What are the pros and cons and what kinds of mods should I look at?

 

It has one of the best motors ever put in a quad, But seems a little bit over priced for a 650 cc quad, I ave also been thinking of trying 1 now that they have improved the styling and lost some of the crude looks they have had in the past. I have noticed they seem to be a little over priced at least on the list price anyway. I have not began to shop realy hard for one yet I know where I can buy a Kawi 750 Brute for 7000.00 OTD so I am having a hard time considering a 650 that has a similar engine that will cost me several hundred more dollars. If anone knows what a good price for a 2005 650 V2 would be let me know.

 

Go with the Brute.
I had a '04 Cat VTwin for a short 9 months & right now I have a Brute for 35 + days, the Brute outshines the V2. Not only do you have a decent price at $7 grand (I paid $7300) but you too can get the Warn Winch at $69.
The Brute has better Brakes, awesome power, better handling, turns sharper & is almost as comfy. The best of all is the Brute is 107 pounds lighter than the Cat V2, what more needs to be said.

 

Just a quick note about the price.. You should still be able to find new 04' 650's and get them for a steal. I paid $6K for mine a month or 2 ago.

 

Thanks Kyler that means at some point I could get an 05' for 6k. What model did you get the LE or the standard. I am leaning towards the LE, But I can buy those wheel From maxxis and get better tires and a ramsey wench with remote all for around 1200.00 and have better tires and a better wench, the one place I looked told me the LE was about 8000.00 bucks for an 05' I am not sure what the special bumbers would cost to add though. Bfb I like the brute but I realy like the CAT rear IRS design better, I thought the BF was a little stiff in the ride department for an IRS design. I was watching ATV television last night and they had a whole show about the BF and later copaired it to the Twinpeaks. I noticed in a segment of the program that showed extensive video of the rear suspension that the sway bar on the IRS was not allowing much of any independant movement When watching the riders go over the same terrain back to back with the Twin peaks/prarrie and then the BF I noticed just what I felt when I road Dads BF the prarrie rider seemed to be getting josseled around less than the BF rider. I Thought my Prarrie actualy road smother than Dads BF IRS or no. I was leaning towards the CAT because the only place I realy plan to use this thing alot is in the rocky trails of colorado where I thought a true IRS would ride much smother than a swaybarcontrolled IRS. The pogram also pointed out that the front was stiffer because of the A-arm front suspension and the extra stiff rear in combination with the swaybar design the only real gain was the groun clearance in exchange for a loss in handeling. They were going to put the BF in for a long term test unit and planned to PUt 2" shorter spings on it and a set of wider radial tires and wider rims to try and improve the handeling of the quad, and get it down lower to stablize the tippyness. The BF dad has rides almost idintical to my old grizz 660, not bad but not that great either. the front suspension on the prarrie is much smother and overal the quad is much lower to the ground and stable. However my interest in the V2 is strickly comfort and keeping a Vtwin is a requirment. I may have to take a look at the King Quad stickly because of the EFI though and the price I think i can get one of those bought for about 6500.00 OTD I just have to give up the V-twin, not sure if I can. I think the BF and the KQ are sharring chassis so I would bet the ride qulity and handling is about the same as the BF.

 

As far as pricing, I won't be much help, but I paid $9799 CND for my 05 650 V2 LS, the LE is about $1500 CND more. Aluminum rims are very expensive to replace and were I ride, there's lots of rocks so it's very hard on rims, the LE was'nt worth it for me. Did add the rear bumper and winch, front bumper is sufficient for now, the LE bumper upgrade would of cost me $230 CND, although I may change it later.

I did look at the Twin Peaks and the Brute Force and although as stock machines, they seem to have more power, the Cat has a better ride, suspension and handling. Also alot better than the 04 650 V2, no comparison.

 

