Another question, have they solved the issue with the stock bushings, added grease zerks? Are there any changes for 2015?

 

The Kawie engine brake operates by an electric motor that pushes a mechanical fork into a bearing on the primary clutch sheave thereby pushing in on the belt and slowing you down. However, 90% of the time, the actual felt engine braking you feel comes directly from the CVT system and the springs inside it. The electric motor and fork part of it only engages at 5 mph or less in high range, and 2 mph or less in low range. So basically the only time you will feel it kick in is when you are going really slow down a steep hill. Simple let offs of throttle to decelerate will all be done by the CVT itself and only the CVT.
Many folks simply remove the electric motor and rely on nothing but the CVT to slow them down. I have tried that and found it worked pretty well. The only time I missed it was on steep, rocky down hill sections of trail when I was going so slow that my speedo hardly registered. I live in the Rocky Mountains so I encounter that situation a lot, so I put my motor and fork back in. If you live east of Denver, you probably would never need the system.

As to the longevity of the Kawie Vtwin engine, put that out of your mind right now. The current 750 is based on an engine that has been around since 2005 only with some slight modifications. Truth be told, it's actually based on their 650 vtwin which has been in production since 2002. It's proven to be a very tough motor. PRobably ranks in the top three best atv engines of all time in my opinion. I've only got 6300 trouble free miles on mine, but I know folks who have 14000 miles on their's and are still going strong.

As for the bushings, no, they don't have grease zerks. But since the machine is still under 700 pounds wet, they really don't need them. Well, at least not as bad as a 900 pound Polaris does. When it comes time to do maintenance on them, you get new bushings for about $50 and you can have them installed pretty easy in an afternoon. Usually, you don't even have to replace them all, and they will last for several thousand miles even at full payload.

Btw, have you looked at the grease zerk locations on the PO yet? I did a grease job for a buddy who used to own a Sportsman 850 xp and I will never offer to do it again! Had to finally have my neighbor's kid come over and put her little hands in there to finish the job. That was the only way it was getting done without removing a bunch of parts which I was not willing to do for free!

 

By the way, if you're looking at 2015 models, the new King Quad has gone to a two spark plug design for this year. They claim it has better throttle response and fuel mileage (the King was pretty good already in that dept.), but it's something to consider if you don't like being the guinea pig on first year features!

 

Haha yeah the grease zerks on the Polaris suck, that's one thing for sure that seems more straight forward on the Brute Force is the maintenance. Let's be honest, even with the best intentions if maintenance is a pain in the butt to do in the first place it becomes easy to neglect.

 

Do you feel like the ground clearance is enough on the Brute? Thinking about 27" STI Black Diamond XTR's.

 

I guess it depends on your riding areas and preferences. I mainly ride a Prairie 700 which has even less ground clearance than the Brute and I think it's fine. I don't do real deep mud, and I ride in the snow until I'm stuck which is usually just a few hundred yards behind where my buddies with huge ground clearance Arctic Cats are stuck!

For me personally, I like a lower center of gravity and stability in off-camber situations more than the ultimate ground clearance. And the laws of physics dictate that you just can't have both! The way I look at it, I can take my meager ground clearance Prairie up Golden Spike and Poison Spider trails in Moab and never scrape my frame and that is as nasty of a place as I'm ever going to go so what else do I need!? As long as I clear those big obstacles, does it matter if it just barely cleared or if there were 3 more inches to spare? No.

As for the tires, that would be an excellent choice. I run the 26" STI's and I'm fine with the height. 27" would actually fit the Brute even better. Sti's tend to run a bit on the small side from their advertised size.

 

I'd throw a Yamaha Grizzly 700 in there as another option. I think its better than any of the other machines except that it doesn't have quite as much power as the Sportsman or Brute Force, about equal to the King Quad. The Sportsman is the fastest and most powerful by a noticeable amount over any of the others. If you want to run bigger tires than stock, then the Sportsman is the best choice. Bigger tires will eat some of your power and the Sportsman has more in reserve than the others.

 

Just observations from the groups I've ridden with. Never had a Polaris frame crack. Suzuki has a couple that I've personally seen.

 

Something I learned along the way is that not all ATV’s suit my preferences. You mentioned that you were leaning toward the King Quad or the Brute force and they are two different types of styles going on there. The King Quad seems to be built around a marvelously smooth transmission, cushy ride, and fuel economy. The Brute Force is built around the instantaneous V-twin performance, and a nimble sporty feel. Not that either is wrong, it’s just their thing, and they suit different personalities. If the thrill of the quick nimble bike is your thing, then stay away from the King Quad. If getting 30MPG is really important stay away from the Brute Force. The addition of power steering on the KQ, apparently solved what was the worst steering of any ATV I've ridden. Kawasaki solved their overheating issue. Reliability seems to be a major determining factor for you, and it was for me too. One of the things I did before buying my Brute Force was to look at the various forums Sticky notes about common issues. After 2012 you don’t see a lot of Brute Force issues, like you do on the Polaris forums. I’m a huge Polaris fan, but they have gremlins (lots of people with different types of problems). I’m not sure about the newer KQ, but in the past Suzuki had gremlins too. I had a 2008 King Quad, and I guess I got lucky because it had every problem listed in the sticky’ s. The Brute Force was such a pleasant surprise because it was so much more than a go fast and sound cool ATV. When people talk about the Brute being stiff, I’m not sure they’re talking about the 2012 + Brutes. I own a Sportsman XP and I used to own a KQ. Those rides are a little better, but the Brutes ride is very good and I don’t have power steering. That’s about all I can think of for now, but for me the Brute Force fit exactly what I wanted from my ATV.

 

Thanks for all the help! I ended up choosing the King Quad! I would have loved to have one of each lol, but I had to make a decision.