Hi All,

I am a neophyte when it comes to ATV's. However, my family has a six wheel John Deere (that caught fire) and they now have a Polaris (not sure of the model)

I have a steep property that I have been clearing by hand (about an acre) and it has been a real grind to get from the bottom of the property to the top especially hauling the brush, scrub and dirt.

I was thinking of getting a ATV but would like to narrow the search. Ideally it would be a smaller one with a low center of gravity and that wouldn't have to worry about flipping, that as a bonus had a dump bed on it or capable of pulling a wagon that I could throw brush in.

I wanted to post some pics but it looks like it has to come from a URL and I'm not certain how to make that happen

Thanks for any and all ideas.

Rock

 

I highly recommend the Polaris Sportsman X2 570. It has a dump box that can be changed to a passenger seat in about 15 seconds. The dump box is rated for 400 lbs. but I never could quite fit 400 lbs. in the dump box. Came close with a box I created out of plywood that gave me over a foot of depth in the bed. Carried a lot of firewood when I had it. Mine was a first year 2006 X2 with a 500 cc engine. The only reason I didn't keep it was it wouldn't keep up with the 700+ cc models my buddies were riding. A big advantage to the X2 is that it has a longer wheelbase than a single rider machine. I used to go up hills I wouldn't even try on a single rider machine. Worth a look: 2015 Polaris Sportsman X2 570 EPS Sage Green : Features

 

The Ranger 570 is almost the same price as the Sportsman X2 570. I'd rather have a much larger dump bed and room for a passenger with the Ranger myself. Much easier to find a Ranger 570, every Polaris dealer has them in stock I'm sure. Which means easier to negotiate a better deal rather than having the dealer order a Sportsman X2 570 for you and then you have no wiggle room on the price.

 

The guy was asking about a smaller ATV (physically) The 570 chassis is a full sized chassis like a Sportsman 1000.
No smaller mid chassis has a bump box but they still can pull hard. A few to look at is the 450Grizzly,Suzuki 400KQ/Eiger and Honda 420 Rancher (No low range but it has a super low 1st gear).
The 450 Grizzly will pull harder because along with low range it also has diff lock. 4wheels turning pull harder than 3 wheels.

 

I guess the more important question is, what is his budget? I think we assumed he was looking for a new machine but that might not be the case. The Polaris 570 models mentioned were in the $10,000 range. Even a new Grizzly 450 will still be about $6000, that's about the best price I've seen. I have also seen a Grizzly 550 with no eps also for $6000 advertised at a local dealer. If you want to spend less, an older Honda Foreman would get the job done for a whole lot less money. For $2500 or less you can get a machine that will work hard and still be a good trail quad. Even a Rancher 350 4x4 would work and those are in the $2000 range in my area, some even less. No dump bed on any of these but yard trailers aren't that expensive and can haul more anyway.

 

Judging by the original post date I'd say he came here to ask a question and may not have been back since. Just a guess. I wish original posters would at least tell us how they're doing.

 

He probably already bought it since it was over 2 months ago. Or decided to buy nothing. Either way, he probably already made his decision. Its nice when people respond back but its not a requirement. Not everyone feels a need to monitor their comments. Sometimes I come in here just to see how someone responds to something I posted. You may notice my signature has changed. I didn't buy the other Grizzly off ebay, I backed out of that deal, wasn't worth what I was going to pay for it. Found a 2006 Grizzly 660 for $3000 locally, got it down to $2700, figured I wouldn't find a better deal than a 2006 Grizzly 660 for $2700 so I bought it yesterday. The seller found a very nice used Grizzly 700 for a great price, that's why he was willing to sell the 660 so cheap. Runs great, new belt, new battery and I love that it has that aluminum skid-plate to protect the undercarriage. The shift linkage appears to need adjusted, has some play in it and low range is difficult to shift into, though I never use it anyway. Ill probably take it to my local mechanic Monday and hopefully it won't take him too long to get it adjusted where it needs to be. Tires are original but still have decent tread on them, I'll keep them for now. Might add a winch, probably be the only other thing I might do to it and probably get a K&N air filter to add a couple more hp. Owning the Rancher recently, I had almost forgot how slow it really was. Hills that I would crawl up in the Rancher I can fly up in the Grizzly because it has so much more low-end power and much greater acceleration. I had the Grizz up to 61 mph on pavement yesterday and it had a little more in it but I didn't want to push it any harder than that. Handling gets a bit sketchy at that speed, its soft suspension makes the front bounce around a lot at that speed. I didn't want to wreck it the first day I had it lol. Its low-end power is its strength anyway. Its ability to instantly accelerate on the trail and up inclines is superb, that's truly what it accels at.

 

Nice! Sounds like a really good deal to me. Congratulations.

I would say a winch is almost a necessity with the bigger utility machines. Ours have come in handy, especially in winter riding.

I really like how much power the 650 I have now has. There's plenty of power in high gear for bombing up the smooth/soft hills where I had to crawl up with the Polaris 500 in low range. One thing I did this past winter on a long straight, smooth stretch is put it in 4wd and I got up to 68 without it feeling squirrely. I've found in 2wd at high speeds the tail will kick around a lot more. In 4wd the front will pull you back straight. It gets a little dangerous trying to correct tail kick at high speeds in 2wd.

 

Hope there are no unforseen problems, that's the risk you take buying any used machine especially when you think you got a good deal. I'm not sure how the Grizzly would handle at high speeds in 4wd, I've never attempted to use 4wd at those kind of speeds. I only use it when I need it, usually in mud or snow or maybe to give me some extra traction if I think I will need it going up a steep hill. I owned a Grizzly 660 before and I think I used low range like maybe 2-3 times in the 3 years or so that I had it. I never used it to plow snow or anything like that. An atv to me is just an expensive toy, I very seldom use it for work of any kind. I prefer the utility quads over the sport quads because they're more comfortable, have 4wd and most now have fully auto cvt transmissions so no guessing what gear to be in. I like having racks in case I might want to haul a cooler, that's about the heaviest thing that has ever been on my rack. My other Grizzly did have a winch and it got used occasionally. Used it once to haul a small cooler on the front rack. I guess I pulled the cable a bit too tight and smashed the lid of the cooler, 3000 lbs of force can do that lol. I put about 20 miles on it the initial ride and it performed well. 4wd works well, I even had to use diff-lock as I slid off into a rut and had the right front tire in the air. Didn't look that bad but with all the rain we have gotten recently here, this innocent looking little hole almost put the machine on its side. I backed up as far as I could, switched from 4wd to diff-lock and was able to crawl out. I'm not sure I could have made it without dismounting the machine and pushing without diff-lock. So I at least know it works well, though I tested it before I bought it.

 

That's why I like thumpers (singles) rather then twins of the same displacement. Thumpers just have more instant low end grunt where twins have that hesitation to get the rpms up and singles have less parts vs twins.

I,d like twins if high speed 50 mph+ road riding was my thing but I have a truck for that.

I agree about the diff lock. I was pulling a 14FT boat,trailer with a 15hp outboard up a steep dirt hill section with my 350 and it just did not quit have the traction in 4wd. As soon as I put it in diff look it was enough to get me up.
Here is a good video how diff lock makes a difference, they guy tries a couple of times in 4wd before switching to diff lock and then gets through.