Hey, so I am a complete noob when it comes to ATV's. I have just recently found out how useful they are and how badly I need one and was hoping to get a little help deciding what to get...

Should I be looking more at 450cc or 700cc? This is primarily going to be a work machine. I will need it for: pulling my wood splitter (about 450lbs), pulling trailers with wood, plowing snow, pulling logs, maybe getting a front end loader for moving dirt and wood chips.

What features would be beneficial to help with these tasks?

 

450cc, here in the UK people rarely go for anything bigger than 500cc due to fuel costs. As you posted in the Honda section 500cc is your limit anyway, as Honda only make "leisure ATVs" in the 700cc range, but make, or have made, a plethora of models in the 400cc to 500cc range. The old model 420 was a bad bike but the rest of the Hondas in this size bracket were OK. 400 manual and early 450s had fixed 4WD so are heavy on the steering. The early 500 manual had a gearbox fault that was cured on post 2007 bikes, and most earlier ones will have had the box rebuilt with the later, modified gears. People fought shy of the 400 and 500 Autos, due to electronic complexity, but we have had very few problems with them. Newer, 420 and 500 Autos are a different thing, I don't like them, but others do.

 

I wouldn't limit yourself to just looking at buying a Honda. You didn't mention whether you were looking to buy new or used either. Lots of other options out there. A Yamaha Grizzly 700 would be a good used atv to look at. Plenty of power, cvt auto with high/low range and 4wd with front diff-lock. Very reliable too and a lot of them out there. Has optional power steering too, which would be nice when plowing snow to make steering a lot easier.

 

Power steering is an option of many Honda 420 and 500 models made since 2012. The few that bought 700cc Suzukis from us have not been too happy with them, but a lot of the 450/500 KQ buyers are on their second or third, even those which have had major frame breakage problems have bought another. The 400KQ is pretty reliable, especially the Auto version, though we have had a few seizures, the air cooled engine seems able to take less abuse than most utility quads. We sold a couple of Yamaha 550s which seem reliable, but used one as a courtesy bike for a while and got lots of complaints that it was "big and numb" from customers. The new 700 Kodiak and Grizzly models seem less clumsy. 450 Yamaha automatics are OK but so low geared.

 

Kinda late to this thread but I agree with having options. I love honda but honestly I prefer other brands for work quads. there are a lot of good work quads but id say bigger than a 450 based on all of the heavy work your looking at doing. Grizzly 700, Can-Am outlander, polaris sprotman 570, are all some quads you could look into