Could anyone tell me how a Praire 400 performs? I'd like to hear some comparisons of how it goes compared to other popular quads so I can get an idea of acceleration and top speed.

 

I have owned a 2000 praire 4x4 for about a year now.

I is my first quad.

Things I like about:
Comforatable ride.
LED speedumeter.
Its fast enough - I had it up to 50 mph and it had more.
It keeps up with my friends 500 sportsman/kodiak just fine.
Had not had a lick of trouble with it.
Routine maintenance is easy to perform.
Relatively inexpensive compared to sportsman, kodiak and comparable honda.
My 10 year old can handle it easily (but he doesn't ride like a mad man either)

Things I would change:
I would like to switch between 2 and 4 wheel drive.
Would be nice to have engine breaking.
The sportsman seems to have a little bit more traction.

Things I had to get use to:
One has to lean into the hard turns and it rides much more stable.

Things that don't bother me:
It does not do wheelies.

 

I think they perform very well for a 400cc quad,the later model praire runs stronger than the early models.Kawasaki change some things on the engine and the clutch,in the later models.As far as comparisons,I have a 99 450es and a girlfreind of mine has a 99 praire,for the sport side the praire wins,but not by much.For the utility side,(which is what I favor)the foreman wins hands down.The foremam has great torque down low that works great for farming.Top speed, the praire wins by about 2-3 mph,with a top speed around 52 mph.Im sure you would be happy with the performance of the praire.The only disadvantage with the praire is it has no engine braking on it.Maybe Kawasaki will adapt the ebs off the new 650 and put it on the 400. Hope this helps ya..

 

I had one last couple of years not one problem with it.The praire is a great bike,i put a k&n filter and a jet kit and a ids supertrapp slip on exhaust and boy! did that make a difference it would out run my brother inlaws grizz and he had jet kit and a k&n also! It would not blow it out of the water but it would pull away from the grizz at a slow but steady pace!for the price and comfort& porformance it hard to beat!!