Man, this is an age old topic here. I looked at this, and I had replied to this thing the same day I went and bought my Grizzly. (night before at least, but still the same date)

As far as that issue of your Prairie being crap and your Grizzly being reliable, I think that same case can happen with any 2 quads. I've heard of guys saying their old Rubicon was nothing but trouble, but their new Sportsman has had no problems. And this being the exact opposite of the quad world stereotype for reliability.

I'm sure you can get a Prairie, Grizzly, Outlander, Rancher, Z400, or just about anything and have the possibility that its a lemon. Then go get something different and it be golden. I haven't heard of enough reoccurring P650 problems to make me think there is anything wrong with that quad though. Seems to be pretty good from all I've heard in the last 2 and a half years now.

 

Andy's right about the lemon thing, tenisman's experience is atypical. Most prairie's are very reliable. Mine is awesome.

My friend's 660 engine blew up after about 2000 miles, but that doesn't seem to be happenening to other grizzlies. I think would be rude to state something like this and imply that it will also happen to you - which it probably isn't. Look around, the prairie is extremely reliable to most folks. Repeating that yours isn't to imply that someone else's won't be reliable, while ignoring that everyone else's is reliable makes you look stupid.

The 650 has some minor idiosyncrasies:
You have to adjust the belt, even when it is new, to tighten it up or the belt won't last very long. Easy to fix.
You have to turn the gas off or the gas flows into the cyl when you park it. There is an easy fix for it.
The stock tires suck. There is an easy fix for this.

Some people can't stand to deal with such minor issues. Maybe the Rincon is the only thing some people will ever be able to stand to own. I would rather get the quad that is the most fun for me.

 

m14brian, The reason that high performance cars have irs and trucks don't is the hight. A car sits so low to the ground that there is hardly any up & down travel, thus no body roll. A truck would be to tippy from the hight and thus alot of load shifting which would be very dangrous.

 

yea i know the paririe really wopes the 660 ***

 

I wouldnt say it kicks the grizzs but. Lets get in some rutted out mud and see who goes where. Both are great machines. Its what you like. If you want a sporty ride get a sport quad. Yes the grizz does have more body roll than the p650 and cant handle corners as well either. BOth have plusses and minuses. Go ride both and pick what you want. We could argue back and forth about this alnight, and still be where we are now.

 

listen the grizz is no better than a prairie when it comes to mud. its all about momentom and horsepower, not straight axel vs irs. i have read hundreds of posts of prairie wuppen up on a grizz in mudd simply cuz the grizz cant spin the tires as fast *** the prairie so the grizz sinks in.
I might be wrong but doesnt the grizz's diff lock have like a 22 mph speed limit, while the prarie has a '' how big are you ba!!s speed limit''.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

I hate to say it, but the Grizzly isn't really that much down on power compared to the Prairie, and if you are talking about spinning tires in mud, its not going to be lacking in power. And definitely not to a point where it would hinder its abilities. The Grizzly's IRS has a lot to do with its mud capabilities, and we aren't talking about belt slipping on either of these quads either. Any of these big 650+ bikes have all the power you need to turn big tires, so power in the mud isn't much of an issue. The two things you need for mud is traction and clearance after you have the power issue taken care of. Bigger tires and a locker takes care of the traction, but the clearance goes to the Grizzly, because the time you are going to get stuck is when you ground out and high center. Thats the biggie here.

Grizzly beat it out in the magazine's mud tests. Sportsman was king overall in that. Hell, Texmudder's Rubicon beat out the P650 in the mud portion of that shootout. (his or TXdoc's, can't really remember whose bike they used)

But all that crap is beside the main point of this whole topic anyway. I guess my original post here already sums up what I had to say about this. Either one has the possibility of having problems or being totally reliable. Both excell in different areas, and both are more than capable in all areas. You aren't going to be unsatisfied with either quad unless you are a very picky sumbitch.

But it would be boring here without arguements, so by all means proceed.

 

andy, haven't you figured out that magazines are all rigged[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I bought mine at the same time, they both are pushing 1,000 miles. I said in another post a while back that I saved quite a bit on the Prairie over the Grizz. Not considering price, I still don't know which one I would choose if i had it to do over and could only pick one. The Prairie is definately my choice when I ride with a "faster" group of riders who mostly ride sport quads. In my opinion it handles far better than the Grizzly for high speed fire roads and woods/trails and it definateley has more punch down low which makes it better for those types of situations. Most of my miles on my grizz are probably from me and the wife riding double or hunting. It has a smoother ride and is better in that sitiuation. On the poker runs we go on they both perform well in the mud. I guess if you were a hard core mudder the IRS would probably be a better choice, but like I said The Prairie takes me through some pretty mucky stuff with ease. I think a lot of people underestimate the Prairies muddin capability. I also think it is unfair to make the Grizzly out to be a water sucking gas boiling machine as I have crossed some deep creeks without issue and I have poked around all day long on 95* days with out the gas boiling. Reliability has never been a factor on either machine. I have adjusted belt deflection on the 650 as I would have to expect because I ride it a lot harder and probably put more stress on the belt. With all of this said and me typing more than I have in my previous 4 post in over a year, lol, I would try to narrow it down to your riding preferance.

 

Prairievenom, I've figured that out to a point, and then I let common sense take over from there. One thing I have figured out is that a lot of people in forums (regardless of whether its cars, Nascar, sports, atvs, etc.) are going to talk about whatever they have or prefer or support as being the best at everything, and everything else is below that. And you pretty much fall into that category from everything I've ever seen you post. You continuously praise the P650 (which you own) and dog out the Grizzly (which you don't). Well, thats to be expected most of the time. I try not to dog out the other brands, cause thats pretty unoriginal. But anyone with any sense knows that an IRS quad with more ground clearance and less stuff to hang up is going to do better in mud than a straight axle quad with a strut type front end.

Its give and take dude. The prairie has a lot on the Griz in a lot of areas, but it doesn't beat it in the mud. And for what its worth, I don't think either of them beat the Sportsman 700 in the mud. And for what thats worth, I don't think anything will beat the Arctic Cat 650 in the mud when it comes out.