Hey Riot I am thinking of getting a p700 myself. I want to see if the sra is more secure and planted than my Rincon.

 

If you don't like how a KingQuad squats on takeoff, ride a Grizzly or a Polaris. That is just a trait of an IRS machine. This thing hillclimbs better than my SRA Rubicon did because of the locker and better ground clearance. Hillclimbs are not a concern.

 

When I was looking for a new quad, this is what I had to have. High/low range (versatile), selectable 2-wheel/4-wheel drive (gas milage), locking front differential (hard to get stuck), independant rear suspension (smooth ride), belt drive (no shifting). The Grizzly had all these things as well as a proven engine and a good maintenance history. Although it is considered by some to be a little "tippy", this is an easily corrected charactoristic and not necessarily a flaw.
I'm not pushing the Grizzly, just saying it had everything I was looking for.

 

Hey stocks, I was in the same position as you a year ago. 31 and looking to make my first ATV purchase. I came on this forum and found a lot of great information but as others have said, it's ultimately up to you to decide what to buy. I knew I wanted a utility but I didn't know what to look for. I'm not brand loyal (other then flipping **** to my brother-in-law) and I was looking for a quad that would fit me (I'm 6'2", 260 lbs) but yet I could have fun on and have it do a little work around the yard as well. I chose a 400cc utility quad with a solid rear axle (SRA) for a little more sportiness. It does what I need it too but I wish I would have gone with at least a 500cc quad for a little more power. I'm wishing now, a year later, that I had a bigger ATV.

From the type of riding you describe you'll do, it sounds like you would be better off with a utility. The best thing to do is to find ones you like, regardless of brand, and go ride them and see what fits you the best. Once you make your purchase, you'll have a blast! Good luck!

 

Stocks, I have had many a different brands over the years and currently have 5 different brands in stable right now. I am not particualry brand loyal by any means. I am not wanting to pick a fight with red goblin but he is saddly misinformed about the Kawi belt drives. I have three of there belt drives right now and have never adjusted any of them and have only bought one belt ever. That was this year for my 2002 a quad that was over 3 years old and had almost 1500 miles on it. It's belt did not fail it was just starting to slip a little in high range do to an abusive action on my part or rather that of an old Polaris that had to be towed over a 2 mountain passes almost 30 miles back to camp, we are talking about a 700# quad plus 250# rider and gear plus myself and my gear. I am talking about an extream situation that overheated my belt drive and shortend the life of my belt on that particualr quad. Most guy's I know are getting about 1800-2500 miles out of there Kawi belts. I have never had to adjust one and that is good since there is not much in there to adjust. The Funny thing about this whole thing is, I was in another forum a few weeks ago trying to help some irrate King quad owners find a deal on new belts. They were telling me, and after researching the prices found to be true tha the belt for the kings were over 200 bucks, Which is about 3 times more than a kawi belt. The other thing they were Peeeoooed about was the fact they said the owners maual recomended changing it every 1200 miles. I think there were two of them that had about 1200 miles on there machines when there belts wore out, and one guy did't make it that far. So when fokes say stuff like goblin did, it just makes me LOL. We have a King in the family and it is a nice quad, It has good ergo's, EFI and decent power. It also has IRS and a singe cylinder engine. I do not care for IRS much, IMO it hampers there fun factor to much for me. I also do not like the vibration that is a common issue for large single cylinder engines (Not a problem I just don't care for it) . To me the King is just an OK quad.

I would say the Brute 650 is a good choice if you are price driven, If price is less important then I would say the new Bomb 800 is hard to beat. The BF650 is priced like a 500 and has a history that would be the history that the Prairie 650 had since the BF650 is a Prairie 650 with new plastic and a new name. The Prairie/BF650 was ATV of the Year in many different publications and has always been in the top 2 in the shootouts. The Prairie 700 beat out the King Quad in a head to head shootout in Dirt Wheels just a couple of months ago. The brute has won the best value awards in the under 7000.00 catagory. The Prairie 650 beat out the Rincon and the grizz 660 several years in a row and even more so when the 700 came out. The history of shootout/ awards wins go on and on and on. The BF 650 is a hard quad to beat. IMO it has the best Fun factor (bang for the buck ) there is IMO. If you plan to slide it around and maybe take a few small jumps, IRS is not what you want. There is only one IRS equiped that might be able to effectively play like that and that is the new Bomb 800 and I won't be able to confirm that for my own satisfation untill I get my hands on one. If the Bomb is not the price range for you, I would look very hard at the Prarie 700 or the Brute 650.

