Here is the pic from the article:



The first thing I thought is "Why would someone strap an animal that large to the front rack?" I'm sure it's exceeded the manufacturer's stated capacity by a few orders of magnitude. Look at how the shocks are compressed and look at the expression on the guy's face which conveys the struggle it takes to maneuver the machine with all that weight pressing on the front wheels.

I can't help but wonder what that extra weight does to the center of gravity, which is already high on those big machines listed in the article. Unless the rider stays on his toes, he appears ready to do a faceplant upon encountering a hole in the stream that he can't see due to a large animal in his field of vision.

None of the machines in the article are designed to do what the picture is showing. And, dare I speculate, none of the machines are designed to carry that much weight on either rack. Not because the racks can't handle it, but the machine is too tall to be safe.

So if the condition is that an atv must be able to carry weight on the racks, then the atvs with the lowest center of gravity would be the best atvs for hunting. So, it seems anything over a 300 would be too tall to fit the condition. Therefore, the 5 atvs listed in the article are not the best atvs for hunting, but are (perhaps) the best atvs for trying to outdo the Joneses.

I'm not sure of the best atv for hunting, but the best one for carrying stuff is the 300 king quad because the center of gravity is lower than any other atv with acceptable power.



And here is a 300 pulling a dump truck:



That truck probably weighs 10,000 lbs.

 

That deer should be on the rear rack, not the front. You're only supposed to haul 100 pounds on the front rack of a Can-Am and 200 on the back. Polaris is higher at 120 and 240. If you get a deer that field dresses over 240 pounds I want to see it. If it's less than that there shouldn't be any problem.

 

I live out in the country and have a 30 gallon power sprayer for my lawn and for killing weeds in my stone driveway. It was originally made to strap onto the rear of my ATV, used it for years without an issue but....it was a handful trying to steer my atv with that on there. I estimated the total weight around 270lbs, rear rack was maxed at 240lbs according to mfgr.
It doubled the turning radius with that much weight on the back and stopping distance was greatly increased as well so..I have a friend who's father has an old king quad 300 and he ask to borrow my sprayer so we tried it on his machine. The suspension bottomed out but his KQ actually turned and stopped better than my Praire with the sprayer mounted and filled. Now to the point I was making in the original article about costs of machines, my UTV costs less then the best 5 in the article and it handles that 270lb sprayer like it was not even there. No roll when turning, can steer with one hand with ease, and has no effect on stopping distance....all for less money up front...so which one is really the better hunting machine??

 

UTVs, which I think is a stupid name for them, should be better for hunting as long as they fit between the trees if you're going into the woods. If you're hunting in the open, like in a field, size wouldn't matter. I wouldn't mind having a Polaris Ranger 6x6 if I was driving around in the open. You can put 1,250 pounds in the bed and it has a total payload capacity of 2,000 pounds with 3 people in it plus it can tow another 2,000 pounds. ATVs can't even come close to that.

 

I think they put the deer on the front rack for the picture. I don't think anyone in their right mind would put it on the front, especially while having nothing on the back.

But I think my point was that none of the 5 atvs are designed to do what the picture is showing. If they were, they would look more like the 300 KQ and have a low center. The 300 KQ is a work of art in that regard. Look how flattened the engine is:



The fuel tank is too low for gravity feed and requires a fuel pump to feed the carb. The engineers designed that machine with a low center in mind.

The rack capacities on the 300 KQ is 66 front and 132 rear, which are typical numbers from the 1980s and 90s when engineers had to do math and feared lawsuits (constant threat in the 80s and good reason to understate numbers). Suddenly, after a decade or two of no lawsuits, the quads got taller and the capacities magically went up to nice round numbers, such as 100 and 200. Either the 80s and 90s were understated or they are overstated now. The properties of the universe dictates that the lower the quad, the more weight it can safely carry in hilly terrain (such as the picture in the article). Those capacity numbers are really meaningless, except in a lawsuit where you could demand someone display how they came up with those numbers... and they'd have to dream something up in lieu of admitting, "idk, they just sounded about right."

Those tall machines aren't very stable even with no load, so with 100 and 200 lbs on the racks, I wouldn't stray too far from fairly level ground. I guess it depends where hunters hunt. In the midwest, you'd be lucky to find a molehill. But around here, I haven't been too impressed with those honking Goliaths. The machine is either pinned between two trees or it's needing to be winched over a log that smaller quads can bunny-hop or I'm being solicited to ease the bloated beast down a hill because the owner is too scared to release his deathgrip on the brakes (then I darn-near flip it myself).

5 best atvs for hunting? That's just silly. I'd like to see one of those over-priced brutes follow me around on a $500 2wd quad without me having to stop and help them. That would be much more remarkable than a 240 lb dressed deer, imo. The article should be renamed "5 best atvs with which to over-compensate" because it seems all the author did was run down the line picking the biggest of everything. No wait, that's exactly what he did and then claimed they are "specialized for hunting." Perhaps he would pick a howitzer for a hunting rifle.

