Favorite Used ATV?

[Bayouboy]

Exactly what I was looking for! Any idea on the Yamahas?

Yamahas are great machines. I have owned a couple of Yamaha ATV's and currently own a Viking SxS. For raw power I like the Yamahas. The Honda ATV's were much better on gas and had a few less issues. Both great machines.

As far as ATV's go I have owned Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Polaris.

[bbqfan5909]

Owned many ATV/UTV's over the years. Without a doubt I would choose a grizzly 700 with EPS.

[Graysonhogs]

^^^^Good Advice
They make them faster and bigger but none are more reliable. My last two ATV's were 29 and 31 years old Honda 4X4's 300 TRX's. They are still running and Graysonhogs is glad for it cause he bought them. Now own a Pioneer 1000 since 2016 and have never had to do anything to it.

Yep, those things are like a tank. Not sure you can tear em up.

[Graysonhogs]

I've got a 2002 Big Bear 400 that I got off RiverRat1 that's a great machine.

[ccupit]

07-13 Honda 420s are tanks and reliable if
You want something that rides better can’t beat a grizzly 700


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[hog_down]

I had a 2000 Honda Forman 450(?) that was an absolute work horse. It was nicknamed Buelah the Meat Wagon by a friend of mine. We would load it to the gills with feed, people, or animals, and it didn't even blink. Lost my lease, so I got rid of it.

[Codypatt1]

My 09 rancher 420 has been a tank.

[ElfEyes]

Deals are out there. I just paid 1k for a 2004 honda es. It runs good but idles rough and backfires but
I'm thinking it might just be a carb issue.

[Arrowthreat]

Hondas are pretty bullet proof. Stay away from any atv that has been snorkeled.
For food plot get a 400 and up.

Pretty much this.


I grew up with Honda's, but I would put my Grizzly 700's against any quad in terms of reliability. I paid 4k for a 2009 Grizzly 700 with only 50 hours on it a few years back. Power steering, camo, brand new ITP mudlites and wheels. Never snorkeled clean title. The 2015 I got now was the special edition with power steering. Gave 5k for it.


In terms of performance, Honda is usually lacking.

[TacticalCowboy]

Honda!!

[JBJTX81]

late 00's early 10's Yamaha grizzly.

[RifleBowPistol]

I have always liked Hondas. I prefer ATVs with a manual transmission or electric shift transmission. We used to have a Honda Big Red, with a five speed, it was a great ATV. Years later I wanted a four wheeler, I finally gave in a bought a Kawasaki 360 Prairie 4X4. The reason I did not want that four wheeler, is it is a belt driven four wheeler. The reasons I did not want a belt driven four wheeler, is the belt wears one, then the main problem is the engine rpm gets pretty high, when you run at higher speeds.

The Kawasaki Prairie would be turning a lot of rpm and quite loud, to run at 30 plus mph. But the Big Red we had, with a 5 speed transmission, you could put the ATV in 5th gear and cruise along at 30 plus mph, the engine rpms would be much lower and much quieter.

I owned the Prairie for about four years, it was pretty reliable, but eventually the belt started slipping. I sold it, then decided the next one would be a Honda with a 5 spd. transmission. I wound up buying a 2002 Honda Foreman Rubicon 500. It had been abused pretty badly, run through a lot of deep water and mud, with no air filter, for quite a while. So it was smoking a lot. But I decided I would rather have that one, than another one with drive belt. So I bought it, and basically had to rebuild the whole four wheeler, or most of it.

I will say, that I would rather have the four wheeler I have now, than the Prairie most any day. I can cruise the trails on our place quietly. It has full time 4X4, with a high and low range. In the normal high range, I can only use 1st through 3rd gear on our property, not enough straight trails to open it up any faster. It's strong enough, I have used it to drag logs and had my wife get on it and help me pull over tree stumps so I could cut the rest of the roots on some stumps.

I am mostly a Honda fan, had many Honda CR250Rs, a Big Red, now the Foreman 500. I have had Honda street bikes, wanted some other bikes. I have also had a Yamaha street bike. Yamaha makes some good dirt bikes and street bikes. So Yamaha was one of my top choices behind a Honda for a four wheeler. But I noticed pretty quickly when looking for weeks at used ATV adds, that there were many Yamaha four wheelers that were not that old, that had bad engines. I found that, when looking years ago, when I bought the Kawasaki Prairie and then found the same thing again, when I was looking and eventually bought the Honda I have now. I would like to believe Yamaha should make good ATVs, but I found 8 to 10 times as many Yamahas with bad engines as I did the other three brands. Those being Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki. I also found quite a few dead Arctic Cats. I did not find many Arctic Cats, but of the ones I found on both occasions, I found more dead ones than running ATVs. Most that were running were, within 3 years old.

I found quite a few dead Polaris ATVs also, Polaris ATVs were not high on my list, because I remember they were the ones who first promoted the one gear belt drive system, many years ago. All of the Polaris ATVs, I have seen have been belt driven. The Polaris and the Arctic Cats, don't seem to hold their value very well either.

That's my preferences and findings. I know some guys like the belt drive ATVs, since the don't have to shift gears. I really don't like how high of rpm the belt driven ATVs rev at higher speeds and the noise they make. If it is going to be used for getting around when hunting. My Honda, is supposed to have fully auto electric shifting, but I don't use the auto shifting feature. I prefer to up shift and down shift myself. I could put it in the auto shifting mode.

Something else, if the ATV were to only be used off road and it is 4X4, I don't see a reason to have the option to select between 2wd and 4wd. The Kawasaki Prairie could be put in 2wd or shifted into 4wd, then there was a diff lock that could be engaged, if you needed it. Now if you plan to use it on paved roads, or concrete surfaces, being able to put in it 2wd would make sense. I never plan on doing so. So my Honda having only 4X4 low range and 4X4 high range works fine for me, less to go wrong. If I wanted something to use in the pits at the track, the Honda I have, would not be the best choice. The Kawasaki I used to have would be a better choice or a 2wd Honda.

Other things to possibly consider, I know I could cruise my old Big Red at probably 50 mph, likely quite a bit higher mph, and not be revving the engine very high. I did so all the time. That was only a 250 cc, three wheeler. The Foreman Rubicon I have now is a 500 cc. I can tell you I have tried to see how fast I could get it to. I could not even rap out 3rd gear. I would bet the four wheeler I have now, could easily do 50 and a lot more. That could be bad, if you have kids that are not very experienced and or don't have much fear of much. If you are worried about kids getting hurt from wrecking at high speeds, a belt driven four wheeler, may be a better option. I can tell you my 360 Prairie, probably topped out at 40 mph. I know it was revving very high by the time it got up around 40 mph. It was a good choice for my daughter. If we would have had the four wheeler we have now, back then, I could see her getting hurt very badly. She did not have any fear of going fast.

[dbelcher269]

Honda or Yamaha if I was looking.

[TheHammer]

My 2007 Honda foreman has been bulletproof.

I’ll probably never own anything other than Honda.