I have a friend that wants a ATV and he has looked around at all. likes the grizzly but hears how unstable they are on hills and on trails. I think its the side to side tippy feeling he is talking about. I love my kodiak but he wants one with more power so he can do so work with it to, moving, plowing, but to ride trails and in some mud and up hills. And do they have a problem in water as in missing.
Which one is the best for him Grizzly 600, 660, Kaw. prarie 650
Thanks

 

How about a Kodiak 450? Mine is virtually unstoppable on the trails, and rock solid steady. Stuff that would tip my BearTracker the Kodiak laughs at.

I would presume the 660, sharing the same suspension, would be similar. I don't find the 450 tippy or unstable at all, even at high speeds.

 

the grizzly has a higher seat hight than the kodiak. if you ever go sit on them you will see what i mean, the gizzlys arent that tippy if you are a good rider. its a bit high for me to throw around, im 5'7 but i can drive it i just wouldnt want to be crawling over technical terrain

 

I love my 450, as you say, they are great. but he was looking for something to work with to. but their are times my 450 has problems when i cross water. I don't mean water to the racks but maybe to the foot guards. it seems to be weak in the area

 

The Grizzly has a couple things against it. A high center of gravity and weak tires. This gives it a tippy "feeling" to anyone who is used to a solid axle quad. This tippy feeling can be corrected by adjusting the shocks and replacing the tires with good 6 ply tires.
It seems like the people who say it is tippy are the people that don't own them. Want some opinions from grizzly owners, go to Grizzly.atvowner.com. Find out what they say about it.

 

If he wants stability, but doesn't mind turning a wrench from time to time, the Prairie would be the machine for him. They require belt adjustments every once in awhile, but other than that are a great and very fun machine.

 

The tippyness can be offset, by doing some active riding. If a person is just gonna sit on the saddle, and never move...they might think its tippy. But if the person is moving and shifting their weight (to the uphill side), or to the inside of the corner, itll be just fine. This is usually taught in the atv saftey institutes class, which comes free for all new owners, of new machines. If he takes the class, he'll learn what he needs to know about riding safely.

 

yes and no. I don't think it's tippy. My wife does [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

My brother-in-law has an '04 Grizzly 660 and he hasn't had a single problem. I've seen him on all different types of uneven terrain and as others have said, as long as you shift your weight, it's fine. I've driven his and I didn't think it was any more tippy then my SRA Polaris. I've seen him on trails with the stock tires which worked fine but he now has 27" Dirt Devils which make that quad go through more **** then I'd even consider going through. We were just in Utah and he went through water that was up to the racks and he had absolutely no problems. I know he uses it for plowing too and I haven't heard a complaint from him.

 

I have absolutely nothing to compare my grizzly with but i do have a concern with what you all seem to refer to as tippiness.
I find that when moving downhill at some speed and then trying to turn, the quad will dive onto the outer front wheel and give you a feeling of wanting to wheelbarrow on that wheel. The dive is significant and is unsettling and if your weight is not in the opposite corner you feel like you may go over. Stiffening up the shock settings goes a long way to combatting this.
This leads me to wonder if other manufacturers also have these variable shock settings ? I would imagine that the soft settings on other machines must be in a stiffer range to begin with, where the grizzly has more leeway to the softer side for a softer ride than than other makes.

If you crank the settings up all the way, then the quad is rigid and in no way tippy but the ride does obviously get harder quite a lot.

I have my settings in the third or middle position precisely because of the diving onto the front outer wheel that i mentioned.
Its fine for me like this. My weight is 240.
When riding slowly on steeply sloping terrain and you happen to go over a rock with the front wheel on the uphill side, the thing does feel like it wants to roll easily and i usually get off and lift the back around till its facing downhill again.
I have noticed that when i get off, the uphill rear wheel is often off the ground and with the diving characteristics of the downhill front wheel, it seems likely that it would have likely rolled if i proceeded. It's like the front suspension does not have enough upwards push or support when loaded on a soft setting.
This too would be cured with the stiffest shock settings though.

I have no experience with aftermarket wheels so i cant comment on that making an improvement.

In conclusion i feel the soft settings are indeed tippy and the hard settings are not. But this should be obvious right ?
Perhaps Yamaha did themselves in by making the softer variable setting range, as people would always try and performance ride without appropriately stiffening the settings first and then they would experience obvious tipping and slate the product.
As for the softer settings they really work wonders for ride comfort. I can go flat out over a ploughed field without bouncing in my seat, so comfortable is the quad on a soft setting.
But can i jump around and powerslide on the soft setting ? No of course not. I must turn it up for that.

Considering that many of the opinions here come from largely illiterate American 12 year olds, i would imagine that that sensibility would have escaped them.

Regards
skin.