Best first 4 wheeler

Both my nephews (22 and 16) wanted ATV's in the past year. The oldest is more of a speed/performance guy and he went with a '22 Outlander 850 XT Max. Only other choice would have been a Sportsman 2-up.....he knew better. The youngest is not and I tried to steer him to a Grizzly, but he wanted a 2-up. So that limited him. He ended up with the newly redesigned '23 G3L Outlander XT Max 700. The new G3L's are more maintenance friendly compared to the G2L's (and even G2's). They have automotive style sealed self lubricating suspension bushings like Yamaha uses vs just the plastic ones found on the G2's which needed to be greased.

 

No manufacturer is immune.

Recreational Off-Highway Vehicles Recalled by American Honda Due to Crash and Injury Hazards (Recall Alert)

https://powersports.honda.com/recalls

CPSC Recalls

 

But




But…

 

In that price range you're can't be super picky. If it were me, I'd look for something in decent shape from any of the Japanese brands. Figure out what size you want and go from there. A big quad may not be the best for wife and daughter.

 

I know that and never said or implied that, but you are talking HUNDREDS of them that Polaris has....LOL I have a buddy I ride with who is a Polaris guy. He has bought two new Polaris' since I met him in '18 or so, one (RZR XP1000) had a leaking crank seal behind the primary that he noticed on it's maiden ride. The second one had a leaking belt cover that smoked a belt on it's first ride (RZR XP Pro 1000). He's on his third one since I met him in 2018, when he had a RZR of some sort that wasn't that old. I don't know if that one had any issues when he bought it seeing I did not know him then. He maintains the heck out of them, way over-the-top IMO. I'm not sure why he feels the need to keep buying new ones every couple of years with how he maintains them. Our group gives him chit that it's because he knows subconsciously he can't trust them long term so he needs to keep buying new ones in order to not worry about them when we are riding. LOL

Keep in mind, when our group rides, we ride. We don't putter around for a couple hours and call it a day. We typically are gone 14 hours and come back with 220 miles or so. We also did two 800 mile trips over a week long each up to the Keweenaw Peninsula and back where that's all we had was our ATV/SxS's. The most I rode in a single day was with my youngest nephew earlier this year. We were gone for 16 hours (got on trail at 7am and got back to trailer at 11pm) and put on 330 miles.

Honda and Yamaha are the most reliable machine out there. I'm sure some of the reasons why has to do with the lack of power, as you don't break stuff when there is not a lot of power on tap and one can't abuse them as bad with low power.

 

Always wanted an ATV when I was a kid. My buddy up the road had a honda 3 wheeler and later a quad. My parents refused to get me one. Even a used machine. It sucked because I had plenty of area to ride. Luckily my friend had no problem letting me ride his. We did a LOT of riding 2 passengers, though you weren't suppose to. Some best memories I have are from riding.

Anyway, fast forward many years to when we moved to our current house. I wanted a quad to haul stuff but also for my boys to have fun on. I always had a honda in mind, because I remember us beating the crap out of my friend's and it just ran. I was looking for used when my friend said what was mentioned already, why get someone elses headaches.

So I looked for new. Problem was the honda dealers or honda themselves didnt seem to have any deals or specials.

So I wound up with a 2018 Yamaha kodiac 700. Have no issues with it and I don't baby it. I don't do major trail riding with it, just in the woods and the neighbors field.

Pretty much a meaningless and long post just to say, buy that quad for the family and if you can try to buy new. You wont regret it.

 

Yamaha has really stepped up their game in the utility quad market since the early 2000's...prior to that their stuff (not the sport quads) was reliable, but very...uh..."tractor like"

 

Anything but a Polaris. A friend of mine said he makes his living fixing them. Reminds me of a guy who said that driving a Mack truck was like having a short wiener. All good around home but not worth a darn out on the road.

