Hello all,
I am about to purchase my first atv. I have looked at the Honda, Polaris and the Bombardier and I have narrowed it down to either the traxter or sportsman 600. I will be using this atv as a utility vehicle to haul a trailer full of firewood and also plan on plowing and hunting. I wont be doing a lot of trail riding.
I see where the traxter tongue weight is 30 lbs whereas the sportsman 600 tongue weight is 150 lbs.
this difference is remarkable since the traxter has a solid rear axle and the sportsman sports independent rear suspension!
Does anyone have any experience hauling a trailer with a traxter or sportsman 600 if so what was the tongue weight and did you find any problems?
also what are opinions on overall build quality? Bombardier offers 3 yr warranty whereas Polaris offers 6 months.
Lots of money so I want to buy the machine best suited to my needs.

one last thought: I rode a traxter yesterday for the first time and found the transmission to shift rather harshly, the salesman said this was normal but upon questioning him I found he was less than knowledgeable about the machine he was trying to sell me. Luckily we have places like this to discuss and share information!!

any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!!

 

Is the Traxter still full-time 4wd? That alone would send me to the Polaris. I do like Bombi's new Outlander 400, though.

 

My 600 has pulled a 3place snowmobile trailer load of wood without breaking a sweat. If your looking for a dedicated workhorse try looking at the Polaris ATP, you really get the best of both worlds.

 

save your-self the trouble, buy anything else but a pull aris!!!

 

If you're looking for the ultimate workhorse, look no further than a Traxter. Not only do you get a gear on gear tranny, but you also get engine braking on all 4 wheels (Polaris only has engine braking on the rear wheels) and you can tow a house with it (just look at who wins all the atv pulls). The Traxter auto shift can be adjusted to improve shift quality, and is a very heavy duty setup. You will find that even though the Traxter has a lower tongue weight, it will handle a heavy load a lot better than any IRS suspended quad out there (because of suspension sag).

I'm not saying that the Polaris is a bad utility quad, just that it's not as heavy duty as the Traxter. The Polaris gives you a more comfortable ride and probably has more hp, but the Traxter along with the geared tranny will work a lot better than the Polaris. Just some things to think about. You can't go wrong with either one of these machines.

For Bombardier utility machines, the ATV frontier forum is the biggest on the web.

 

I disagree that a polaris is not as durable/heavy duty a traxter (or anyhting else), go to the web sites and compare capacities.

 

or look at the ATP from polaris.

http://www.polarisindustries.com/pro...asp?Model=500#


some good features, and options come with it, if your just going to do work, also good for some joy riding...



some of these other brand ppls have such a narrow mind, they wont accept the fact that polaris makes good ATV's. for example Scatkatt.

 

I sugested the ATP, in fact I almost bought one myself and at the last min I changed my mind and went with the 600 with as I was planning on doing a little more trail riding, and I really liked the 600 engine.

some people just like to drop by and poke us with a stick once in a while..... that's ok too, if they don't own a polaris they missed the boat [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Thanks to all the information and opinions
Seems like the Traxter is my best choice now have to find a dealer and good price

 

the polaris is a better riding quad and faster and is a good pulling machine , but having said that i have seen the traxters pull in atv pulls pulling weight transfers and these things will pull the a@@hole out of the world , but man are they butt ugly.