I live in rural Nebraska. The closest atv dealer is a Can Am dealer at a John Deere dealership 30 miles away. All other brands are around 60 miles away minimum. I had Honda 3 wheelers growing up and for about 20 years. An '84 and '85 Big Red (still have them actually). After they were "parked", I have basically been getting by without them. ...walking, using a tractor, etc. I haven't ridden an atv in probably 10 years, and I've driven probably two four wheelers for a very short amount of time in my life. So basically, that's all I have experience with them.

About it's use, I don't care how "fun" it is at all. Ride quality is also not much of an issue, because no doubt just about anything will be better than the 3 wheelers I was used to and I didn't mind them. The ground is basically flat with some shallow hills where I am. It will be work only, some mud or snow, but if it's really bad I would use one of the tractors instead. Plus with the drought it will probably be some time before we see any mud anyway. I will check cows with it, haul in baby calves that need attention, haul out feed on a cart, fence, etc. Road use is minimal because my property is all together. I am really thinking I'd want an automatic. Sometimes if I haul in a baby calf I used to kind of carry it across me instead of getting a trailer, it was difficult to even use the foot shifter sometimes, leaving one hand for the throttle. Power steering, maybe as well.

My other use, and what really sparked my interest in getting an atv again, is one of those little tree shears. I tried searching the forum, briefly, and I didn't see anything recent on them (I may have missed it, I didn't look long). To me they look like they would be rough on an atv, especially the transmission. I don't know about the belt drives in low range, or some of Honda's automatics (since it looks like they have at least 3 different ones), or if a manual trans. would be the best choice for that use. My property is about 900 acres, probably 300 acres has an amount of cedar trees, several thousand, and this shear looks like a decent option. I have paid people to come in, $4000 made a dent in one patch a few years ago, and I've considered buying a full size tractor shear, but this small one would get many of the little ones, and that big one would be super slow and overkill on the little ones. The last time I got the littler trees I spent close to a month going out with a chainsaw, axe, and bypass loppers, I really don't want to do that again.

Like this shear, it goes under other brands/cheaper elsewhere I'm sure. My pasture and trees look very similar to what's in the video. Hopefully this doesn't look like I'm advertising this, it looks overpriced from here anyway. I just thought this video demonstrated what I am talking about rather well.

I'm partial to Honda, I know the reliability. Looking at them, on paper and what they look like, I would pick out a Rubicon, out of all brands and models. People around here seem to lean more toward Arctic Cat (and they have good luck, but I haven't spoken to anyone much about it). Price, I'd like cheap, but I want something that works. The Rancher looks decent, I was thinking a little bigger for towing and tree use. I've been reading a while about different atvs, but hadn't found much for this intended use and abuse.

Thanks for reading my long post.

 

Most work oriented "quad" is the Polaris Sportsman X2. Has a convertible dump box/rear passenger seat. The dump box is rated for a true 400 lbs. I used to have one and I put 3600 abusive New England miles on it. Mud, snow, waterholes, sand, ice, hardpack and lots and lots of rocks. Used it to haul firewood out of the hills of VT and NH. Look in my personal pictures. I also have towed up to 2500 lbs. with the quad in low range. One thing about the belt transmissions is that they will dig 4 holes in the ground in low range before a belt breakage. Belt breakage is mostly associated with riding the quad in high range when it would be better to use low. Riding slowly, towing, deep mud and snow, and rocky technical hill climbs. Use low and you will probably never burn out a belt. A belt is $60-80 to fix. A Honda automatic....??? Another consideration is the Polaris Big Boss 800. It's a quad-width 6 wheel drive with a bigger dump box than the Sportsman X2. It can hold 800 lbs.

Haven't even tried a brush shear. I like the idea of them but haven't tried one.

 

Some family of mine had an X2, I saw them using it, like I said, never rode it. They had it about two years, and switched to another brand. It should have been around an '07 or so (I see some older ones had issues). Didn't pay attention what the new one was other than it was a two cylinder, just saw it sitting in their alfalfa field one day when I was helping them rake.

I know ~most of them are decent now, and I've read the reviews, etc. Test riding isn't really possible much, the Can-am dealer has room, but the other dealers are inside town pretty much, basically just able to drive in a small parking lot. Other than asking neighbors, that's about it. And that would get a small test of either Arctic Cat or Honda, other than whatever the family has, of the ones I know. Nobody has Polaris anymore, I don't see any when I drive by people's places. I know people who know people that have a couple other brands, but nobody directly. I don't doubt I would "like" most of them as far as handling. I just picture the tree shear being hard on them, if the blades would get dull, if the tree was too big, basically it could be like just slamming into something, and didn't know if there were certain atvs that didn't handle that well. I guess maybe I was hoping someone had one long term, but really I don't see alot about them. I don't plan on going overboard with it and getting too big of trees, but sometimes the bases have been bent over or smashed down by cows and are bigger than they look. I will say I don't think I need something huge as far as engine size. I used to pull around some stuff I shouldn't have with the 3 wheelers, including some carts with grain in them, and they got the job done. Not once did I feel they were underpowered.

 

Ok, about Polaris. People that used to have them had some of the trouble I read about on here, around '06 prior. But the major factor is that nobody likes the closest dealer, I guess worthless to deal with at all. Other than that, again, about the same thing I see on here. Whichever brand someone has, they like. Can-am, they just say too expensive, can't get the deals like from the other places. So, with the Rubicon. I don't know about the transmission, I like the features that it has for "gears", things like that. I will have to look more into how it works. I don't know anyone around here that has problems with them. I see the straight axle on the back, doesn't bother me. Drum brake, ...does. Since I was basically told to stay away from the Polaris dealer, I probably will, because I'm not driving farther. Looking like Arctic Cat and Yamaha for the other choices now. Also, probably less than 600cc, I don't see much point in going too much overkill, plus they use more gas. I have off road gas delivered, so I can get an amount here, but it's nice not having to fill up as often. The dealers might know about or maybe sell the shears, they might know how well the atvs hold up, if I can get some time to get there and talk to them.