I am looking for a good wheeler that will get through serious mud holes. What do you think is the best mudder?

 

a poaris XPEDITION 425 or a magum500.

 

DAng i know what you need!
either a quadrunner 500 or a 450ES
they are both great i have riden both with regular tires and but *** mudtires!

the qwaudrunner is like ...... untouchable till the rubicon comes out cause you can't hurt it!
but same thing with the 450

trust me i know alot o read everything about these two and other mudmachines!

 

I haven't ridden them all so I can't say what the best "mudder" is, but I can tell you about the Rancher.
Last weekend I went riding with 2 new Yamaha Wolverines and a BigBear 400. Near the end of the day, we went to play in the mud. I followed the first Wolverine into this big mud hole and halfway though it he got stuck. I had to turn up and out of the ruts that he made to go out around him, which I did on the Rancher with no problem. I circle out around him and pulled him out with my winch. Now the second Wolverine was stuck along with the BigBear. Now sitting right where the first one was stuck I pulled them both out with the winch. And backed out! By this time we had it all rutted up. Then just to prove that I could, I went back through, climbing over a log which hit the skid plate on the way. I made it through several times, then it happened, I finally stuck it too. My buddies who are all Yamaha riders had to admit that they had never seen a quad do so well in the mud. I am not sure why it out did the others, maybe tires? suspension or the improved limited slip differentials in the Rancher. They were all completely stock bikes. I did notice, that when stuck, both front wheels spun on the Rancher. I was not sure that this was even possible, so I watched close and even pointed it out to the guys that I was riding with. The Wolverine may be a little faster than the Rancher and the BigBear definately has more power, but in the mud, at least on this day, the best mudder was the Rancher by far. Another friend has a Polaris Sportsman 335, next week we'll see how it does.

 

Galt,glad to hear the Ranchers diff working the way Honda advertises it to work.I've allready seen a few posts of that diff not working like Honda says it will.Sounds to me like yours is kickin a$$.I have never mudded my 500cc Sportsman against a Rancher yet.I have mudded against several brand[limited slip] 4x4s before and have never been out done by anyone of them in the serious mud.Im guessing if the Ranchers differential works correctly like your does,it to will be an awesume mudder.


In serious mudding events,you would want to select a quad that will deleiver power to all 4 wheels,not three.

Currently,all Polaris AWD quads will give you 4 wheels with power supplied to all 4 tires,as does the Suzuki King Quad 280cc and 250cc 4x4s.

The ''TORQUE SENSING'' differential is suppose to deleiver power to the wheel that needs the traction,not the one that is spinning helplessly in the air.The new Honda 4x4s are suppose to have this type of differential,so does the Traxter.

Best of luck===BILL

00 Xplorer 400cc 4x4
If you want to come in second ''FOLLOW ME''

 

hey it me again
the rancher is suppose to be a great mud runner too
but it just doesn't have the power

i would say to not go with the polaris's cause they can't go in water very high at all!
they are good till any water is around!
here we go through alot of water and they break down!
so do yamahas but nothing wrong with our susukis and out honda's so far so i remommend those same too unless your willing to spend and wait on the rubicon cause it will be the best 4wheeler honda will have ever made for a good while with all the fesatures on it

have you read the info about it on atving.com yet?

 

All the 4x4 are good mudder, to be the best one, u need great ground clearance, ALOT of power(if you plan on getting some mud tires which you should do) and you need a quad that will use all four tires. As for the belt, well it has some good and bad point. First you can spin the tire as fast as you want, don`t need to let out the throtle(to shift) and if you get stock, you can use full power ( full wheel spin )in reverse. But yes it can get wet if you don`t know how to drive it. The expedition 425 seems a good choice, if the sportsman 500 would be more reliable ( I don`t own one but I`m sure that it`s not as worse as people say ) There is no question, it`s the king(in my opinion).But with adequate tires, every 4x4 that can spin them will do very good in mud.

 

I used to have a 450 s, and it was great for the mud. Even with the stock tires, the 4 wheel drive keeps going. I like the "always" 4-wheel drive, because you don't have to worry about the problems of a high, low, or 2wheel, 4wheel, shifter.
Plus, on www.highlifter.com they have MAD stuff for the 450 s. es is OK, I like the S better.

'00 400ex