I have seen more grizzly 660s for sale at better pricing so I'll start looking at them more. The ideal situation would be finding something with a plow/winch already installed. Too many projects right now to tack on purchase and install or a winch and plow.

So are the later years sportsman 500s viewed as more reliable than the 570s then? What about the 500 HOs? There are a few for sale nearby but I read somewhere that they're not efi. How couod that be true if the reg 500 had been efi for much longer?

I am seeing a lot of great deals on the sportsman with a plow and winch already installed, many for under $5000 with well under 1000 miles.

Virtually no Rubicons and only a couple kq/ grizzles under $6k. And the search continues...

 

I live in the catskill mountains in Upstate NY. The winters can get brutal here.

The rubicon has a limited slip front differential that does a great job of transferring power from one wheel to the other extremly quickly As needed. If you watch the tires in low traction situations, it appears that both front tires are spinning together but it's actually transferring power from one wheel to the other. The problem with limited slip differentials is that when one front tire lifts off the ground, the computer senses that the lifted wheel needs power and it spins freely while the other stationary tire doesn't spin. Now there is a way to trick the computer into spinning both tires together and that is by slightly touching the front brake while pressing the gas. I've tried it once and it did work, I even captured it on video but I later had to delete it in order to make space on my phone.

 

Polaris apparently built both a carb 500 and an efi 500 for several years. I remember until 2013 I believe they also built the Sportsman 800, which was efi. I considered buying one of those at one time. Its the same inline twin cylinder engine that they also put in the Rzr 800. It has quite a bit more power than the Grizzly 700 and King Quad 750. You might be able to find one of those for a decent price. A guy I used to work with had one and really liked it, he bought his new though.

 

That is good to hear about the Rubicon's front diff. I don't really plan on riding anything very technical, definitely not while pulling firewood!

Do you have any problems with the SRA and the riding in the catskills? Would the extra clearance of an IRS help?

I'll look at the sportsman 800 then too. I'm not power hungry but if a good deal presents itself then it would make sense.

 

i use my KQ400asi to haul firewood and pull logs. it's also good on the trails. SRA is fine for both. you would have to be riding some nasty technical stuff to have to have IRS, rocks, deep ruts etc. as far as the vinson goes, don't rule it out unless EFI is a must. it was the toughest baddest machine i ever owned.

 

More power and ground clearance are two things that you don't need but can make the machine more enjoyable. I have seen sra utes do just fine on muddy rutted trails with the proper tires. Since you are operating on your own property, you don't really have to worry about high clearance machines rutting things out bigger than your machine can handle. With your intended usage, you shouldn't have any ruts forming with a little forethought anyway. Now big rocks can cause more of an issue, but again, your property so you control where the trail goes plus you are not going to want to pull a trailer over that big of stuff. I have used a little 230cc 2wd Suzuki to do what you are looking at. It worked fine within reason. Any 400cc plus 4x4 ute is going to be way more capable than what I had. Sra and more power adds more to the fun factor than the work factor imho. There is one factor with bigger machines though, they generally will have more weight (better traction when plowing and hauling) and bigger brakes/more features.

 

Its too bad you dont live near me, I have seen a few Grizzly 550 models with low miles under 5k. Like this one 2009, 550 grizzly, low miles.
Here's a 700 for $3500 but it doesn't list miles 2007 Yamaha Grizzly 700 EFI.
Another nice 700 with low miles(1793) and a winch for $4495 2008 Yamaha Grizzly 700 EFI 4X4 ATV. I'm sure if you offered $4000 they would probably take it.
Here's one with 1143 miles and it has a winch
2007 Yamaha Grizzly 700 - great shape w/ Warn Winch
Anything under 2000 miles is very low miles for a Grizzly. Here's one for sale at a dealer with almost 12000 miles on it. They will last.
2008 Yamaha Grizzly 700. I probably wouldn't recommend the last one but it shows that you can get a lot of miles out of a Grizzly 700 with proper maintenance.

 

I don't think EFI is a must, it would just be nice, especially on some of the machines that are generally considered "cold blooded". The plus side of a carb'd machine is that I would know how to work on it. EFI, no idea.

I will add the Vinson to the mix then too. You said "was", did you get rid of it?

Machine weight is something I haven't really considered but probably should. The heavier the better I guess. The ice we're on in the winter is always 12-16" at a minimum, generally 16-20", so no issues there.

I wish I lived near you as there would be an ATV sitting in my garage right now! I didn't know we could post links here. So here it goes! Some of these come with plows too.

https://nh.craigslist.org/snw/5202721568.html

https://nh.craigslist.org/snd/5154104739.html

https://nh.craigslist.org/snd/5215038670.html

https://burlington.craigslist.org/snw/5233355875.html

https://nh.craigslist.org/snw/5180926944.html

https://nh.craigslist.org/snw/5183228830.html

https://nh.craigslist.org/snw/5224203821.html

Thanks again everyone!

 

If you get one with a plow you'll probably want a winch to raise and lower the blade. I see some used ones come with both already installed.

 

If I was going to suggest a utility atv, normally I'd suggest a Honda Recon, but at 6-5, that might be a little small. Hondas can take a lot and keep on going, so, I'd think you should get a 500 cc plus 4x4 Honda for the work you are describing.

Good luck