New here lookin for some advice on a purchase
 

Hey guys, I'm getting a new bike soon. Never owned one but have ridden plenty. I am going to be using it for mostly duck hunting and some trail riding. Where we duck hunt we'll be pulling a trailer full of gear to the blind and will probably be gettin a bit wet. I'm looking at a used Grizzly 660 but have been told to stay away from a belt driven machine. What are y'alls thoughts? Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank in advance!

If you eliminate all belt driven machines you going to be very limited. They've been around enough that any problems should be worked out. I've gotten 12,000 km out of a single belt on my Ski-doo before and my 450 kodiak has almost 6000 km on it now with the original belt. The way the Yamaha's are designed in this area seems to be better than the other brands. The Yamaha design is such that the belt is always under full tension even at idle. There is a sprag clutch that engages when you hit the throttle, the other brands work by the sheaves on the primary engaging on the belt surfaces, the belt is loose at idle. This results in slipping and more wear. Beyond this I think the biggest thing with belt driven atvs is to know when to use low range.

welcome to the forums! you could also look into a manual transmission, such as the big bear 400. but again, the belt driven models are sealed pretty well nowadays. honda makes some automatic transmissions that are not belt that you could also look into. how much are you looking to spend?

Suzuki makes automatic clutch models, too. Look at the 2008-9 400FS. It has 5 speed tranny with a high / low sub transmission for 10 forward speeds.

Never had any issues with my belt on my kodiak 450, it will work for you just fine. Not sure what your budget is, but perhaps look at dealers near you and see if there are any great deals on a left over model year. You can save decent money..My local dealer is selling a Grizz camo 700 for $1200 below MSRP.

Thanks much for the replies. I'm looking to spend around 3k so the budget is not exactly that much. Ive found a few 03 Grizzly 660's for close to 3k that I think would work for me. All the folks I've talked to lately have said pretty much the same thing as far as the belt issue goes.