If you hooked these 2 machines hitch to hitch which would win? Also which is the best mudder?

 

A guy at work told me that they hitched them up and it was a tie.

 

Hey Guys~
I have never seen it done, but I would believe it to be very close. I have heard the Arctic cat's 500 motor has the most torque available. That would be its advantage. On the other side, the Sportsman has the weight advantage and also has the true 4 wheel drive advantage. Very close, but I would have to say HO by a slim margine.

 

I copied this from a post I made in the "Utility" forum not too long ago. It doesn't address the tug of war question, but does answer some more questions.

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I make this post because I rode with an AC500 yesterday. Does look like a solidly built machine. It is switchable from 2 to 4 wheel drive, but not nearly as easily as the standard "switch" type that the industry is going to.

It was an automatic, and was the first to get his belt wet, out of 4 belts there. In defense, nobody told the new rider to be careful with the hard splashes.

The AC Does have a good amount of ground clearance for a hard axle, but in riding with 3 Sportsmans, it was obvious that between the lowered ground clearance, and the limited slip front end, that there is no comparison in mud. The Sportsman definately rules.

In steep and loose hill climbs, such as sand and pea gravel, The AC looses big time. We thought that it was the rider, but even with an experienced rider, it needed a lot of speed and a long head start to get up the hill without loosing momentum, and digging in. My SP HO, on the other hand, I can pretty much start at the foot of the hill, and power on up, even in 2WD. Also might be worth mentioning that I outweight the Cat rider by at least a hundred pounds.

This is not intended as a slam. Just pointing out that in the type of riding that we do, the Sportsman is without a doubt, the King. We try to challenge ourselves and the machines. We dont go around anything. If we get stuck ? Big deal. We all have winches. We need them occasionally, but use them most when there is someone on something other than a Sportsman riding with us.

Dave

 

I'm not sure about the AC500, as I have never ridden one. But I hooked up to a 99SP once, and beat him in a pull off. It wasn't by much, just inches, but the black mark on the tow strap that we used was on my side everytime after 5 tries. When we would hit it, I would get the jump and then it was like I hit a wall. I couldn't move him anymore, but at the same time he didn't drag me back and make up the few inches he lost off the line. As far as the the limited slip front dif goes. We were on a level gravel parking area, and we were both throwing rooster tails with 4 wheels. But I have to be honest and say that his tires were pretty trashed compared to mine. All things being equal, I thing he would have won. But we had a hell of a good time doing it!

Rick

 

The SP500HO would win since it is heavier & has more power. This assumes both quads are running similiar tires.

 

I just had a pull off today with both a standard SP and a 500 Suzuki Quadrunner. In four wheel drive against the polaris we were equal, but in 2 wheel drive I out pulled him by yards. The Suzuki only had 4X4, it also was a dead heat. The Ruby didn't want to pull.

 

Good info Minehunter. What kind of tires did everyone have? (stock or aftermarket)

 

Only the Suzuki had aftermarket tires. They were Blackwaters. The pull was done in coarse semi wet sand that was somewhat packed down. All the machines were stock other than tires. I will say this though. The Ruby was the fastest through the 100 yd dash and my auto cat was the slowest.The Suzuki was second and the 98 SP was third. I lost by about 60 feet to the Polaris and the SP lost by about 5 feet to the Suzuki and the Ruby won by about 3 feet.