ATV towing capacity - Yamaha vs Honda

[TXBRASS]

Thinking about switching back to a quad ATV for the lease from a SXS.

We pull our quad trailers stacked with a 1,000 pounds of protein to our feeders to fill.

We regularly do this with a Yamaha Kodiak 450 which has a 1,100 lb towing capacity.

I'm looking at a used Honda Foreman 500, but when I looked up the specs, it shows only a 850 pound towing capacity. It is clean, and I really like it, but the much lower towing capacity has me wondering if I should just go back with a Yamaha.

Any opinions or real life experience of why the towing capacity is so much less?

[TXBRASS]

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[ramrod]

Go with what you know, otherwise get what you want and make two trips.

[TXBRASS]

Anyone?


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[Jon B]

I have Kodiak 450....it will drag anything

[GoneSouth]

If you have pretty good roads/trails and don’t dog on the Honda it will do just fine. My biggest concern with hauling that much weight with small footprint of the 4wheeler would be my trailer pushing/pulling my wheeler where I don’t want it to go on incline/declines

[Silvey]

I wouldn't sweat it to much. We moved 40' cotton trailers with 135 square bales on them around with a quad runner 250. Just take your time in a low gear.

[Triple 7]

I may be wrong but I would think that a shaft driven atv like Honda would do better with hauling a trailer better than a belt driven one.

[WTucker]

I would have figured the honda would have done more. I hauled a 16 foot lowboy with a wood box blind around the lease with my 350 rancher. I’ve never owned a Yamaha though.

[TXBRASS]

Thank you to everyone who chimed in.

After reading a bunch online, it seems the Honda is more than capable of towing much more than the rating applied. Seems liability and braking are the largest factors in that. Honda has had the same rating on all their straight rear axle models since the 1980's. Makes me feel better about hooking up a little over a thousand pounds. Seems many haul double that on a regular basis with no issue.

[BrianL]

It a much less to do with ability, and much more to do with weight, stopping, and liability than anything else. 1000# wouldn't be much of an issue IMO.