Im looking for a high end utility quad with a fair amount of speed. See what I need is an ATV that can snowplow in Four wheel drive but can really rip it up on the trails. What is the best way to go....... 660 Griz - Prarie 650 - ex...
-OR-
Just wait for the 2003's

Please help

 

Word around the camp fire is that the Prairie is the best performance/sport
utility.

 

Don't depend on the Kawi 650 for much snow plowing. If you put a winch and snowplow on the front, you will be dragging bottom with the nose when you lift the plow. It has a very poor utility suspension setup. Just sit on the front rack once and see what happens.

I'm in the market right now for a new utility quad. The Kawi has a great engine, but all else is very mediocre. Poor front struts and coil springs for utility work. Unable to handle lifting a 60" snowplow blade (that's why kawi doesn't make one), poor ground clearance with the rear swingarm setup. When plowing snow, you need maximum ground clearance so you don't get high-centered. The kawi is miserable in that respect, the lowest of all the utility machines. I'm not convinced that their cltuching is going to hold up either.

It appears that the Kawi is more of a sport-ute rather than a utility quad. So it all depends which you want to do more, sport or utility. The Kawi is much more Sport than utility, that's for sure. I think a lot of Polaris Scrambler riders would love the 650 with better power and more mud-ability than the Scrambler.

After looking and riding all the new bikes, the Grizz 660 wins most of the battles for me, or is very close and has the ***** to handle the utility work easily with no major changes. Also if you want to get bigger rubber on the Kawi you need a lift kit and/or wheel spacers, depending on the tires. The Grizz handles 27" rubber with no spacers or lift kit quite easily.

For snow plowing the rubber on any of the stock utility quads sucks. You will be replacing with 589's if you want to both plow snow and ride trails. The two requirements are quite different, but that is one tire that works good for both.

The Polaris is out because of EBS, it sucks and their clutching setup ruins the rideability of the quad. They should be ashamed since they certainly have the clutching experiience to make it right. Just ride a Grizz 660, then a Kawi 650 and then a SP700 and you will really notice the clutching differences. You can make it good, but it will cost you to get there. I'm not going to do that again.

I believe I'm going to get the Grizz 660 before this week is out. I'm not going to wait for the '03 Rincon, I don't even like the name. What is it with Honda and these "con names" anyway? It may have a true auto tranny, but I'm betting it also has true anemic Honda power also, even for a 650. All of the newer Honda's seem to have this trait.

 

I did get the Grizz 660 last weekend.

 

P-650

 

i suggest a polaris explorer 400 because it is a great 4x4 utility and does work good with a plow . And when it comes to the trails the two stroke engine really flys.







explorer 400
magnum 425
sport400
explorer250

 

The 650 Prairie, It will do just about anything you want. And it plows just fine with a winch and a 60" plow. There are pics and videos of my Prairie plowing with a 60" plow, and also jumping and mudding on my website. But the Grizzly is also a great 4x4.


650 Prairie pics & videos

 

Get the Prairie!

As for the ground clearance put a 200 lbs person and some cargo on it then see what the ground clearance is. I get sick of people measuring the IRS with out any thing on them.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img] Is that how you are going to ride them, empty. Measure them after you put the weight on them and see how close they are!!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]. And just changing the front tires if the handling bothers you can change every thing or if you do plan on plowing there are adjustable front springs for it. But if you want a top heavy un sporty machine that every one keeps neglecting to make real comparisons with buy the Grizzley. With the griz you have to be stopped to engage the locker I don't want to stop in the mud if I don't think I'm going to make it to put it in. The Prairie just pull the handle.

The grizzly is to heavy and doesnt handle wiht the body roll of IRS like a solid rear axle will and the gas tank being under the rear seat of the Prairie also lowers the center of gravity and makes it more stable. Read the post on who is rolling theres I've seen to Griz Barrel roll I haven't seen any Prairie's do that yet.

The Praire also has more start out torque than the griz which gets you pushing the snow. If you want to add weight for traction to them guess what, there goes the Griz's ground clearance, when the Prairie still has it because the center doesn't sag with a solid rear. People WAKE UP and stop comparing the IRS unloaded unless u just plan on letting it sit and not riding it, that is the only way u will keep the ground clearance at least with the Prairie it doesn't change when loaded!!!!!!

 

I've got a 600 Grizz and use it for plowing. Running flat out on a good dirt road I top out at 58mph. Great ride cross country. Lots of ground clearence

 

MonteSS, I think they measure ground clearance without a load because if you rub bottom on something and the tires droop down you're still going to get some traction. With a solid axle, when the diff high centers there will likely be little traction if any from those tires.