I went and took a test drive on a 650 today and was impressed somewhat. It seemed to have good power even though I just drove around the parking lot and only hit 12 mph. The shifter and gear changes were great! I actually enjoyed shifting it around from Hi to Reverse. The part that really disappointed me though was the tires. The rear ones look like the ones that come on a Scrambler. I noticed the shafts were smaller than on a Polaris. I know that bigger does not mean stronger, but what does everyone think about the smaller shafts? It was sitting next to a Sp 500 and the Kawi looked longer. Does a 650 fit in the bed of a short box pickup? How about with a winch on it? Also, what have you guys been getting for mileage to a tankful?
Sorry for so many questions (I'm sure I'll have more, hehe [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] )
Thanks

 

The shafts are made of a forged alloy to keep weight down. Polaris' ad campain bragging about the dia of their shafts is an insult to intelligent people. I am no polaris hater, but I feel kawi makes them a bit better quality. There is evidence of kawi using a more expensive material to keep the weight down and strenght up all over this quad.

The back tires do suck. I feel that they had to give us the crappiest tires available to keep the weight down. I feel that is the 650's biggest problem, so I got a set of mudzilla's. I will get a set of something else, like blackwater xt for summer use.

I have not been keeping track of the mileage, but I don't seem to use very much gas.

My 650 does not fit in my shortbox F150. I used a set of car ramps in the bed that allows it to fit. Now that I have bigger tires, it is too long by .75, the tailgate does not shut so I take it off. The winch does not affect the 650 fitting into your truck. Look through my pictures and you'll see it is hidden.

 

I saw your pics and the video. Is that you in the video? The Mudzillas look awesome. I plan on putting my 26" 589 MT's on the Kawi when I get it. The Xplorer just can't quite handle them the way I want it to. It looks like your tires fit inside the wheel wells very well. I noticed on a Polaris SP today that the Rawhides on it stuck out about an inch on each side past the fender wells. What offset of wheels did you get to make those big tires fit so well? Thanks for the help.

 

My 650 will not alow me to close the tailgate on my 2000 Dodge Ram either, and I ditched the stock tires at 200 miles for Dirt Devil's have 1200 miles now, and you can't tell they are worn at all, still look new.

 

Before I forget, the gas tank's are not 4.5 gallons like they say, I have filled mine up from bone dry and put 4.924 gallons in at the gas pump's I get around 75-80 miles before it runs out, reserve light start's flashing at about 62 miles.

 

I did not pick my wheel offsets. The folks at www.croffroad.com did. I copied that video from someone else. I just thought it would be informative.


Stakk, how do those dirt devils handle at high speed? Do they affect your top speed?

 

I went with the stock 25 in. size but like Jeff Fox's Goodyear's, mine are not 25, more like 24 1/2 tall. anyway they make the 650 handle like a totally diff. bike steering is much quicker and it does not " wallow" in turns now. they are 6-ply, and ride a little stiffer than stock but they are by no means rough. 5 psi of air and they are fine. I can't say anything negative about them, but any tire is better than the dunlop's that come on them. Here's the strange thing, they are 6-ply, and about half inch shorter than the stocker's but stock my speedometer would hit 62 mph. wuth the dirt devil's 63 mph. Go figure! now stock exhaust, 63 mph, HMF 66 mph. I'm hoping when the shop does my dyno-jet kit next week,they have been behind because of Christmas, I'm hoping to get 68-70 mph. they think it will. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

Roofer I can answer a couple of your questions. The stock tires are absolute crap. They may look like the tires on a Scrambler but they they are no where near the Titan 489 ATs that come on the Scrambler. I just ordered 489 XTs for the front of my 650 and 589 MTs for the rear and I got them in the same size as stock. I have never checked the mileage but my first ride on my 650 was 21 miles and according to my fuel gauge I only used 1 bar on the digital fuel gauge. I have a Scram 500 also and the shafts on it are slightly larger than my 650 by about 1/8", I will be curious to see if my 650 holds up as well as my Scram has. As Nyroc stated the winch is well hidden and would not effect the overall lenght of the 650. I have nothing bad to say about my 650 so far. It is a blast to ride and if your looking for a bigger sport ute that rides like a sport quad this is the way to go. If you ride alot of rocky terrain you may want to consider one of the IRS models. I dont think you could go wrong with either the 650, 660 or 700. With that said if I had it to do all over again there is no doubt I would get the 650 again.

 

"Impressed Somewhat" ???!!!! "I just drove around the parking lot and only hit 12 mph" ??!! I hate to say this, but you need to take a TEST RIDE !!!! There will be no doubt in your mind as to weather you're impressed !!!

 

it willfit in the back of my 97 f250 ps longbed with a box 2 feet deep in it. i put a piece of capet on the box and the angle of the front bars let it ride up a bit on it. tires on back are nearly gone, fronts still in good shape and have`nt been stuck yet. and its been in some pretty nasty swamp mud.