Here is the post from a few months ago. I am really interested in an update of the information below and any further thoughts you have about realiability, ride, and performance. My personal interest would be with regard to the ride of the IRS on the grizz VS the ride of the 650. I am also interested in whether or not the IRS really made a big difference on the ground clearance for mud, etc. after factoring in the suspension sag as a result of your bodyweight.
Thanks.

Jeff Fox

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GATORBAIT WROTE:
Sunday, October 21, 2001 7:47 PM
I now own both machines now and can provide you the following first synopsis having just put about 6 hours on the Prairie this past weekend (I've owned the Yamaha 660 since end of July):

Grizzly Pro's

- Ground Clearance is higher
- Steering is easier and tighter
- Ride is definately more plush (better technical riding machine for rocks)
- Push botton locking front differential instead of the left yellow lever on the handlebars on the Prairie (comes in handy when you need to access your winch to get unstuck with the front diff locked - just click and forget it on the Griz, you have to hold the lever on Prairie the whole time).
- $69 Warn Winch Progam

Grizzly Con's

- Top end speed is good, but the "immediate" thrust is unmatched to the Prairie
- The rev limiter really stinks when you stuck, especially when you want to lock the differential
- Shifter is not as easy to access

Praire Pro's

- No doubt about it, the machine gives you instant power
- Full tank in the rear gives you better center of gravity
- Engine breaking is unmatched to the Grizzly
- Front/Rear Breaks are awesome
- Prairie is supposively more "water" friendly (I've yet to have any problems with the Griz with 130 miles on it, though),
- Rev limiter over-ride button
- Convenient right shifter

Prairie Cons

- Suspension is stiffer than that of the Grizzly (you'd notice it after driving the Grizzly for a couple of hours and then changing to the Prairie, it's a big difference).
- Steering is more difficult (my arms are very tired from driving the Prairie the past couple of days)
- Could use another 2 inches of ground clearance
- Seat is kind of wide compared to Grizzly
- No trailer hitch
- No Winch Proram (cost you at least $300 to get one, plus mount)

Bottomline, I don't think you'll be unhappy with either one. They both weigh about 600 lbs (140 less than the Polaris 700 V-Twin Suburban 3/4 Ton) so they handle very well for big bore machines on the trails. If I were to have just one, I'd probably elect to have the Grizzly, but I've honestly having put the Prairie to the test that I've put my Grizzly through thus far, so ask me in a couple of months :-)

Hope this helps.


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2002 Grizzly 660 Camo
2002 Prairie 650 Green

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I would imagine the preload settings can take away some of the squat. Mine doesn't seem to sag much (3rd preload setting) except in the rear on uneven uphills. There aren't many uphill mudholes, so unless its just a hard side rut, I don't think the squat factor is going to play into the mud effect much.

Another note though, the downplay to the straight axle is the differential in the rear casing out. Seems like everytime I got my AC stuck, I had the whole underbody cased out rather than just the differential. This basically plays into the Prairies favor and takes away from a possibility of the straight axle being a limited factor. Tires & Ground Clearance are the things you want in mud. I think you have a pretty good point there. I hope this guy responds.

 

Thanks for the response Andy. I think when I had the 400ex last Winter the rear differential was a huge issue because it was really angled downward. It was 4.5" at the lowest point. Whereas on the 650 it really doesn't hang down too low relative to the center of the quad and may not cause me to hang up until it's deep enough to high center the entire quad like you said.
I also noticed on the grizz where the guards are that lead to the wheels in back that it could cause a potential small drag there. Probably not enough to do anything though. Whereas on the 650 the straight axle is above 11" to the wheels. So if there was some test done the potential drag of the 650 and Grizz might be close considering the factors above.

 

A counterpoint to that would be the front a-arms. Seems like when I have got stuck in the past, it started out with my A-arms (with oxlites helping) pushing a wall of mud, thus slowing my momentum. With that in mind, I would figure quads with strut type front ends (grizz 600, Prairies, Polaris) would have a greater tendency to do this seeing as strut types sit lower to the ground and at less of an angle. I'm still pretty big on the tire thing being the most important though. Something with a big sidewall bite will dang sure keep you going in a lot of situations. Especially stuff that is thick and you can get a good grab in.