The belt issue is way overated. I can change a belt quicker on a BF750 then I can change oil on my wifes Grizz. If you have a bad back Polaris has softest ride of any quad I have been on. I don't own a Polaris, but I would not hesitate to buy one if I thought it fit the bill.

 

[quote]
Originally posted by: Kodiak660
[quote]
Originally posted by: cc1999
As far utility work the gear trans in the honda would be your best choice. Yamaha does have the best belt drive of all belt drive quads and if I were going to use a belt drive machine for working I would say the Yamaha is a safer trans than say Polaris, Suki , or Kawi. I know it has a similar design on pricipal, but the Suki is not the same. Look around in the suki forums and tell that to all the guy changing the belts after a 500-1000 miles, I know belts are not hard to change but the suki belts are way over priced. Also Suki knows its belt drive is not great for longevity. Its right in the KQs manual to inspect @ 650 miles and replace the belt @ 1200 miles. Last time I checked around on prices of the KQ belt, I could by 3 Kawi belts for the price of one KQ belt and I typicaly have been able to get 2000 miles plus out of a Kawi belt. That said I have never had to change a belt on Yamaha. One of my good friends still has my old Kodiak I sold it to him several years ago after riding it two years myself and after the 12-1400 miles that I put on it and the 2000 plus miles he has put on it, She is looking pretty rough now days but the belt cover has never been off the machine since it left the factory, there is no sign of slippage even after over 3000 miles. I seldom see anyone complaining about a Yamaha belt drive. You do however see lots of complaints on the just about every other brand out there, except maybe Bomb, I have only been on bomb boards for about a year now but I have not seen very many complaints on there drives either. I know there have been several guys coming from polaris to bombs that have tryed to buy a spare belt to have on hand and was told the same thing I was by my dealer, that they don't even stock belts for the BRP, they just realy don't have much call for them. But as I said before the Yamaha has a great belt drive but there is just no way a belt will every be as strong and durable as a gear trans.

As far as my shocks and tire pressure, are you kidding I have been riding atv's for over 25 years now dating back to when they were called ATC's and only had 3 wheels. I know how work a spanner wrench and I know how to adjust tire pressure. I had 4-4.5lbs of pressure in the tires and the shocks were adjusted as soft as they would go. I would challenge anyone to walk up to a grizz and push down on the rear rack and then do the same to a Outlander or Prairie or Rincon and not see what I am talking about. The Grizz and the Brute 750 are both set very stiff to try and control body roll.

 

My buddy with a Vinson just changed his belt at 4,500 miles.....he has over 2,500 miles on his King Quad on the stock belt.
I ride with 2 eigers with belt drives....both are nearing 2,000 + miles and both are still going strong.
I change my Yamaha belts at 5,000 miles and they are still within specs.
I have close to 25,000 miles logged in on quads........I do alot of the work on friends quads and I have had both belt drives apart.......the weights are a little different but the rest is the same (in function).
As for the Grizz ride.......sorry you didnt like it.....I guess thats why they make different quads.......different strokes for different folks.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

My friends and I that have Kings have never replaced a belt yet and we have 5400 miles between the 3 of us But we use the correct gear for the type of riding we do We do not go rock crawling in high range I have seen people out on the trails using high range for everything and you can smell the belts and hear the fans running all the time I think the King has the smoothest power and throtle control of any atv I have ridden,light steering,very good ride,and the MOST stable quad I have ridden,great fuel economy I do think it could use more storage

 

That has to be a record on that KQ, with Suki stating its only good for 1200 miles in the manual, and that is for the most part been very acurate as far as the majority of the guys I have talked with in person and online that had hit the 1200 mile mark. 2500 is more than double the projected life of that belt, its good to here someone is getting that kind of mileage out one. In some other discusions I have followed on the topic of why the KQ belts are not lasting as long as the less powerfull models are, from what I gatthered allot of guys were speculating it was the added power causing a shorter belt life than that of the Eigers and Vinson. We have a KQ but it has only about 200 miles on it. It would have 5 or 6 hundred more but the ECM failed on the 1st day of a big riding trip last summer with less than a 100 miles on it, durring one of our big colorado trips that we typicaly cover around 500-600 miles in 4 days. So I want to admit to not having first hand knowledge of the belt life. I just know what the manul says and what some irritated owners have been saying on several forums including this one, which I can not remember the last time I herd a complaint on a Yamaha belt drive. Even though they are of a similar design, that does not mean they use the same caliber of parts in terms of quality, I am just guessing as to why there seems to be more problems with one compaired to the other

 

Well cc1999 come back and let us know when you have to replace your 1st belt on your KQ.
I go by what I see in person......not by what some dude on a forum says.
My guess is that we will see you back here in about 5,000 miles. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I doubt its around that long. But I will say that if they are good for 5000 miles why does the company that builds it think its only good for 1200 miles. Call one of your budy's that have one and ask them to look it up in there manual and then tell me why Suzuki would want to recomend that time frame for replacement if they can make 5000 miles like the yamaha's do.

 

CC I have a king manual.....I never doubted what the manual says........I'm telling you what real life miles are on the ones I ride with.

 

OK, but if they are good for, 4 times the Suzuki recomend life, why would Suzuki want to state otherwise? Also what would the guy's complaining about there KQ belt drives, have to gain by talking about it if it were not really having these kinds of things hapening to them? I do admit that I had not seen this type of complaints going on in the different suki forums that I visit untill about 6 months after the KQ came out. I am in know way trying to lump all there belt drives into the same catagory as the KQ. I never here very many complaints on the eiger or Vinson just the KQ. I can only speculate as to why.

 

The Kawi dealer told me I should put a new belt on my Brute at 1000 miles I have way over 2x's that in very HARD miles on the stock belt with a cdi and over sized tires I think if you choose the right gear for what your doing it will last a long time I DONT ride mud at all I HATE it I rather not ride than ride mud I ride deep snow and rocky trails and roads Some people need to learn things like put it in neutral when you let it warm up or sit at idle My friend Mike lets his brute warm up in gear some times you can actualy hear the belt squel when it gets hot and smell it just from warm up All because he's to lazy to take it out of gear Bottom line parts will last longer if you treat them as they were intended to be used Take a young person and put them in work truck with a manual trans in San Fransisco And then do the same with a older smarter driver and I bet the clutch lasts over 3 times as long if not more