I think the whole stability issue is just plain give and take. The taller quads are less stable, but have more ground clearance. The lower quads are more stable but offer less ground clearence. Its a matter of where and how you plan to ride it, as to what is going to be best for you. I myself preffer stabilty and handeling, and am more than willing to give up ground clearance to get it. That said I do very litlle deep mud riding so for me, even the lowest GC rated utes on the market have plenty of GC for me and if I scrape the belly on a rock every now and then, big deal I personaly think the scraches and dents look better on the undernieth of a quad than up on the shinny side after a rollover. Its all about you are planning to do with it, as to who has the best.

 

some of the earlier post were talking about heavier machiners for plowing, my guess is most people don't just plow with there quad.with counter weights you could take em on and off as needed

 

No, im sure people dont just plow with them, but builders didnt make them heavy by accident. The heavy quads are better than light quads for heavy work, pulling, pushing, and are built very strong to take abuse. I didnt buy my quad to race it around a track, or jump it. I bought it to load 150lbs of gear on each rack, and pull a bear out of the woods!

 

hey i wasn't trying to **** anybody off , i know on our tractors on the farm i put weights on them all the time for traction when were doing ground work. and calcium in the tires.. it was just a thought..

 

No offence taken here. I have a quad that is my fav but I've learned that for every one person that says there's is best, 10 people are hollaring back saying something against you. V2 s right though. Polaris and AC make the 2 heaviest Atv's out there. The axles and joints and gearing they have kinda go with the weight. These 2 brands also seem to give you a great low gear for pullling, pushing or whatever you need it for. You won't run out of power on most any of the utility models they make. I think Suzuki has a great trail quad as does Honda. But as far as making them work, the weight and gearing hender the performance for that. I could almost argue the title "utility" as the catagory they are put in. They kinda remind me of a sport utility. A great woods runner with light to mediium duty work loads as an extra feature. I personally prefer Polaris over AC anyday. V2 will choose AC. I like the way my sportsman rides and handles on the trails. Granted, There are better handling quads for trail riding I'm sure. But for my style of riding it suits me 125%. But I don't know of anyone who can argue that another brand will out haul, pull, work, etc. AC and Polaris. It seems to be there design with the luxery of other features added on. The CVT trannys they use are also unmatched. These 2 companies started as one in 1954 with snowmobiles as Polaris. One of the owners had a falling out on a design and started AC 60 miles down the road. But the clutchng they have implemented on both there atv's is nearly perfect.

 

well said ncriderforks[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

While people may want to slam the Outlander for being lighter and thus less capable of towing, plowing etc....there is a pretty simple solution and thats to just ad a 100 LB sack of sand or something to the rear rack which should even things out.....the great part is you can still remove the extra weight if you are going to do some trail riding etc.....unfotunately you're stuck with that extra weight on the SP or A/C.....99.99% of my riding is mountain trails, NOT having that extra weight isn't an issue for me at all and would be more of a burden then an advantage for the type of riding THAT I DO! This may not be the case for others.

 

Your right raidermike, your quad will out do mine on swift trail rides. I like hunting/camping more[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] so i like to load hundreds of pounds of gear on and go. Although, i do alot of trail riding also, (1,060 miles) and the only complaints about the weight are i cant take a 90 degree turn at high speeds, and your fu*ked if you roll it on top of yourself. Other than that, it keeps up with all the other quads on the trails just fine. Just like with a little added weight, the outty will put power to the ground without spinning just as well as mine, and with that 800 rotax, mabey even better!

 

BINGO the point i was trying to make

 

Yamaha is by far the best and most inovative manufacturer in the biz right now. I just bought the new Grizz 700 and this is the single most usefull bike I have ever bought! I have and will never buy from another company!