Do yourself a favour and go with the Grizzly, you get Hondas reliability, with a nice ride and really fast topend, the fastest in its class of Sport/Utility, oh ya and its shaft, no worry about stupid chains to play with and break.
Travel is nice too 7.5inches in the Rear, and 6.8 up front.
Oh ya and the machine can work, i was even suprized when i pulled a trailer with a total weight of about 1400 pounds up a mountain to a camp. Oh ya and it never overheated once.
Hope this helps.

 

The grizzly is not liquid cooled, it is air/oil cooled. There is no radiator, you must be thinking of another ATV.

 

Oh ya, the Grizz is not the fastest in its class, the Explor 400 is. Oh Ya, does top speed really matter in this class of ATV? Oh ya, Do you always weigh your trailer load before you haul it to camp??

Oh Ya, My name is:
SP500 in NS

 

Lurch, what do you think of the Grizzly compared to the Ruby or Sportsman 500.

 

Well, personally, I have not had a great deal of experience with the Yamaha. But I am a bit leary of the air cooled engine. It does not seem to be a problem since they fixed the over heating problem, but I like liquid cooling for machines in this class. And in my opinion only, I do not like the boxy looks of it.
The Ruby seems to be a good machine. I personally would wait a while before buying one though. Honda needs to weed out the bugs. This is normal, all new machines will have a few bugs.
I am a Polaris fan, so this would be my choice. But the SP is high maintanence machine. This does not bother me, I like working on them anyway. But you have to stay on a strict schedule. If you do, they seem to hold up great. But if you get a little lazy with it, you will sometimes have problems.

 

Thanks alot lurch

 

>>Oh ya, the Grizz is not the fastest in its class, the Explorer 400 is.

+ If you have figure out the air density and the 400 is jetted properly for that day and the carb has not shaken itself into a state of disrepair, and the chain is not kinked.

>>Oh Ya, doestop speed really matter in this class of ATV?

+ Of course it does. Some areas of the country have numerous logging and fire roads which are legal to ride on. One thing leads to another and soon you have packs of joyous riders cruising down these roads. It is no fun to be at the back of one of these packs (with you quad capable of locking the front hubs for true 4WD) eating the dust of fast 400+ cc quads.

>>Oh ya, Do you always weigh your trailer load before you haul it to camp??

+ No, but shaft drive/low range/manual trans is the winner here. Tried to pull a loaded heavy firewood trailer through the woods once off road on a 400 Xplorer. Wrong! Between the front end rising up like a bucking bronco and the belt slipping I soon detached the wagon and went and got the 450ES. Dropped it in first gear, the low center of gravity took care of the rest. However if I was on a two-rut this would not have been a problem.

 

>If you have figure out the air density and the >400 is jetted properly for that day and the carb >has not shaken itself into a state of disrepair, >and the chain is not kinked.

I seriously doubt anyone runs through the procedure of checking air density before they ride their Explorer for a day. The chain is kinking a result of poor maintenance and it's your own damm fault. NEVER heard of a carb shaking "itself into a state of disrepair" Been on some pretty rough terrain and never seen a carb go into a state of disrepair before....

>Of course it does. Some areas of the country >have numerous logging and fire roads which are >legal to ride on. One thing leads to another and >soon you have packs of joyous riders cruising >down these roads. It is no fun to be at the back >of one of these packs (with you quad capable of >locking the front hubs for true 4WD) eating the >dust of fast 400+ cc quads.

Well if you were on a fire road full of sport/utility ATVs on your Explor you'd be in front of the pack with the other Explorers because the Explorer is the fastest of the 400+ quads.

>No, but shaft drive/low range/manual trans is >the winner here. Tried to pull a loaded heavy >firewood trailer through the woods once off road >on a 400 Xplorer. Wrong! Between the front end >rising up like a bucking bronco and the belt >slipping I soon detached the wagon and went and >got the 450ES. Dropped it in first gear, the low >center of gravity took care of the rest. However >if I was on a two-rut this would not have been a >problem.

Never towed with a Explor before but my SP500 tows jeeps and pickups out of muskeg and I never experienced any of the problems you did. Strange, huh??

As far a the "shaft drive/low range/manual trans" being the the towing winner I agree totally, but the Griz is not a manual transmission.

SP500 in NS

 

main problem with the grizz is it is geared to high to turn BIG 27" or 28" tires....
and the locker kit they sell for it they stoped makeing cause grizz's couldnt handle the locked front end and would break parts...
just cant compete in the mud with rubi and sp

 

Yeah get the grizz i rode my friends and **** my pants they r awesome and wheelie nicely in rear wheel drive