I am looking at the purchase of a new four wheeler and am considering the
Grizzly 350 Auto with IRS or the Grizzly 450 Auto with IRS. The main use of this unit will be casual trail riding in the mountains on rocky trails, pulling brush and limbs for burning, and pulling my 12 foot flat bottom boat on a trailer to launch it off the bank into the river and pulling it back out again. My friend does this with no problems with his 300 Kawasaki Praire 4WD Auto. My question is what are the pros and cons for IRS for this application? Thanks for any info you have.
Jbird

 

Here's my opinion of the pro's and cons based on me having a 450 IRS and my friend having a Prairie 360 w/SRA. I also have a Yami Beartracker 250 w/SRA and my brother in law has a Honda with a SRA.

As far as ride comfort goes the IRS wins especially on uneven terrain for long periods of time.

Agility over obstacles is better with IRS as one wheel's movement does not interfere with the other wheel.

Ground clearance is typically higher with IRS but in actuality both types of machines will go most places that casual riders normally go.

Many will say and to some extent I believe that SRA will carry a load better than IRS especially when referring to trailer tongue weight. However in your case a smaller 12ft alum boat should not be a problem for either.

Also inherently SRA is less complicated since often there will be a single spring/shock and of course less CV joints.

My personal choice after riding all the machines I mentioned above is IRS hands down.

As for your choice between the 350 and the 450, is that the 350 does not have low range. So if money is of absolute importance then get the 350 but if you can scrape up a bit more cash then get the 450 since it has LR and a bit more power both of which you will appreciate when needed. In either case they're both good quads and they should be since they're Yamaha's.

 

Thanks for the well thought out info. Did not realize that the 350 does not offer low range which will be nice pulling the boat and small logs.

 

I have had atvs with both SRA and IRS and must say that I'm sold on IRS. Ground clearance is the main reason for I like to ride in the snow and go mudding alot. I have found that any machine with IRS will do a better job of this, over SRA....DOG

 

IRS does not sidehill as well as an SRA, nor does it slide corners as well. For comfort go with the IRS, for sport riding go with the SRA