which is better and why?

 

anyone!

 

depends on what you want to use it for.

IRS- ground clearance, smoother ride, better for rock/mudding.

SRS- more stable, better for towing/yard work.

 

What about for riding hard and fast on trails and snow in the winter?

 

If the snow is deep, the IRS is your friend. But for any hard cornering the straight axle is going to hold better. Its really not that big of a deal either way unless you race quads for a living to me. I've owned both. I'll take the ground clearance. Glad kawasaki unloaded an IRS quad to their fleet. And they obviously were coming around with it cause notice that their new flagship model is IRS, and not a straight axle. With a 4x4, I think you have to put the sport handling in 2nd place and think more of the technical stuff. But hell, there's always the prairie 700 if you need the axle back there.