Honda or Yamaha

[brenndatomu]

I am sure the aggressiveness of the tires has a significant impact as well.

For sure

 

[Gearhead660]

A buddy a handful of years ago was looking at buying two Tao Tao ATV's for his two young boys. I told him not to do it. Well, he did it anyway and I'm not sure they even made it a year without issues. A couple years later they were nowhere to be found. No idea what he did with them. Probably had to pay to get rid of them.

Just had this conversation with my son this fall. He wanted to get a new Chinese atv. I suggested a name brand atv, even if its 20 years old would be better in the long run. Ended up getting a '96 Yamaha.

 

[Gearhead660]

I have a 1995 Bayou 220 sitting in my parents barn. Got it I believe in '98 or '99 as a christmas gift when I was 13 or 14. It spent years just getting the crap beat out of it doing all kinds of things on the farm or for fun. I would love to have the 300 4x4 model but they just seem harder to find on marketplace. My plan is to get the old 220 out and do a "restoration" project with my son over a year or so to learn some skills, but not until we have the larger atv.
The information about the difficulty steering is helpful and what I am looking for. Please, keep it coming. I also enjoy just hearing people talk about what they have owned and why.

Still have a '95 Bayou 220 that my mother bought new. I beat the snot out of it as a teen. Still running strong.
Had a Wolverine 350 full time 4wd. Decend quad, a bit under powered.
If looking at older 4wd machines, be sure to check all the wheel bearings.

 

[Gearhead660]

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👍

Reminds me of my days on the trails with the Raptor...

 

[walhondingnashua]

Just had this conversation with my son this fall. He wanted to get a new Chinese atv. I suggested a name brand atv, even if its 20 years old would be better in the long run. Ended up getting a '96 Yamaha.

I shopped for a brand new name brand machine for a long time. 1. They were hard to find. 2. They were way over-priced and 3. They were mostly just etons anyway. I have zero regret buying the '88 trx125. Major reason why I am shopping for a larger, older model. So much simpler and reliable.

 

[walhondingnashua]

Still have a '95 Bayou 220 that my mother bought new. I beat the snot out of it as a teen. Still running strong.
Had a Wolverine 350 full time 4wd. Decend quad, a bit under powered.
If looking at older 4wd machines, be sure to check all the wheel bearings.

Good information that the wolverine seemed under powered. Does anyone think something similar for the other models?

 

[Gearhead660]

Good information that the wolverine seemed under powered. Does anyone think something similar for the other models?

It was a late 90's version, cant speak for the next version. And this coming from someone used to fast sport quads....

 

[walhondingnashua]

It was a late 90's version, cant speak for the next version. And this coming from someone used to fast sport quads....

Anyone have a comment on the power of the Honda 300s, bayou 300s of king quads?
I've also been a sport quad guy (400ex, yfz450) but the wife asked I move away from that when we started to get serious. At 40 and with a kid, I'm fully ok with putting around on an old machine that does the job. No more thrill riding needed. I actually feel very fortunate my son does not have the "speed gene."

 

[brenndatomu]

Good information that the wolverine seemed under powered. Does anyone think something similar for the other models?

I was never impressed with any of the 4x4 Yami's back in the day...like driving tanks, mid to late 80's and into the 90's Honda had a far superior product. The Yami's held up ok, (Honda was better though) they were just a crude machine, in comparison.
I'd say the big 4 (Jap) brands are on a much more level playing field all in all since about say 2000 or so.
This is coming from working as a mechanic at a Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki/ Kawasaki/BMW dealership for 9 years

 

[Gearhead660]

Anyone have a comment on the power of the Honda 300s, bayou 300s of king quads?
I've also been a sport quad guy (400ex, yfz450) but the wife asked I move away from that when we started to get serious. At 40 and with a kid, I'm fully ok with putting around on an old machine that does the job. No more thrill riding needed. I actually feel very fortunate my son does not have the "speed gene."

My wife has been very tolerant of me with my fast toys. Still have the Raptor, but have calmed down with the motorcycles...for now.

My son has the "speed gene". Only his nerves havent fully accepted it. I am in trouble when they do...

