driven a lot of polaris and yamahas and i have to say that I think that the grizzly is nicer. the ride seems better and driving a polaris always reminded me of driving a snowmobile, when i hit the gas i want to go not wait for the belt to catch. I think that yamaha did a great job with tranny on the grizz!! plus i think that polaris's dependability has really been in question the last couple of years! Yamaha is little bad with customer service but buy from a good dealer and you should never have to deal with them! just my 2 cents.

 

polaris

 

Definitley POLARIS!
They Stand Behind there Product!!

 

I use a quad on my farm quite a bit (nothing but horse farms near me - you in Kentucky?), here's a few things I've learned.

Pulling power - pretty lame compared to a tractor. Don't expect miracles. It's more a function of traction than power - with my 500cc/650 pound quad, I run out of traction long before I run out of power, and it's nowhere near my JD 1050 in pulling power. You can increase traction with mud tires, but they tear the ground up. Not so good if it's your land that you ride on. Tractors have mud tires, but they don't go 30mph - that's when the damage happens.

A quad can move a wagon load of hay, but that's pushing it, especially if you have a belt transmission. I went with a manual transmission, because I pull trailer loads of hardwood and didn't want to worry about a belt slipping and burning out. Hasn't let me down yet. Keep in mind that quads were designed for the load of a single rider, even the big ones. They can pull a 2000 pound load of hay, but if you do it every day, they will start breaking parts.

Both the grizz and sportsman place the emphasis on sport more than utility/work. If you're serious about using a quad for farmwork, you may want to look at the workhorse quads - Arctic Cat and Bombardier. Not as fast on the top end, but better low end torque, which gives you better control of a heavy load. I use a Cat 500i with 5 speed manual, terrific machine, has yet to break anything in 600 miles/1.5 years of farm work. Like the Polaris ATP, Cat makes a 500 with a dump bed. I tried one, but I found that a fat tired utility trailer works better than a dump bed, doesn't unbalance the machine with a heavy load. I haul trailer loads of hardwood back to the house, probably 600-700 pound loads, hate to have that sort of load up high on a quad when the going gets rough.

The workhorse quads are still fun on a trail, so don't overlook them because you think they might be boring. They aren't. My Cat has IRS and 12" ground clearance, it crawls over some pretty rough terrain without even scratching the skidplate.

And get a winch - very handy to have. On the farm, I don't winch the quad as much as I chain the quad to a tree and winch all sorts of things. It makes a terrific wire stretcher if you're fencing... a neighbor used one to pull a calf one night (get it out of a cow that was having trouble calving, to you city boys), he said the precision of the winch was a lot easier on the cow than just hooking up a tractor.

Overall, the quad has been a very handy thing to have on the farm. Uses less fuel than a truck or tractor, doesn't tear the ground up as much, goes a lot more places, hauls you and your tools to where you need to be. Not much in the pulling department, compared to a truck or tractor, but there are plenty of jobs that depend on you and your tools being in the right place at the right time.

 

How quick the Yamaha mind forgets about Yamaha problems, really sad. If your going to claim that Polaris in not reliable at least put the picture into focus.

The Griz has had a lot of problems. Boiling gas, sputtering on steep hills, breaking the weak axles, customer service is a joke. If your going to get a Griz wait a see how the 04 is doing.

Polaris has had problem pre 2001. Leaky belt covers etc.... I will say Polaris has come a long way. If you want a pulling monster get a Polaris. The Polaris will out pull every machine out there, not all the time but most of the time.

I've had the bench mark utility quad for over two years, the Sportsman 500HO with over 1500 miles and have had only one problem which could have kept me off the trail. One of the lower a-arm bolt cracked and had to be replaced. The 700 had a water pump seal issue and as far as I know the 600 has not had any major stuff to go wrong over a wide group of owners.


Keep it real Yammi lovers, don't hate.

 

I like what you wrote range rover. A utility quad is not the cure all for farm work. It helps out ,but most farmers have a truck, or a tractor for a reason. One other thing I would like to add is this: some manufacturers are trying to make tractors out of quads. I read one posting where someone said it would be great if these bikes had PTO drives because everytime you by an attatchment, you have to buy a 300 dollar brigs and straton engine. Well it would depend on how much you use these attatchments, but you can buy smaller sized tractors with 4wd, that have PTO already built into them. It seems more and more people just want a tractor instead of quad.
Dont get me wrong, I love to ride quads and do work with them such as pulling a trailer with firewood guys, but sometimes It goes a little overboard.

 

I would go with polaris

 

one thing that you should think about is that anytime you put a heavy load on an atv with irs they can be very unstable. You may want to think about a prairie 700, or suzuki vinson, these machines have solid rear axels. I use a vinson 5 speed to launch and pull power boats at the marina I work at. The machine has made it through a whole season without any problems. Thats saying alot when you think the average 18-24' power boat weighs about 3 times more than the machine is rated to pull, and it is asked to do this all day long, day in and day out. Thats more work than most atvs are asked to do in a life time. I also own my own vinson and can say that it is a blast out on the trail, and also very, very capable off the beaten trail, what ever that entails. The solid rearend keeps the machine level even with an outragous load on the racks, and its a blast to power slide around corners. The manual transmission is also better for towing and hauling than a belt type. One other alternitive to the belt drive is hondas 3 speed automotive style automatic transmission.

 

I've loaded my Polaris down with 6 50lbs plus feed bags during hunting season. I pulled loaded down dump trailers full of gravel and never felt unstable. I've heard people say this before and it's really confussing. I wish some people would back up their statements with facts before they start talking about something they heard on the internet or from a cousin's friend who heard it from their uncle.

IRS machines are the most comfortable machines to ride and are as sure-footed as any srs axle out there on off camber stuff. SRS might be better in the corners to power slide and do donuts, but when it comes to ruff trails I know who will be in the rear bouncing around like a ragdoll.

 

Same here, I've hauled some serious heavy loads on my Cat, no stability problems, and it really didn't sag that much. Unless you are sport riding only, IRS is the way to go - vastly superior ride, better GC, looks really cool to the person following you...