herself a Honda for Ambler, I think). It is a hard starting SOB if it sits more than a couple days, but otherwise OK - just not as good as the Kodiak 700 tho.

DO NOT BUY AN ARCTIC CAT.

That's all I'm gonna bother to add to this thread, some great info has been given out so far.

Yamaha

For ATV - Grizzly/Kodiak 450 (with EPS).
Reliable, more fuel efficient than 700, good resale value and easy to sell on used market (especially when lightly used).

You might want to also consider an UTV. Easier to get in and out of rather climbing over an ATV.... Bucket seats vs saddle. Steering wheel and foot pedal easier to use vs handle bars and hand controls. Protection from elements in inclement weather. Heat could be an option.
At or slightly above your budget if you don't go top end models and accessories.

I too am in the NEVER Polaris camp.

I owned Honda, Suzuki, Arctic Cat, Kawasaki, and mostly Polaris since 1982. All performed well. I don’t think I ever had to take any brand back to the dealers for repairs. The Big Boss Polaris 6x6 was hands down the best.
My current atv is a Kawasaki Brute Force 750. Owned it since 2012 with zero repairs and it gets used almost every day. Only complaint is it likes gas.

Let’s bypass the atv and get you to a pioneer home with no internet. I’ll help you move. Let’s find you a place with a nice duck pond

Honda and its not even close.

The Honda 520 Foreman is the best choice! You can always sell the Foreman… I own a 2008 420 Rancher, 2015 500 Rubicon and a 2018 500 Foreman. If you buy new they are a 520 now. Hondas start and run, and don’t get stuck…

Big yamaha fan but that belt drive ain't all its cracked up to be.

Just two people sitting on a yamaha, the belts will smoke on hills. You can smell it burning up. Surely have to be in low gear with any weight.

Dog mushers all over the state hook a dmn chain on the frames of hundreds of atv's. It's the worst, constant abuse an atv could be subjected to. It ain't no fkn joyride in unit 13 once a moose season. These machines accrue thousands of pre-season training miles. These dogs yank these machines till the frames break out.

Only ones that handle that abuse is HONDA.

Some mushers have 20-30k miles on these hondas.

Excellent resale value too, honda will sell in a nano second.

... I've owned a horde of them they all got their hits and misses one thing's for sure it's got to have fuel injection that'll save you a bunch of pain but for what you're doing you should check out ....the price of these new Mid range market share takers ... at 15000.00 it would cost u 20$ once a week to get mail for a long dam time ! Lol .... 50%off here >

Travis Swanson is the owner of Ron's Honda in Soldotna and Wasillia.
If you both agreed on a unit, I am certain he would deliver it to you as he travels to and from each week. If you are still interested his phone is 907.262.5235. His right-hand man's name is Sean. Either will take care of you. It has been difficult for them to get 4 wheelers but they will know what's coming in and/or going on with inventory. They seem to sell as soon as they arrive...

Yamaha outboards and ATVs. Honda a close second for ATVs. Close second for Yamaha outboards are a set of oars.

Sno-goes: Ski-Doo.


A friend has a Can-Am that's an absolute beast, but I can't justify their price.

I'd listen to Mainer. I don't use our machines heavily, and am mechanically deficient. I didn't know the Kodiak was belt driven but we've had no problems with it, hauling 2 people or one person and a caribou for short distances- 2 miles or so. It's likely fine for us, and probably for AGL use also.

I do know Ron's is a good place to deal with.

My Rancher quit starting when I was in Kotzebue. One call to them diagnosed it as the neutral safety switch going out. This is inside the motor- a $500 fix minimum, not counting freight, and beyond anything I want to do myself. Looks complicated. The guy in Kotzebue wanted $800, plus parts, nor did I have a place to work, except on a tarp in the yard. No thanks.

"I didn't tell you this, but what you can do is buy a new one (about $80), strap it to the frame, ground it, cut the wire from the motor, plug it in as appropriate, and it should work."

That was in 2016, and it still does, tho I did wrap it securely with waterproofing at the time.

On a Steese hunt 3 years ago, It was quitting on me over rough ground, but left a couple minutes would start again. The ignition key was hard to turn also, so on getting home I ordered a new ignition, and sprayed the heck out of the old one, still in the machine, with WD40. Th new one is still on the bench. It was dust from the trip up, apparently. Now I either leave the hooded key in or tape over the key hole for the drive.

I learn a lot from s**t going south, but seldom the same thing twice.

If you get the honda with the Electric Shift transmission, with thumb buttons on the left handle controls, the ES mechanism will stick at some point in its life. You'll need to disassemble, clean, and reassemble with grease that doesn't turn into glue like the old honda OEM grease. Can't remember what I used; maybe a lucas synthetic grease. Maybe they've changed since 2000 or so. Really not that big a deal. Also, the shift mechanism requires some semblance of battery health to work...charging power won't be enough to make it shift all the time. At least in my experience.

Honda gives you a lever in the toolkit that will slip onto a little stub where a foot shifter normally is, and let you manually shift a stuck ES. Done it, it works.

I'd way rather have all of that ES stuff than any belt drive.

I'd way rather have a manual foot shifter. As far as I know, on a 4x4 machine, that's only available on a Suzuki king quad or the honda rancher.