Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Yamaha versus Arctic Cat ?

Which would some of you fellas figure is the better deal and the better bet ? An 06 Yamaha 450 Kodiak with 4000 miles for $3300 , or an 06 Arctic Cat 400 auto with 2000 miles for $3600 ?


Seems like the Yamaha has a very good reputation , but I really like some of the features on the Cat . The Yamaha dealer is a very good guy to do business with .

The machine will be used mostly for ranch work .

No question...the yamaha. The cat's have good motors but don't do so well in long run tests. The Kodiak will have more power for pulling, they seem to have a lot less vibrations and noise at opperating speeds, quite a bit lighter I think.

I do like the Artic Cat's rack system though. I wish others would do something like that.

Having had Yamaha's in the family since the mid 80's - little biased but I can honestly say never had a single issue with their machines. (cept my banshee but that was my fault - too much HP on old bottom end) MANY, MANY, MANY miles and hours on them.

Also know a guy with an Artic Cat - he's had it a long time and works it hard too. 0 issues.

Don't think you can really go wrong with either one. I prefer the Yam and manual shifting tho - call me old school...

I love my yammy kodiak.....artic cats may be ok, but my 400 kodiak will bring me, my son, and a big buck out of the boonies, all up, no prob....

Either will do you just fine. I personally would choose the one that has the options you desire the most.

Mostly ranch work huh?

The only thing the cat might have on the yami is clearance.

Yamaha, way easy decission for me.

Yamaha, hands down. I ride Hondas and if they (Honda) didn't make them, i'd own a Yamaha Grizzly.

thanks to ya'all for the replies......I went with a 660 Grizzly . It is a couple years older and has a few more miles than the Kodiak , but it just fits me better . I felt like like I was setting on the ground riding the Kodiak, plus it looks like this particular Grizzly had a real gentle home .

The extra height and ground clearance were two of the things I really liked on the Arctic Cat .

You'll like that grizz.

What year is it?

tzone.........it's an 04 . Plus it had a good heavy brushguard on the front and $400 worth of aluminum skid plate and cv shaft protectors added on.....

I truly believe Arctic Cat makes a good product but my 05 500LE was a complete lemon. I had enough and bought a 06 Grizzly 660.

I've had very good luck with my Yamaha in all applications.

Here is my daughter and her Canadian bear with the Arctic Cat front basket.

We are Yamaha people and had them for 20 years now, both bikes and atv's. Now of course we have had some other brands too but nothing is less of a pain than a Yamaha motorcycle or atv.

We are getting new 550 & 700 Yamaha's this summer! Going to trade off the Honda 450-Foreman with electric shift, what an embarassment for those people. I could write a book on why NOT to have an electric shift Honda ok.

Artic Cats are basicly a manchine that is put together with other manufacture's parts and I am not found of Suzuki engines in the first place.

yeah, such an embarassment they still make it.

Good choice on the yamaha.

My wife has an '88 bigbear. been meaning to replace it but I just cant bring myself to do it. dang thing runs to good.

Well Tzone! If you kept up with the results of the "shoot outs" the last few years, starting in 2004, you will read that Honda could have finished 1st or 2nd pehaps but because of the so called Electric Shift and Tranny, they finished LAST....Dah!

Yeah, they still make it only because of the recalls to try and fix the problem, which has taken them forever to get done. I spent the money on the Honda, so I figure that entitles me to be able to say what I think ok.

I don't trust shoot outs. What one man considers "hard ridding" is usually very different than I. I go mostly by what pards have and work as we tend to ask the same of the machine.

When I get mad at my ATV.... I call it a STV which is what they all really are. Some Terrain Vehicle

I've got a polaris sportsman 500, which has always been right in the running for most ground clearance plus it is a true 4x4 as in, all 4 wheels dig & pull.

but it's still just an STV.

Maybe with bigger tires & a snorkle I could call it an MTV Most Terrain Vehicle...?



My point is, they have there place. None of them are trucks or tractors. Good for dragging deer out of the woods, getting around on trails etc... But the name ATV bugs the hell out of me.

I know what a real ATV looks like & these little toys we ride around on are not it.

Calm down there Tiger...I didn't say you havn't a right to voice your opinion. You do. But for a company to continue to make something so they can fix a recall doesn't make sense. My 03 Foreman 450 w/electric shift was flawless. It was just a bit cold blooded. If I didn't sell it to buy diapers instead, I'd probaly still have it.

Those shootouts are made to sell magazines, that is about it. I don't have a lot of faith in them, espically since Polaris wins most of them, and we all know what they say about those.

It is just a little good natured ribbing, I don't care what you drive, if you like it, fine. It is all just garage talk, nothing more.

Tzone, glad you feel that way youngster! Now getting back to those magazines (which I don't subscribe to) in 2003 the Honda did ok, but changes came about and those 2004 models & 05 had some major shifting problems and if your battery was not 100% charged up, it would NOT shift the machine into or out of gear.

Now fancy taking that ATV to the moutnains and getting up one fine morning at 25 degrees on an elk hunt and find out that battery didn't keep enough charge to let the rider shift gears. I want a completely mechanical foot shift on my very next ATV hunting vehicle.

