I'm looking at buying a quad but am not sure which would be better. Have heard a lot of negative things about Polaris but nothing about the Predator Troy Lee Edition in particular. Having the extra power would be great but not a neccesity, I am looking more for reliability. I presently have the option between the 2 but do not know which would be the better choice. It is not for racing just trail riding.

 

Reliability? Honda 400EX or Suzuki Z400!

The Raptor is a dog. It is nothing but a warmed over Warrior. It handles clunkey and that motor is ancient.

And like you said, the Polaris is a Polaris.....

 

raptor 350 would be fine for trails it does just fine for that stuff.

 

Have you heard negative things from people who actually <u>own</u> a Polaris, or just from Jap-bike owners who bad-mouth them?

 

Read these 500 Preditor on a Dyno

http://atv.off-road.com/atv/ar...leDetail.jsp?id=192404

The goods

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>The Predator cranked out an easy 42HP. Very impressive for a stock 500cc ATV. This is 6 HP more than the 660ccYamaha </end quote></div>

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>The Predator easily smoked Z400s, beat stock Raptors, and would beat many piped and jetted Raptors depending on the weight of the rider. In the lower RPMs, the Predator does not have quite the torque that the Raptor 660 provides and does not lug around as well. But get after it and the dual overhead cam Fuji motor revs nicely and the power really comes on in the higher RPMs</end quote></div>

And they mean against a 660 Raptor not a 350, the 400ex is more a trail riding machine the Honda TRX 450R would be lucky to keep up.

 

If reliability trumps all, then the 350 is your best bet between the 2. Predators are fast, although contrary to popular belief, they are NOT faster than the 450 class of quads out there. Pretty close, but not faster. Most of the Preds I have seen for sale look pretty much used up, and they can be quirky. ReconRanger is right on, I would go for a 400EX or Z400 over either of those you mentioned. You will give up some power to the Polaris, but gain reliability/maintenance ease and will have a better handling/better suspended/faster machine than a Raptor 350.