Hey Guys: I'm fairly close to buying an 05 Foreman 500, or an 05 Rubicon. Right now it's a bit of a toss up which one, obviously there's a few dollars difference. Anyway my buddy has an 04 Grizzly and I was wondering if either of these honda's will be able to pull as much dead weight as him, or maybe even more. I don't really want him to be able to pull a bigger moose than me this fall when we go hunting. Also, what about acceleration and top end? would I even stay close or would he dust me in every catagory, all things considered.

 

Even though he has 160cc's more, the rubicon will be able to pull as much as you want due to it's awesome tranny. It has a true low range. I don't really know about the forman. But, the bottom line is being able to apply the aviable power and torque to the qround without wheel spin, and that is where weight is your friend. This is why polaris's are rated for more due to their weight. I have all the power and torque that you could ever want or need in my kawa700 prairie, but there have been times when I didn't have enough weight to eliminate wheel spin. And, that is with IPT 589's. My buddy had to jump on the rack to help. Then I had no problem. But, this was pulling a 14ft trailer with a hog trap and 15 bags of corn through mud. The hog trap weighed about 250-300lbs and the corn was 50lb bags which = 750lbs. Then the trailer is a heavy duty home made oilfield pipe trailer that weighed about 1000lbs by itself.

I have seen the rubicons and grizz pull a lot of stuff as well and that has to do with low range.

 

For the top end and acceleration, the Grizzly would come out ahead of either Honda. The Rubicon definitely has power to tow but.......The Grizzly has the front diff. lock. Traction might be an issue if you are dragging a moose up a hill or through wet grass or mud. The Rubicon would have the power but maybe not the traction to put that power to the ground. I've never drug a moose, but thats what I'd look at when comparing the quads.

 

The Grizzly will pull more than the Rubicon. We have used both on the farm to drag logs and uproot small trees / rose bushes and we've gotten the Rubicon into situations where it just wouldn't move (or spin the tires). The Grizzly on the other hand will keep on pulling to the point where it doesn't have enough traction (then it will spin the tires). For really heavy loads I use the Grizzly in low range, 4x4 and diff locked. Even still the Hondas will pull a lot of weight, but the Grizzly will pull more. Some of it will depend on the kind of tires you have too.

When it comes to pulling a mower though, I like the Rubicon better than the Grizzly. Pulling the mower doesn't strain the Rubicon at all, and the Rubicon will go slower with less effort than the Grizzly. That makes it easier to mow overgrown fields as you have to go slow to prevent overloading the mower.

As for top speed, the Grizz beats the Rubicon there too, by about 10 mph. We seldom get into that situation though as for general trail use we are generally in the 20 to 45 MPH range which is well within the capabilities of the Rubicon...

 

Never seen this done, but I would give it to the Grizz because of the diff lock. The weight is the same on the bikes, so the extra torque and true 4x4 the Grizzly has should put it just a little bit ahead of the Honda. Just a guess though...

 

Oh yea, on the race side of things, the Grizzly has got you for sure. Now that I have seen LOL...

 

I guess there is allways a larger machine and a biger engine to beat. But even the smaller quads are very capable. I have seen a guy pull a moose (700lbs) with a Suzuki Eiger and that thing is only 375cc or so. Yeah! Sure. With a larger machine you can make the dead animal jump on some bumps but I think the Foreman and Rubicon will do fine.

 

is that a big deal the horsepower? i was moveing 600-700 pound tree's with my rancher, about 2 miles dragging them behind the quad, i mean the machine was getting a work out, but it wasn't floored or anything

 

I've pulled a 1000 gallon water trailor with my 04 grizzy. Not sure how much weight that is but its alot. I had to lock the diff to do it but it pulled it and only spun a couple of times when there was really loose gravel. I tried pulling the same thing with my cousins husbands rincon and it would just spin. I would definatly say the griz will pull more.

 

IMO the Grizz would win in any task between the two. The Hondas are good machines no doubt but you have to give it to the Yamaha.