I have a friend that is considering the Kaw. 360 Prairie as a rental unit to be used in the Hatfield McCoy area(southwest W.Va.). I don't know much about these machines. Opinions, input is appreciated. COST, auto-trans, user friendly controls, maintenance frequency, weight, are some of the criteria.
Give us the "low-down" here.

 

Hey trx 450 do you ride the HM trails? My wife and I are going there for the 4th of July weekend. We have never been and would like some info and recommended trails (not too tough for her).

I would quess the 360 is too new to really tell about reliability. He could probably get great deals on stuff like the P300 since they are being discontinued. Also the more power in a rental, the more likely someone is to get hurt and try to sue him.

 

jlpier01-- Email me, I'll give you info. Been there 4 times in 18mo.

 

I don't think it's wise to rent out a ATV that is 4 wheel drive and as nice as a P360. There is just to much that could go wrong on an ATV with so many features. This place in Big Bay Michigan rents ATV's and they rent out 2001 and 2002 polaris trail blazers. They are very base model, only 2 wheel drive with barely any features, but they are automatics so thats nice. You have to consider that people abuse the shiznit out of a rental unit, heck I know I would If I rented one. We went riding in big bay a few weeks ago and 2 friends rented ATV's (The trail blazers I mentioned above). They are 2wd, 2 stroke 250cc air cooled bikes. Nothing special there. The guys were first time riders and 5 minutes into leaving for a day of riding one of the guys front tires hit a branch and it turned the bike into a tree and totally twisted the frame. The entire frame will need replacing (to see pics of the mangled bike go to my website and look at the big bay michigan pics). Ok so he totalled the ATV and he had to pay 500 dollars which was the money he had to put down for insurance. The 500 was basically the ATV rental places deductable. Now just imagine this, he totaled a 2wd air cooled bike so there was no diff up front, no radiator, none of that stuff that a 4wd liquid cooled machine has. If it were -lets say a P360 all types of stuff would have been messed up. Anyway I don't know if u see where I'm coming from on this, but I think it would be wise to have him spend less and get more base model machines than to spend more and get nice feature filled machines with more that could get screwed up or go wrong. - JMO

 

Lackdog--- I tend to agree that the units should be as simple, light, cheap as possible. I believe that the auto-trans is must. Thanx for all the replies, so far.

 

bbump

 

Some people are selling new 2002 Polaris 325 magnum 4x4's in the Cycle Trader for $3999.

 

trx450
I had a P300 2wheel drive. Traded for a P650. The 300 was tough. Never had any trouble with it, and I abussed the s$$t out of it. Have heard that the new hondas have trouble getting all of the grit out of crankcase when rebuildind. The Prairie's engine is very proven, and it's an auto.

 

POLARIS S**KS

 

I agree that it likely does. But when you rent cars they are usually not the best sellers. You rarely see Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans etc. You usually see American cars that don't sell as well and are lower priced.