And while I'm on my soapbox, the article states:

We use the word “specialization” a lot when describing the ATV market of late, and with good reason. There was a time in the recent past when manufacturers offered up maybe half a dozen models to cover the entire spectrum of ATV riders’ needs. Yet these days, it isn’t uncommon to find that many trim packages offered for a single model! In short, these are good days to be involved in the sport, but we can understand how having so many viable options to select from could become overwhelming to a prospective rider.

What the heck is he talking about? These days about all that's available is a racer or a bigasss honking 4x4 or a mini-jeep (UTV). The 2-stroke, light-weight (296 lbs) quads are gone. The 325 lb (wet) quadsport is gone. The low center of gravity 300 king quad is gone. The 4x4s today are designed for the mud. If you want one for any other purpose, it's going to be a compromise.

There's a lot of fun to be had on a 300 lb 250cc that can't be found on a 450 lb 700cc. The super low gear and low center of the 300 KQ is super awesome. That's two really cool aspects of the atv universe and two fine examples of specialization that's now gone.

 

I think you have some good points.

I looked up the weight of your 450 and read 1000 lbs. From the pic, it looks like most of that weight is in the front. It probably also has a longer wheelbase than an atv. I can see it having no trouble moving a 270 lb tank around if all that is true.

It's neat you made that tank. I made one for my lawn too. I made it from an old air compressor tank (30 gal?). I run it off of compressed air that pushes the water out the tank, through a filter, and into however much water hose. I have it regulated at about 40 psi. I mounted it on one of those 2-wheeled dollies that people use to move washers and dryers, etc. It works great. I just wheel it around or hook up 50 ft of hose to it and drag that around instead.

I don't know much about UTVs. My friend had a Razr and beat the snot out of it. He'd drink and drive and go ***** to the wall all over the mtn and never had an issue. They seem to be super stable. Come to think of it... he usually does wipe out, but I don't think he ever wrecked the razr.

The only issue I can think of with UTVs if fitting between trees and over obstacles without needing the winch all the time. I lived in your area for a long time and I can't think of anything that would stop a UTV where you live except the ole Black Swamp. But over here is totally different. UTVs pretty much can't leave the beaten path... they just won't fit. No soybean fields here, just trees, hills, and rocks. I'd have to look hard to find some decent mud to challenge a bicycle.

So, I guess it's what works best for your area and your goals.

 

I enjoy reading about the years ago situations posted on here. Just to add another one....back in the 90's when I was considering buying an ATV I was reading and watching every piece of information I could get my hands on. At that time the Honda 300 was probably the most popular utility ATV on the market and all the reviews I was reading commented " with the power of the Honda 300 and its 4 wheel drive why would anyone have reason for more power". All the reviews talked about how it could go anywhere and it was all the machine anyone would ever need to get the job done. Now lets move ahead to todays media.." why would anyone want anything less than a 700cc machine, smaller than a 700 is not capable of doing any serious work!
My how times have changed !!! Look back at all the work those 300 cc machines got done in that time period and it makes us old guys wonder.."why in the hell does anyone need that big of an engine now ?"

 

JustRandy..... you are very correct in the fact that some areas are best suited for ATV's over a UTV. I was referring to the original statement of the article." best machine for hunting" of course each machine has its own set of benefits. I had ATV's before I moved into a UTV and I had a lot of fun with them. The difference on my atv and my current UTV in width is 7-8" wider for the UTV. Now yes they make much wider ones today but that is one of the reasons I chose the one I have to still be able to travel on ATV trails. I don't totally understand why they are making ATV's so darn big now, they are only 48" wide at the wheels but look how far the plastic hangs over, I have seen some that are as wide as my UTV in total overall width. I know many of the ATV's in the article are really big, tall and heavy and can't be that easy to ride being that top heavy as other posters have mentioned. Not trying to bash ATV's..heck no...just didn't care for the way the article was made to make people believe that only bigger is better.

 

Everything started with this:



Credit 3WHeeLeR WoRLD - ATC200E Big Red & ATC200ES Big Red

And that's the 200 model and marketed to farmers as a workhorse. By the time we got up to the 350 Foreman 4x4, everyone thought that was the pinnacle. Like you said, why would you need more? But manufacturers were trying to up each other and now we're up to a full liter and everyone is wondering if that's the end. I guess it depends how many people buy the 1000s. They're going to offer what sells.

I had a friend who had the 300 honda 4x4. It had a super low first gear and then 4 normal gears. It would pull about anything you needed to pull. The only thing I didn't like about it was the fulltime 4wd and diff that wouldn't lock.

300 cc is certainly adequate, but there are times I wish my 300 kq was a 500 or something... usually because I'm wanting to go faster while pulling a big load to increase productivity by decreasing cycle time, not because I need more pulling power per se. One day I'm going to look into pushing it up to 400cc. With all the other mods, I think that would be about perfect.

As for why anyone would need more power, check this out:



You can definitely tell the difference in engine size.

But none of that has anything to do with hunting or working

 

The property my brothers own borders on a swamp so the ideal hunting 4x4 for one of them was a Sportsman High Lifter 850. He didn't think he needed a 1000 which costs a lot more but has power steering. My other brother hasn't bought any ATV as far as I know. His ideal ATV is one he can borrow. If they got a UTV for hunting it would probably be a Ranger High Lifter.