 

Amen Brother!

 

Ok, let's be truthful here, if you're trying to tell me that you don't have to adjust the belt tension on the Kawasaki Prairies/Suzuki Twinpeaks and Brute Forces, you and I both know that you are not being very honest. It's been discussed a thousand times over in the Kawasaki forum stocks, check it out. I would assume just a search for the word "belt" would do. I also talked it over with the head mechanic at a Kawasaki/Suzuki/Polaris dealership before we purchased the KingQuad and he told me the same thing I'm telling you. We were seriously 99.9% sold on a Kawasaki Prairie 700 until I really found out about this whole ordeal and spoke with the gentleman at the dealership. He was very informative, honest and really seemed to know his stuff so I would doubt he was incorrect as he sees the machines on a daily basis. Maybe you have a "magical" fleet of Kawasaki-made ATVs,[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]but I know better. The majority of their users are not experiencing it the way you've described without having to adjust the belt tension with the removal/addition of shims within the secondary clutch. That is a fact, not me trying to persuade a person to buy a certain machine.

 

Man, that is not a fact, you do not have to costantly adjust a prairie belt. The P650 that I had the dealer chage the belt on, the only belt I have had to ever buy, told me when I asked about adjusting it said there was not much in there to adjust, he even showed me when he pulled the cover off, for the first time since that quad had ever left the factory the cover had been tuched by the way. There are some shims you could change but its not enough to make the belt last another 1500 miles and I had glazzed the belt when I towed that quad over thoese mountain passes. The only belt I have ever had to change is that one. None of my otheres including my FST 800 that has to be hard on the belt adding all that horse power have ever even been adjusted, not once. None of the others that we have in our group have either. Now dad's P650 that is same age as mine and has about 1800 miles on it now has a similar squal in high. So I am sure next time he has it in or I am down at his place I am sure he will want me to take it in for him. I don't like working on them either. But dude you are so very wrong about the prairie belt drive its not even funny. Sure I know some fokes have had to adjust there's belt but its not a on going thing. You are trying to make this guy think it happens all the time and that is just flat not true. Its only happend to me once and it was do to abuse and no adjustment was needed just a new belt cost 100.00 bucks installed. thats after it was 3 years old.

 

From Nyroc's Website:
"The 650 belt can be a high maintenance item if you or your dealer does not know how to maintain it correctly. People that perform proper belt maintenance and exercise proper driving habits can get VERY LONG life out of their 650 belt. Generally speaking, the 650 belt does not ever fail suddenly and will never leave you stranded. It will, however, gradually get looser and cause severly degraded performance (squealing, squeaking, squawking) if not properly cared for. The care is not difficult or time consuming, it just needs to be done in an intelligent manner. The amount of belt care the 650 needs, if adjusted properly from the start, is very minimal.People that can do this kind of simple maintenance themselves or have a good dealer should not use belt life as a consideration when choosing between the 650 and another quad but are leary of the CVT system. It just is not a problem if you obey the belt life rules. Note: A worn secondary bushing on the 02 models will cause accelerated belt wear also. Replace 02 secondary components with 03 or 04. Looks like Kawi has discontinued the original 02/03 650 belt, and the 03 and 04 360 belt. Now Kawi lists the same belt on thos models as the BF750, V700, and P700 belt (p/n 59011-0003) which is a better belt anyway."

Lest my eyes deceive me, I believe there is mention of belt tension adjustment NEEDED to have good belt life from the Kawasaki CVT in the aforementioned excerpt. This type of adjustment, while probably not a big deal, is non-existent on the Yamaha, Suzuki and I believe the Bombardier CVT systems. Fact.

 

Not to get in between you guys arguing which atv has the best CVT belt system, but I just thought I would throw in that the Honda Rincons don't have a belt to worry about at all. It has an automatic transmission like a truck has. You can also select between automatic or electronic shift.