Hello everyone I'm considering on buying another ATV, my first quad is 05 ds650 which I enjoy but I realized its limitations. With that being said I am looking for a used 4x4 quad preferably automatic that I can use more for pulling and plowing snow as well as a little trail riding. I am interested in everyone's opinions on their machines or a friends machine or whatever just looking to gather as much information as I can and see what everyone's experiences are with different quads.

Thanks,
Chris

 

For grunt, I've never seen anything better than my 2008 Arctic Cat 700 cc SuperDuty Diesel. I put an intercooler and a turbocharger on it, now it's quite powerful. It has gobs of torque, weighs almost 1,000 lbs. The negatives are, it's kinda loud and top speed is only 44-45 mph. It starts great in winter. I plow with a 72" plow like nothing. It has an alternator like a car, never runs the battery down plowing, heated grips, lights going, etc, battery stays up. Wife on the back seat for added traction/warmth, hehe. I have since replaced the 30" Mudzillas with ITP Terra Cross RT's, Mudzillas suck in the snow. PICS

 

Most of todays quads are well built and will last a long time if taken care of and not abused. I had a 2000 praire 300 for 16yrs with no issues and plowed a 300' long x 2car wide drive plus trail riding. Great quad with plenty of power for normal use. I would recommend you stay away from Honda's with the electric shift transmissions as they have had some issues and are expensive to repair. Never been a fan of the Polaris single lever brakes either, I prefer a separate front and rear brake lever. Stay away from Chinese models unless you like working on them. I always try to finf machines owned by older people with records of maintenance on their machines.

 

Kymco 450i said it best. My driveway is 500 yards long, I've plowed it with a manual shift AC 400 and a 60" plow, it did a fair job and a manual shift AC 500 which did better. Both of those were useless, however with the 72" plow. I think you should look at the side by sides too, like the Kymco or Prowler, etc. Having an enclosed cab with a heater would be kinda nice. Everyone asks me why I don't just put a plow on my 4x4 Dodge Ram? Cause plowing with the AC Diesel is so fun. I also use it to groom local snowmobile trails. None of the other Cats did well plowing 2' deep snow on the trails. With the Diesel, I set the blade about 1 foot and it blasts right thru.

 

Any of the major makers' quads with 4wd and a full locking differential will do well with what you are asking of an ATV. Personally, I'd stick with something 500 cc's or larger just for some fun factor. I'm not up on Arctic Cats but have experience with quite a few other machines. I like the Polaris Sportsman X2 for a work machine. True 400 lb. weight capacity in the pickup-like bed, and towing 1500 lbs. The dump bed converts to a passenger seat in about 15 seconds.

Others would be Yamaha Grizzly 550 or 700, Suzuki King Quad, and Can-Am Outlander 570. These are new machines. Some of the used ones might have a 500 instead of a 550 or 570.

 

Depends on how much you want to spend. You can find a good 4x4 quad(500cc and up) in the $3000-$3500 range. Ones I would look at would be Yamaha Grizzly, Suzuki King Quad, Kawasaki Brute Force, and the Arctic Cat 650 and 700cc models. If you want to spend a little more and buy something new, the Yamaha Kodiak 700, Arctic Cat VLX 700, Can Am Outlander 570L and Polaris Sportsman 570 would all be good choices for work and play and are still relatively affordable compared to the more expensive larger displacement machines but still plenty of power to work and trail ride.