if you want a strictly work machine i would give another vote to the cat. and i have had mine loaded down with alot more weight then my dad's foreman and it took it better. (and i am talking bout my 500 cat i used to have which is comparative to the foreman) now with my 650 chasing cattle or doing any kind of chore that requires me to use my atv doesn't seem so much like a chore.

 

Hello Pegleg.

I see we both noticed the problem with atv's and independant suspensions. Arcticat has the same problem when hauling trailers.

The axel almost touches the ground, and that makes me nervous.

Last year i narrowed down the new atv purchase to 2 The suzuki vinson 500 5-speep (man) and the BRP traxter.

I got the traxter.

After trying the the Arctic-cat, and Polaris (honda modele i wanted was not available at the time). Which didn't even get close to the suzuki or the brp traxter.

While the Polaris was very! nicely designed for winter snowplowing. The engine torque to output was awful.

In all honesty i don't understand what atv (utility atv) designers /engineers have as an incling as to what (and i quote) "*WORK*" realy is. I sware they've never lifted a 5 gallon pail of wet sand, and can not imagine what 10+ of those pails weighs in a trailer.

I'm digusted at these so called demonstrations of how strong the atv is with a load. No offence but i put more weight in the pakcsack on my back going to my hunting camp than they put on those atv's or trailers. That's no exageration. I'm no spring chicken either.

Lastly any utility atv should be a manual tranny , and never an automatic.

Thanks

wh

 

I have some friends who test for an atv company. He says for a work horse, his favorite was a sporstman 500. Said the cooling system was the best on the Sportsman line over any other. Plus the weight factor and how well Polaris puts power to the ground. Said when they would put the atv's under extreme loads, honda and yamaha would over heat in just 3-4 minutes. The brute force would go 6-8 min. and nothing but the polaris would last over 15. They cut the polaris off at 32 min and still no hot lights. They test all the utility machines. He also mentioned the little magnum 330 pulling better than you ever would think. Low is geared very well for the power.

 

arctic cat 500 comes in a manual with high and low gears and a diff lock to put all the power to the ground when towing

 

if you put a manual in say a 750 or 800 atv when you punch it down in first gear your butt is going over backwards. the nice thing about the auto is that it keeps you on a certain powerband. heck my little 650 if i crack it down to hard in low range i am going over backwards i could about imagine if it was manual. if your buddy was a true tester of atv's then he would know that if you go in any kind of mud then the radiator shroud on the polaris pulls in mud and holds it there hence stopping the fan and well resulting in me seeing alot of overheating polaris's. i have hauled many many sandbags with mine driving very slow in 90 degree heat and if your cooling system works then it will keep it cool as long as that fan can go. it is kinda funny all these people hating the independent but once you own one you would never go back. using an atv stricktly as workhorse means going across rough fields and well using it in unusual terrain, thats where the independent gives you the best ride and in my eyes actually keeps you safer.

 

No offence, but this was in a work enviroment, not a mud hole. And besides, there is not one brand of atv that doesn't get mud in the radiator and run hot. It's the price you pay to play in the mud. It is nice that the Polaris gives an easy access now to get to the radiator for easy cleaning. Unless i misread this topic, It says " looking for a work horse atv".

 

Ive loaded my AC with 8 bags of concrete, and it handled them fine. I was digging holes for my deck, and put 4 on each rack to get them back behind my house, and the independent suspension was a life saver for me!

 

The term "work horse" is generic so it is hard to suggest what machine may fit. Just as there is no perfect ATV there is also no perfect "work horse" because everyone’s use will be different. Before I bought my last ATV I made a list of what I would be doing with it. From that list I made a criteria sheet, then checked various machines for how they fit my criteria. With that I was able to pick the ATV that was closest to fitting my idea of a "work horse" machine.

It was interesting how the different dealers reacted to my list. I would explain what I was planning on doing with the machine and show them the list. A few would try to sell me on a machine that obviously didn’t fit within my criteria, others were up front by telling me they didn’t have anything close to what I needed and the rest showed me what they had that came close to what I needed. No machine was a perfect fit though. The end result was I bought the machine that was closest to fitting my criteria then added modifications where they were needed. It still isn’t perfect but it is as close as I can reasonably get.