How's that for a title? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

Just how "Tippy" are these Yamaha utility machines?

I keep reading reviews from pros and amatuers that
say they are great, except they have a high center
of gavity, tend to lift wheels on off camber ground, feel unstable. etc.

These seem exactly like the characteristics one would NOT want.
What about wheel spacers? Do they help and what would you advise--1 or 1.5 inch
spacers?

I am "leaning" towards a Kodiac, but not if it is vastly more unstable
than its competitors, especially the Honda Rancher.

Dave

 

I don't think they're as bad as people make them out to be. My Beartracker would lift the inside rear wheel, but only when you were practically making a U turn. The Kodiak is a great quad. It's got a lot more power and options than the Rancher does.

 

Anything with a solid axel will lift a wheel!

 

My dad has a Grizzly with 27 inch tires and I've taken it up and down nearly vertical ditchbanks with no problems. I was leaning and shifting my weight too. Fufighter is right though, anything with a solid rear end will lift a wheel,

 

Its a trade off, that the manufacturers need to decide. If you want ground clearance and long travel suspension, it gotta sit high. The AC sits very high and is very tippy feeling, and hondas are very low and very stable. If you remember to lean uphill, when riding, its not going to be much of a factor.
Drive one and see for yourself.
Wheel spacers help, but not greatly.
As far as vastly more unstable than a rancher, I dont think so.

 

The group we ride with all agree the Grizz has the "tippiest" fealing. He hasn't tipped it over yet but we are waiting. The only one in our group that has "tipped over" rides a SP 700. The first time he was climbing a huge boulder up a rock canyon, and the second time he just tipped over on a side hill. Everyone saw it coming but him. I think it is more of a rider problem than the ATV.

 

I've heard that they fixed the suspension problem on the 2004 grizzlys I've riden a 2002 and when you give her gas it feels like the a$$ end really drops and it felt really tippy. Now they say the 2004s are better handeling.

 

IRS is a little sketchy when sidehilling I must say. I personally prefer solid rear axles. But then you sacrifice the ride comfort. I don't think the grizz is anyworse than a Polaris or any other IRS bike but my friend tested an IRS SP 700 and afterwords his only words to me were "unsafe at any speed"!! To each his own.

 

i have an 03 kodiak and it has tipped over a couple times but never rolled completely over. but its all in good fun[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

well buddy
my buddy has a kodiak and killed him self 3 times last year. ( boy i sound retarded LOL) but any way he is dead and now i hate yamaherhamers. but i think they are death traps. great for fish cover and bon fire stokers. or junk yard ornaments. and paint ball bunkers and huntin blinds.