 

Know plenty of guys with Polaris wheelers that use them but dont completely abuse them and they hold up fine. The guys that wreck stuff wreck it no matter the brand partly from abuse and partly from maintenance. They’re are plenty of polaris four wheelers with 10,000 plus miles still running. And 10-12000 miles on a wheeler of any brand is a lot and plenty fail before this depending on care. Never known a mechanic that worked on any brand of stuff to be starving, only reason he sees it is because it’s broke. Local shop up here sold Polaris, Yamaha and Honda. The mechanic said see how many Polaris sleds are getting fixed compared to Yamaha. My response was I see quite a few more Polaris but I bet if you ask the salesman what sells more you’ll find out it’s Polaris also. That dealer sold about 10:1 Polaris vs Yamaha sleds. Can am is nothing special and has ever bit as much for issues as Polaris but they’re the only ones in the performance game. Honda and Yamaha are probably a bit more reliable but aren’t what they were in the 80’s and 90’s but do ride better. Plenty of Honda matic wheelers that had internal failure that cost more to fix than machine was worth. I personally know 3 people locally that it happened too. So while a belt is maintenance it’s cheap compared to a 4000$ transmission. Buying used is hard because you never can tell what was done to the machine but in a used one a Honda 300 4x4 or Yamaha big bear is a good reliable starter machine. Polaris magnum 325 is shaft drive four stroke and the 335/500 sportsman would all be good starting machines and they ride way better.

 

I beg to differ. On the Can Am forums lots of guys have 30,000+ miles. I only have 11,600 on my '14 and don't consider it excessive in the least. Only thing I have to pay attention to is my timing chain guides/chains......guys typically get 30K out of them though before they need replacing. Last time I checked my valve clearance I took a peak at my adjusters and still have -plenty- left. Adjuster is showing ~4.5 threads. Guys who've replaced them said they've show about 3 when new. They need to be replaced at around 9 threads showing.

 

Polaris rangers will do the same when used as a pickup/ranch vehicle at speeds and if maintained. The 10,000 miles being a lot is up in my area in northern mn. Up here not many trails and lots of slow woods riding where you should be in low range to save your belt. Lots of hours at 5-10 mph takes a long time to add up to 10,000 miles and by that time all machines are showing wear.

 

Your example is something many don't think about. Hours running is what matters, all else being equal. Maintenance ect. Its like comparing a taxi cab from a big city, to a traveling salesmans car. If both have 200,000 miles the taxi will have many many more hours because of how much longer it takes to get to that 200,000 miles. Hours = wear. I actually read a study on this very scenario several years ago. It was about using hour meters for oil changes vs milage in some street driven vehicle applications.

 

Eggshooterist that study would be an interesting read

 

Ford now gives out a hour to milage conversion for fleet/work vehicles. They all have hour meters now and they will give a mile/hour spec for oil changes. Lot of our trucks at the mine may only have 50,000 miles on them but if you look at the hours they probably have the equivalent to 250,000 or more miles on them. No idea what ford says for the hours to milage comparison is but a friend that’s a mechanic at the ford dealership was telling me this. And fleet/work vehicles should be changed on hours.

 

It was. No idea where I read it. It was printed, not on line.

 

Exactly. Cop cars too. They set running for hours accumulating no miles while setting but still wearing. Mail carriers too. Stop go, stop go. Lots of idling at stops not adding miles.

 

Well what I found is ford said an hour of idle time is equivalent to 33 miles. Some of our trucks at work never shut off in the pit during winter. That’s equivalent of 792 miles a day if they never moved according to ford.

 

I picked up a Suzuki quadrunner250 this past year and have been very happy with it. They have the high, low, and super low range along with 2wd, 4wd, and diff lock. It’s quite the little tank and does everything I ask of it. Other ones I was considering were the Kawasaki bayou, Yamaha big bear, and Yamaha Kodiak. All of these should be in your price range if you’re patient and act fast when you find the right one.

 

Fourtrax was another one I was looking for but didn’t find the right one at the right price. Solid reliable machine.

 

We also have a Polaris 450 sportsman and they do ride smooth! Bought it more cause the price was right initially but have been very happy with it since.