I am selling my sp 500 6x6 & was thinking of buying a prairie 400.The reason why is weight
and ease of steering(yes I'm a wimp).My partner has a sp 500,my freind has a mag 325,my wife has
a explor 250.The 250 rides easy and steers twice
as easy as the all the others I ride with,except
my brothers yaahamers.I realy just don't like them.Have any of you guys heard bad things about
kaw trans or belt problems?I know you are thinking
why is he asking polaris guys about kaws,most of the time you get honest answers insted of getting
ragged,ya know what I mean.


TRUCK

 

The prarie 400 4x4 is a good bike, with 2 exceptions: limited slip front differential, and rear drum brakes. I recently had the pleasure of changing the rear drum brakes on one, and it took about 4 hours. The shoes weren't worn out, but the mechanism that spreads the shoes was froze up, and it was a booger to get those shoes off and put the new ones in. If you stay out of the mud and water, I'm sure you won't have problems. Don't get me wrong, I'm not biased against Kawasaki, but I am biased against drum brakes.

 

Walexa, I, too, am biased, but against POORLY SEALED drum brakes, not drum brakes generally! Kawasaki improved the sealing of later model Prairie rear drums, I'm told; also, there was ROOM for improvement. Honda seems to seal its drum brakes very well; and, I admit--disk brakes don't REQUIRE sealing!

Tree Farmer

 

I am not worried about the lim slip diff in frt
thats what they make lockers for,but if it has drums on rear then I will have to keep them clean
the main thing I was worried about was trans &
belt lasting after reading some post in the kaw
forum.


TRUCK

 

I ride with a 2000 Praire 300 2 wheel drive and it is a really nice machine, he goes were i go, i imagine the 400 is sweet! He has had no trouble at all with his.

 

I have one friend with a kaw. praire 400 and he likes the bike very much. It has excellent pulling
power as he has hauled some big loads with it. My dad was with him and told me that the kaw. performs very well. -rangerchet

 

I'm not trying to be smart but have you rode the new kodiak? I went to the dealer set on buying a praire 400 4x4 came home with a 2000 kodiak 400 4x4 . I rode both, liked the praire but the kodiak has 2x4 to 4x4 switch, engine brake (no free wheeling down hills), disk brakes all the way around, auto like the praire, front a-arms not struts, park (like a car not parking brake) I think the praire rides a little nicer but the two bikes are close. I liked the composit racks on the praire , and my kodiak doesn't have a speedo but I guess the 2001 does. Just a thought.

 

I would look into a Kodiak or an Xplorer. They both beat the Prarie in a shootout. Now the Kodiak comes with a speedo, and pulling wieght of 1102#. That is one pound less. MY complaint with the prarie is, poor braking ( engine and rear), low top speed, l/s front differential, and bad back suspension. With the Kodiak you get, triple disk brakes, EBS, and very sporty suspention. Plus they just look SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good

 

Hmm... i have nothing good to say about the Praire...
My friend has one.. well he had one... The machine was all over, with teh full time 4x4. It was a bear to handle even at 35mph, which after 2 years was its top speed. It wandered all over. And when you turned, teh front suspension was sooo mushy the rear wheel always came up, and if ridden a little harder, rolled over easily. The Shifter **** gets a little getting use too, and the rear drum brakes didn't seem to last. It was not a good machine at all. I'd suggest the kodiak or xplorer , both seem to be good machines

 

truck,
You mentioned you like a quad with easy handling. Do keep in mind that if you add a locker to a quad, the steering is very far from easy.

I remember hearing something about the belt drive on the Kawi. A guy that owns one said he had problems. He called the dealer and more or less did not like what they had to say. I will see if I can find the thread.......


......(late entry) I found the thread. It is the Kawi forum. Here is the link. http://forums.atvconnection.com/thre...FB=1&Tid=71200