My dad is looking into buying a 4x4 for pulling out our ice house we are in the process of building. I was thinking Yamaha Grizzley 660 or a prarie or something. The front differential lock would be nice, and plenty of power to pull a six and a half feet wide by twelve feet ice house. any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

what is the price in comparison to a quad?

 

Ice house just on skids?
If the snow isnt very deep, or if you stay on the snowmobile tracks, any 4x4 will do it. Once the snow is about 8 inches deep, and unpacked...a snowmobile is your best bet.

 

I like the Grizzly because it has low range and a locking differential. Get chains for the front and back and you will save on wear and tear. I would say most any 400 and above would do the job unless you get into deep snow.

 

Depinding on the tonge weight of the house, you may want to stay away from the irs quads. As the rear of the quad will squat quite abit. Also a shift machine will get you better low end for getting started and wont burn up like a belt can.

 

Why dont you use a 4x4 truck or a snowmobile.

 

Auctually a quad will out pull a snowmobile beleve it or not. The snowmobiles have horrible pulling power because they have such a huge footprint in the snow, made for floatation not digging and pulling. Snowmobiles would also burn thier belts up bad as they have no low range.

I reccomend the rhino also, those things would be awesome specially chained up but I assume your dad wants the ATV for more than just lugging the Icehouse around so he'll have to decide if the rhino would be suitable for his other needs.

The Grizzly is a good pulling quad and in low range would never burn the belt, don't worry about getting a manual shifter quad because of that. Any of the bigger quads 600 and up would be about the same for pulling on ice, so long as they lock up the front diff.

If you really REALLY want ice traction then take the stock tires and chain them up and add weight to the quad on the racks. or you could put snowmobile cleats on the tires then install a tube in the tire to inflate, it would ruin the tires for anything other than riding on ice and snow. You would need to purchase other tires for summer riding.

 

No im sticking with the truck. It has a radio,heater, and you dont have to trailer it to the lake.

 

My first pic in my gallery is very capable... even in feet of snow[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] The thing I would want to watch is stopping the ice house more than pulling it because I can stop very fast on ice where I think the Ice house would slide and give you a push in the butt. I know that with tracks you wouldn't have a problem pulling it in low.

 

We have a truck to pull it but we don't want a 2002 Ford F-350 diesel to go through the ice. We can use that up north but around where I live there isn't usually more than 20" of ice all year. It would be nice to have a four wheeler for smaller lakes, plowing a spot for the house and pulling it out there. The Ice house is on wheels, but they are retractable, and the tounge pivots. Similar to this one it is a little different crank system but that's about all that's different, and less cross braces. http://www.fishhousesupply.com/icehouseframes.htm

a Rhino might be something to consider. we are either trading in his 1994 Yamaha V-max 600 dlx 2-up snowmobile or selling that to my cousin and using that money towards the four wheeler or rhino.

I don't like polaris' engine braking system and polaris' drive systems we do want locking front differential and over 600 cc. perferibly no IRS. It has to have lots of low end power and decent stock tires. any suggestions? Maybe Yamaha Grizzly 660 or Kawasaki prarie or brute force or Arctic cat or something???? I do like Rhinos but I would like to be able to put a plow on the front so that's where a wheeler comes in. thanks