Ok I might be asking for trouble here but I hope i get some good answers. I am a Polaris guy, but that doesn't mean that if there is something better I wont ride it. I was reading about the 700 prairie, it looks pretty sweet. Anyone have some input for me?

 

MadDog i used to be a polaris guy also. i was looking at a 700 also but went with the 650 prairie instead. here is why. my old sportsman was a dog. for the kind of riding that i do the prairie was a better choice. the prairie is a lot faster and more fun to ride. if you are mainly going to work with your atv then get a sportsman, if not get the prairie. i have heard of a lot of little stuff going wrong on the sportsman too. and for $7000 i dont want a $5 part going out. so take it from a man who was in your spot several months ago get the prairie, unless all you do with your atv is work.

 

go with the p700. The sportsman in a nice riding bike but it is way to heavy. power wize my 650 smoked a 700 sportsman. and the guy riding it was a small guy im not and i had my girlfriend on the back so a total of 145lbs on the sportsman and i had maybee 325lbs combining my girlfriend and i and thats not including the 2 coolers full of beer i had on the back rack. thats just my inputt

 

I went hunting last year with a friends who have sportsman 500 ho and the 700. And to be honest the 700 was not that fast. I would not spend the extra $ if I were going to buy a polaris.

But in general the basic recommendations are normally:

If you want a utility quad but like sport riding, buy a Kaw 700. (Solid rear axle)

If you want a utility quad and like serious off roading buy a polaris or Griz.

 

Frame and suspension characteristics are night and day on these two. As far as the engines go, the P650 already had more going for it than the Sp700, so I would imagine that the P700 will just be even more better. Each has their own advantages/disadvantages towards the other as far as the rest of the bike is concerned. P700 will handle sport riding (and I'm talking high speed cornering) a little better than the Polaris. Polaris will crawl over things a bit easier without hanging up due to the IRS and enormous ground clearance. There has been a lot of debating about the big bores. Cutting one down and then another, but in the end, each one of them is an awesome bike that will beat some of the others in a few categories and lose in a few other categories. Neither is a wrong move.

 

Polaris has a nicer ride, more clearance.... Prairie has more speed, more sport. If i was gonna buy a new polaris i sure as heck wouldn't buy a 600 or 700 just cuz they don't have a recoil starter.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

Just as it's been stated before if you want a work horse buy a polaris. If you want a happy medium that can do work and be sporty buy a prairie. I didn't like the griz cuz it didn't have a override in reverse and i thought it was to top heavy. I have rode and researched all three quads mentioned above. The prairie just fit me the best.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

I like the polaris500 better than the 700 it seems faster to me. I like the prairie better than them both. I really haven't ridden none of them to make an honest comparison. My opinion is based on 4 or 5 rides on the 500, 1 ride on the 700, and i've rode a prarie 3 times. All were friends or families quads and I did get each of them to close there top speed. I didn't pull nothing or have any weight on any of them except myself so I don't know about their work qualities.

 

I've heard that a lot in the last year. Even seen guys that got a 700, then got rid of it a few months later and got another SP500.

 

Put 100 miles total this weekend on my P400, at one point on the trails we came across a very mean long deep and rugged mudd hole, the Rincon ended up on its side underwater, I have pics...Couldnt talk the 650 owner into trying it, should have known by the huge windshield on his bike... The 700 Polaris full throttle, rider standing on the racks, plunged right through this hole, water up the the handlebars at times. Good mudder, but I drag raced another 700 Sportsman that same day in the quarter mile, I was ahead until about halfway, where he just pulled ahead of me for the finish. I expected to get spanked off the line and never see him again, I was shocked I did that good against it. I think it should be faster for being a 700.

P.S. I did a "tug of war" with a new 400 sportsman, ended in a dead tie after over a minute of rock flingin, hole diggin, full throttle pulling. Rider of the heavier sportsman outweighed me by over 50 pounds too! Had to throw that in there.

 

I agree that if you just want to do work with it, get the sportsman, if you want a combination then go with the prairie. I ride the Rancher and my husband rides the Prairie. It is really nice for him that the Prairie is an awesome sport machine (he races it as well), but if you need it to do work with it, you can. I want to buy a sport machine and have the Rancher as well since I am too small for a real sport/utility, then I can have my pick. It's just nice to have one machine that's great at both. You won't believe the power of a prairie until you find out for yourself.

To see how sporty you can ride the Prairie you can look at my photo page. Our machines have to be able to put up with a LOT of abuse or it's not the machine for us to own. The Honda's always been reliable, but I was leary about the Kaw. It's been an awesome machine.