I'm thinking of purchasing an 05 Kodiak 450. I'm wondering how good reliability has been on past 450's that you may have owned. I've read plenty of posts on the breaks sqeaking. I've also read the post on the grease zerk problem. Has that been common on many machines? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I've had mine only two months its a great ute have 90 miles on it no problems. But it does not like quicksand. LOL

 

Thanks for the quick reply Sedwick. Glad to hear your machine's been great.

 

I have had my 450 for about 2 weeks now and it has been good. The grease zerks are still not the proper ones but the knuckes were greased at least and the brakes squeaked for the first 7 hours but have seemed to have quick now for the time being. I have pushed lots of snow with mine and I was very impressed with the power of the 450 (421). The diff-lock has been used twice and has gotten me out of the white stuff both times.

 

So far so good. After one deep mud hole, I had a BIT of squeeking from the rear brakes, but it went away quickly.
My rears were properly greased when I picked it up, so I guess I dodged the problems that some talk about.
As far as reliability, I couldn't ask for a better machine (At least to date).
I was highly impressed with its agility in tight trails, how well it climbs, and the overall feel of the Kodiak when you're out playing. Good power, very nice ride, comfortable to ride all day, very agile through rough trails, and will climb almost anything she comes to with the diff locks in. I LOVE mine.
This fall, we'll see what the elk think of it.
If you're considering buying one, my recommendation is go for it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Good luck.

 

05YK450....how did you know your grease zerks weren't the proper ones? Is it easy to tell. Also, can the zerks under the rubber boots easily be greased? Do you need a needle? Thanks for the help.

 

These Kodiak 450s seem to be pretty tough. We had an '03 Kodiak 450 that we used and abused for two years with not one single problem, and we have had an '05 Kodiak 450 for the past two months. I took the '05 Kodiak 450 on a very tough ride last weekend. I went up and over the mountain behind my house, and back, breaking trail through 12" to 18" deep snow. The snow had a hard frozen crust, with pure fluff underneath, so traction was nill. I had to keep the Kodiak's throttle pinned wide open for miles at a time without letting up, and had to constantly rock the ATV back and forth trying to get one tire to grab enough traction to move forward a bit at a time. I used the diff lock for 13 straight miles, and went a total of 30 miles on the odometer, in order to complete the 19 mile loop. So that means I had 11 miles worth of tire spin on that ride.

Kodiak's are tough. We beat the crap out of ours, and have no problems with them. I haven't slowed down enough to notice if it squeeks yet. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

was that with the stalk tires and if you hit the over ride will it spin the tires over 3okm

 

That was with 25" Maxxis Sur-Trak tires. The rev-limiter would cut in at 22 mph in low range, and I did not try going faster than that, mainly because the Kodiak 450 did not have the power to go faster in the hard crusted frozen snow.

 

How do you compare the 05 to the 03?

pros and cons of each year?