cc1999
Your right, the Cat V2 is smoother, as it was & is an smoother ride than my BF.
Twice in a 100 mile ride I had a good size limb get jammed inside the right rear lower shock mount on my V2 & the 2nd time it happened it almost threw me off of the 650, took a good 20 minutes to get the limb un-jammed from the inner wheel, that part of the Cat IRS design I do not care for.
I also didn't care for the one-brake lever, apply to much pressure & the rear wheels lock up, let off & all of the braking is released & the foot brake on the '04 was a joke. For flat landers & utility type of riding, the Cat V2 shines. Rock climbing is a + too for the Cat but forget any really fast riding with it, as it will not handle the faster speeds very well.
I followed 2 Cat 650 V2s thru some real seroius terrain on a recent trip & they too followed me, both IRS systems worked flawless in the rocks.
Now just lately I had a chance to compare my BF vs a Prairie 650 while in the High Rocky Mountains of Colorado & the ride, feel & smoothness of the BF outweighed the benifits of the straight axle Prairie. The Prairie would send every bump/hard rock hit directly thru the handlebars & seat & the Prairie was not steady on the trail, as it would dart around on the road surface that the Prairie was on, a very uneasy feeling ( the Prairie 650 was using the ITP XCR Radial tires). On the other hand, the BF suspension would absorb the road surface hits & not transmit this thru the handlbars & even the direct square hits of roots or rocks would not disturb the movement of the BF. We got into allot of off-camber riding but I never felt the tippiness as allot are saying about the BF. Yes, you can feel the higher stance of the BF & that is also true with the V2. The V2 is wider which improves the off-camber jitters that so many complain about with a IRS set-up but at other times the extra wide V2 will hurt in other types of riding terrain.
I've been riding 4x4 4wheelers now for 19 years & really have my body-english down to a science, in other words I do shift my body weight around on any 4wheeler. This body-english comes in handy on the off-cambers & I may be applying the right amout of technic to off-set any tippiness. Not once on this 6 day vacation trip to Colorado did I ever feel like the BF was going to tip, if anything at all, I had a blast with the BF, in allot of ways the BF reminds me of my Prairie 650. The BF may not powerslide as easy as a Prairie but it will powerslide, punch the throttle & hold on. The BF is more comfortable vs the P650/700s, handles okee-dokey for me, powerslides easy vs the V2, has great brakes Frt & Rear, great looks if that matters, decent mpg & the Gas tank may not be as large as the V2 but 5.4gallons is a winner too but the BF could use a softer feeling seat.
I too thought the V2 was what I was looking for, that is why I bought one in '04 & after a very short time I realized I bought the wrong 4wheeler. Did this once before on a brand new Truck, as soon as I took the Truck home, I knew I bought the wrong truck & I only kept that Truck for 1 year. It is cheaper to replace a boo-boo on a 4wheeeler than a Truck boo-boo.
For me, the Brute Force 750 is the perfect replacement for my Prairie 650, where the V2 came up short.
I don't take in much anymore on these road testers in the mags or TV, as they are all more on the sportiness side of any atv, they didn't rate the V2 in '04 that good either.
The IRS upper rear shock mounts on the Suzy are mounted slightly lower than the BF,which may explain the slightly lower ground clearance on the KQ.
I'm like you, I still prefer the VTwin Motor.
If the V2 is in your blood, then by all means go with it, it does have a strong chasis.
I just wanted to give you my input on my BF.
Oh, I do plan to change my Avatar too.

 

bfb, I think the issues you were having with the Prarrie had to have been the tires. I also spent a week in colorado with my dad and his new BF. All combined between my dad and I we own 2 Prarrie 650's 2 twin peaks,new BF and 1 sportsman 500. We had two of the prarries, the sportsman, and the BF with us. The BF seemed to have the stiffest ride however we fixed some of that problem by adjusting to the shocks to the softest settings. Its been my experiance with all 4 prarrie chassis quads that they are much smother in the front end than the BF, a lot of the aftermarket tires are sometimes harder and wider than stock wich could cause the effects you were experecing with the prarrie. It sounds like your experince with comparing the two chassis was quite opposite of ours. My dad, brother and myself all came to about the same conclusions that the rear suspension in certan situations was smoother on the BF, but you lost quite abit in the a-arm front and alot of that sporty feal you get with the prarrie, Dad's happy though he can now beat us in a drag where he didn't even have a chance on the old sportsman. I think the prarrie acualy rides just as well as the BF all things considered, It just seemed to that what you gain here you loose over here kind of thing. Thats why I desided since they don't make a twin peaks with that 750 motor yet, I am having one custome made into an 800, I just can't be lett'n dad out run me with his BF for long. I hate to say it I swore after I got rid of my last polaris that it would be my last, but that new 760 EFI twin with the dual exhaust and EFI would be great for colorado wich is were I would lkely ride it the most. I have never been very happy with polaris quality but that thing has it all and then some. I also have herd some talk that the new EFI suki is faster than the BF, I think they are sharring that IRS chassis but not possitive. I will have to wait for the shootouts to realy see what is what.