Anyone know what the most powerful, solid rear axle, sport-utility atv ever made was/is? Meaning it has to have racks, be a 4 stroke, have 4 wheel drive, and a non-independent rear suspension.

 

I think it's the Brute Force/prairie 650 at around 45 hp

 

Kawasaki Prairie 700 was .

Currently I would say the 500 Foreman. http://www.atvreviewnetwork.com/enth...2=424209&go=Go

 

Wow...looking at that comparison link, one might think they had the years reversed! The Kawie was more powerful, lighter, narrower, had an aluminum swingarm, wet brake instead of drum, and a tune-able tranny. Yet it was 11 years older than the Honda! Either the Kawie was way ahead of it's time, or the Honda is way antiquated. Or maybe it's both!?

 

It seems that Honda sticks with 19th and 20th century technology but they have it perfected by now. But they're now offering selectable 4x4 like everyone else. This is a huge step forward for them.

 

Honda is slow with new features. They did not have selectable 2wd/4wd until 2003 and AWD diff lock and last year and only on one model, the foreman.
IRS, diff lock with a rear hydraulic disc brake only came on the Rubicon in 2015. The Foreman remains SRA with rear mech drum brake..

The 1996 500 Sportsman had True locking front drive , IRS and selectable 2wd/4wd in comparison. 16 year before Honda.

 

Yeah, it's too bad that if a guy wants to buy a SRA quad nowadays, he has to settle for an entry level machine that is less powerful and less advanced. Sure wish Kawie or Zuki would come out with a new, modern, race ready, sport-ute SRA with an 800cc V-twin. And it would be icing on the cake if they could keep it under 700 pounds. Dreaming, only dreaming....

All these 900 pound IRS tanks on the trails these days turn me off in a big way. I think I'd rather have an antiquated Honda than one of them!

 

Yea polaris is notorious for rushing out new tech without working out the kinks. Anything to beat the HP and feature list of can am. That's why model after model has reliability issues from sport - utility. I'd rather have an old antiquated honda as well.

 

The Yamaha 660 Grizzly had IRS , Diff lock and selectable 2wd/4wd in 2002. The 1989 Suzuki KQ 300 had Diff lock and selectable 2wd/4wd with low range and IRS .

Its sure was not just Polaris that was ahead of Honda.

The 42hp 660 Grizzly back in 2002 weighs less then the new 28hp SRA Foreman of last year.
2002 Yamaha Grizzly 660 ATVs
12 years older and discontinued long ago in 2006 yet still has better rear suspension and brakes and power then Hondas 2015 line up and yes they were and are reliable.
Hondas are just down on power per cc due to their lower revving OHV motors.

Their are no light sport ATVs 4wd because the are just the same ATVs as the Utilities but with no racks and sporty plastics if you look at the specs of the new Renegades or Scramblers vs the Outlander and XP utilities.

The lightest 4x4 ever made was the 350 Wolverine. http://www.atvreviewnetwork.com/enth...le2=3006&go=Go
It weigh less then the 2wd 350 Rancher.
Its down side was it was full time 4wd with no diff lock option.

 

Very true.

My dad bought two Wolverines back in the day and they will go places most machines won't simply because of their size and weight. They are great machines and I wish they still made them in that form. The new Wolverines don't even have racks......

I don't know about anyone else, but when you're in the technical stuff, I think every pound makes a difference. The heavier, the worse it's going to handle. And if you're into drag racing (which I am not), weight is as important as HP. So you'd think companies would want to go lighter, not heavier? But the numbers on even the mid size class atv's these days are huge. And then a lot of the big bores are 200 to 400 pounds more than that! Crazy.