Now what is with Polaris? It seems their machine was the only one that met US Army qualifications. Now am I missing something on this or what?

I've got an '84 Yamaha 225DX trike that's been through just a bit over the years. Rolled something like 5 times, bent the rear axle once (straightened with a bottle jack and railway tie) and floated down a freezing river once too. Every spring I pull it out hoping it dies so I can buy something different, and every year it starts right off with the electric start. They have some quality built in there.

That said, I'm really diggin' the new AC's. I like the clearance better than my Honda Foreman.


SS

I worked for polaris when all that work started (DOD contracts)

I don't understand your question though, what are you missing or what don't you understand?

I think the hard part to understand is why in the world would they pick Polaris to use for the millitary. Don't they want their stuff to be top notch.

Sorry dave, I had to.

Does anyone make just a foot shift anymore? Last I knew, Yamaha made one in the Big Bear, but that was a good 3-4years ago. If the Big Bear still has one, that is the machine I'd recommend. They were virtuly bullet proof. My buddy bought one new in the 90's and it is still going strong. Oil changes and a battery is about it.

I dunno.

as a former Marine i can say with confidence that no group in America is more American that the US military.

So, choosing a brand from home soil was kind of automatic.

the polaris ATV's have always inspired towards success & effectiveness in the off road & recreation segment. Many other brands were geared more towards farm/ranch effectiveness.

They have done a lot with the mil spec machines since I worked for them but before i left in 05 I remember reading a letter from a soldier written to the mfg plant. He told of how he rode over an IED that detonated under his mil spec sportsman. long story short he was back in service in a short time after treating minor cuts & the machine was also put back unto service after minor repairs.

him and his unit had nothing but praise & thanks for the quality of the machines assigned to his unit.

I read a bunch of leters from servicemen but that one kind of stuck out in my mind. Dude ran over a bomb with an atv.

I was just funnin ya. that's what the were for. Sorry if I offended you with that. It wasn't my intent. I prolly should lighten up a bit on that stuff, I've been doing it a lot lately.

So you were part of the development for those Mil. ATV's? Cool.

I remember seeing them in a magazine at one time, but don't remember reading much about it. How did they differ from the regular off the shelf ATV's?

don't worry man, no offense taken.

these had same size tires front & back for comonising all 4 tires for maint. they went with a run flat tire too. really heavy coil springs all around, huge oversized front & rear racks that were like small flatbeds, a ROP system (roll protection) and a bunch of other stuff i can't recall at the moment, plus the standard mil spec OD green at forst then a desert tan later. bedliner coating on the added racking sufaces, kind of a 360 degree nerf bar type set up, stuff like that.

They went much further with it after I left. They had diesils and multifuels, they came up with all kinds of different engines to burn the different fuels the military requested. Which lead to engine failures do to the wrong fuels being used in the wrong engines etc.

I think they have that all ironed out now though.

I don't really know anything about the current milspec machines.

does polaris still make a disel for the public? I think it was them that made one.

IIRC the price was not all that different from a good used tractor.

I'm honestly quite out of touch with the current offerings from Polaris.

I remember when they did offer the first diesel, loud.

They used to offer a SxS diesel but don't know if they do now.

My anti-polaris bias was based on their snowmobiles - nothing runs like one from tough rubber balls...

+1 on that.
I have a '91 big bear moto-4 that I bought used 2 years ago as a project and it has been the best $700 I have spent in a long time. It is only a 350 but I have pulled out a lot of downed trees from my land and it works all day long. If I need to do heavier work, I will go get the tractor.

You can still find these very reasonably priced $1500-2000

Polaris does or did build very good snowmachines overall. However, they have also figured out, apparently, how to keep making money selling stuff that never should have been marketed in the first place. The 550 fans are one example. Ironically, the fan engines they replaced would go forever and 10-15,000 miles without ever being opened was common. (And my old 488 just spit it rings this spring with over 24,000 miles on it. By comparision, a 550 I also own, one with 9000 miles is sitting idle as it waits for its fourth major rebuild. Talk about disaster, those.) But with Polaris snowmachines totally over 60,000 miles sitting in the yard, the 500, with the lowest miles of any of them is the only lemon in the bunch.

As for their ATVs, they have yet to demonstrate that they have what it takes in our cold wet conditions -although their suspensions are nice. Honda has, prior to the intro of the Rancher, done well. The current stuff can be okay, but their record for reliability is probably not as good as before their engines were turned, (a factor that, in itself, had nothing to do with that I'm sure.) Yamaha comes and goes as ATVs are concerned, but they do know outboards as things are judged out here. But I think one could probably do well with just about any of the machines. Extreme use is really not all that widespread I don't think.

We currently have two Honda quads and two Yamaha outboards. Based on my experience with that stuff, my next quad will probably be a Yamaha. A few years ago one of the Hondas, just out of warantee, puked the transmission. Honda pretty much told me to go suck eggs. I'm done with their products. I run the Yamaha outboards on my fishing and duck boats from thaw to freeze up with never a hiccup.

I've had a lot of machines over the years and I'm big on the Yamaha.