my buddy has an 01 scrambler 500. we have ridden many, many, many miles together. stock for stock the prairie will beat it, low, mid and high speeds. his top speed is close to mine but not quite. acceleration is pretty good on that scrammy though. he put a k&n filter with outerware on and that helped to increase his low end and top speed pretty noticably. new pipe didn't help that much. I also had an 02 p650 which was still faster but not as much as the p700. the scrammy is by no means wimpy, it is actually pretty damn fast, faster than many on this forum might think. it/s 4wd works awesome as well. I prefer it over the prairie's. who cares if it needs to detect slip 20% before it engages that's only 1/5 of an axel revolution. it engages seamlessly and works great. one thing about the prairie 4wd system. it engages between 2 and 12 mph. if you put it in 4wd when stopped you then need to get up to 2 mph before it engages that is bs. especially if you are in a mud pit and youa re in 2wd and need the 4wd. youobviously can't get to 2 mph there. so your wheels spin speedo reads 10 mph and CLUNK it goes into 4wd. polaris 4wd rocks

 

DakotaP,
Yeah, the Prairie 4wd system could be improved...but I still like it better than the Polaris 4wd system. I don't care for the fact that the Polaris system doesn't provide 4 wheels engine breaking (only the back 2 wheels get engine breaking) when going down steep hills whereas all 4 wheels (actually its 3 wheels unless you use your front diff locker) get engine breaking on the Prairie. Also, I like putting it into 4wd when **I** want it to be in 4wd and not when **it** wants to be in 4wd. For me, I like the stability of having 4wd (when I want it) on slippery side hill trails, off camber situations, etc. and not have to wait for wheelspin to engage the 4wd. Anyway, that's just my opinion and everyone is entitled to think differently of course. To each, his own.

Happy trails...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I will tell you this much, there has not been a quad made that could not use some improvements. I would be proud to own either of these two quads we are talking about. I am impressed by both and you couldn't go wrong by having one or both of them in your garage.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Hello MikeyBoyesq

You may be suprised to learn that the P650 front wheels are connected to the rear wheels through a cam damper mechanism that requires the rear wheels to slip before full torque can be applied to the front wheels. So it seems that maybe your front and rear wheels may not be locked quite as well as you may have thought.
Have a great day
BryceGTX

 

Bryce,
Yes, I'm surprised to hear that...Honestly, you are the first person I've ever seen to make this statement about the Prairie's 4wd system. Are you absolutely sure about that? If so, please tell me where this "cam damper mechanism" is located on the Prairie as I do not know where it is located? I have a service manual for my P650 and I would like to read more about this part and how it functions.

If what you say is correct, it must not take much rear wheel slippage before the front wheels are engaged b/c I ride or race in 4wd mode approx. 90% of the time and have never once noticed that my rear wheels spun before my front wheels engaged (while it was in 4wd mode). Honestly, I find this a little hard to believe.

PS - I am very familiar with the 4wd engagement system on the prairie...are you sure you are not talking about the fact that the rear wheels must rotate at approx. 1 mph before the 2wd/4wd actuator will attempt to lock in the front wheels for 4wd mode? If so, this only occurs when you first hit the 4wd mode button and not continually thereafter (like on the Polaris 4wd system).

Happy trails...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

There is no damper on the Prairie.

 

That being cleared up, I do like the Polaris 4x4 system for tight racing. Our club puts on obstacle course races (jumps, slaloms, lots of tight corners and stuff). The Polaris utilities always do really well; they go around corners like a 2wd and then hook up out of the corners like a 4x4. We had a newbie on a 500 Scrambler this past year, he was a good driver but not great - he took second place! A Bombardier Outlander with low profile All-tracs and a great driver came in first, A Sp700 with a great driver came in third, and I came in fourth out of 15 machines. The Outlander was extremely impressive through the corners.

 

I thought these demensions might be of interest to you Note the wheelbase is only 2" differnce the width is the same the weight is only 28lbs. It would be cheaper to just take off your front bumper and loose the racks and slap on a light OE tire and you will have a quad that is not only faster than a scammy but also has alot better ergos, handeling, and reliablity. then you can take some of the money you are saving and get a Dyna CDI. You can kill scrammy's all day long with that box (5+ bike lengths in 200 yard runs with the racks and everthing on it).

Prairie

Overall length: 86.2 in.

Overall width: 46.5 in.

Wheelbase: 50.8 in.

Seat height: 34.3 in.


Scrambler

Wheelbase 48/121.9 in/cm

Dry Weight 571/259.5 lbs/kg

Length/Width/Height 75/46/47

Seat Height 34/86.4 in/cm

Fuel Capacity 3.5/13.2 U.S. gallons/L

 

Sorry my bad , I missed that post were you said the P650 was your dads, just the same though the BF650 is also a good choice, those are going for around 5800.00 to 6000.00 with a list of 6599. The Scrammy list for 6099.00. depending on promo's and delear sales tactics with frt. and set ups and tax ect,ect. The price may not be much if any different. I suggested the BF650 becuse it was cheaper and I thought the new plastic that they reskinned the old prairie in looks a little bit more sporty.

BF650/new plastic on old P650

I am not very good with these links yet it takes you to kawi but you have to click on atv then in the drop down window choose bruteforce and there you can see the BF650 pics

 

Unless the new Scrambler 500 4x4s have a different system than the Scrambler 500 4x4 I owned a few years ago, the Scrambler has NO engine braking to either end. It freewheels on downhills.


And from having owned both machines, it is quite obvious that the Prairie 700 can easily out accelerate the Scrambler 500. I've owned a Prairie 650 as well, and that ATV is also faster than a Scrambler 500, but not by as much. I think the Scrambler has better handling in stock form though, mainly because of better spring rates on the front struts, and because of its much sportier 22" rear / 23" front tires. On a tight woods trail, with equal riders, the Scrambler 500 could give a Prairie all it could handle.

OuterLimit