 

[stovexxx]

Reminds me of my days on the trails with the Raptor...

nice, Raptor drift more, than IRS of XX

 

[old greybeard]

Have had great luck with my 2006 Kawasaki Prairie 360. Bought it 4 years old for 3k. Worth about same now. Use it hard, and it keeps going. Air cooled, single cylinder. Tons of torque.

 

[hedge wood]

My wife has been very tolerant of me with my fast toys. Still have the Raptor, but have calmed down with the motorcycles...for now.

My son has the "speed gene". Only his nerves havent fully accepted it. I am in trouble when they do...

You need to buy that son a Banshee. I remember when they were the hot ticket with the sand dune crow when they were new.

 

[Gearhead660]

You need to buy that son a Banshee. I remember when they were the hot ticket with the sand dune crow when they were new.

Absolutely not! Friend had one. That thing was a blast!

 

[duramaxman05]

I would stick with the Japanese brands. I've had all brands over the years except can am. The 1 arctic cat and the polaris gave me the most trouble. I've had wheelers from a banshee to brute force 750. I was not easy on my stuff when I was younger. Never had any problems with the yamahas. Dad still has his 94 250 timberwolf that I keep at our house for tooling around on. I do a lot of side mechanic work on atv and utvs. The Japanese give me less trouble. I will say polaris rangers give me a lot of business in my shop. Not saying all other brands haven't been in the shop. The biggest thing I will say about any brand is do your maintenance. That's the key to getting them to last.

 

[brenndatomu]

I would stick with the Japanese brands. I've had all brands over the years except can am. The 1 arctic cat and the polaris gave me the most trouble. I've had wheelers from a banshee to brute force 750. I was not easy on my stuff when I was younger. Never had any problems with the yamahas. Dad still has his 94 250 timberwolf that I keep at our house for tooling around on. I do a lot of side mechanic work on atv and utvs. The Japanese give me less trouble. I will say polaris rangers give me a lot of business in my shop. Not saying all other brands haven't been in the shop. The biggest thing I will say about any brand is do your maintenance. That's the key to getting them to last.

I would agree with that summary...but would also make note that I've never messed with an Artic Cat, (ATV) and on Polaris, the older stuff was worse than the newer ones for sure.

 

[Secondaryburns]

Starting to "shop" marketplace for an upgrade atv for my son and I. Set on an older model (90s) 4x4 in the 300-350cc range. I am not new to atvs (have owned polaris, honda, yamaha and kawasaki). Staying in the 90s models because of the old reliability with them. My 2006 sportsman and 2006 foreman spent to much time being fixed. I know the Honda 300 4x4s are very popular and there are plenty of options on marketplace. Questioning the full time 4x4 and how hard it makes them to steer. My wife and 11 year old son will be driving it. He has zero issues with his 1988 trx125, but we will be selling that to buy bigger and drives a 250 2x4 just fine. There are a few yamaha wolverines for a slightly better price, in the same size range and can run in 2x4 also. Only other models I would be interested in are a kawasaki 300 4x4 but there are few of them or a king quad 300 with select 4x4.
Just looking for some input on these models. I know there are a few of them out there and this is definitely a forum where plenty of people own/use atvs. I don't want to be working on it all the time, but they should be simple enough and cheap enough to fix. I also have a guy that likes working on older models like this for cheap if it's something I can't handle. It will do a lot of joy riding and haul a little firewood. Thanks in advance.

The older 300 hondas were great atvs.All time 4wd makes for sore arms somedays depending on how you are using the bike.If you can afford it i would buy new.Never know what you are getting with a used machine just because its in excellent shape doesnt mean it has never been underwater.Ive had many atvs over the years and always found myself coming back to honda.I have a 2023 420 foot shift sra in/out 4x4.Slow and rough but reliable and easy to work on.Steers easily in 2wd.Last atv was 2020 polaris 450 HO thing was a nitemare never knew if it was going to get me home.Valve guides went at 2000km.First and last polaris

 

[hedge wood]

Back in the 90's I had two Polaris 500 Scrambler's one was six months old and the other I just bought before we left on a trip. Three days into the trip we were staying at a motel in Springfield MO. Pickup, toyhauler, ATV's were stolen and nothing was ever found. First and last Polaris machines I ever had. A big rancher friend of mine ran Polaris ATV's and UTV'S for a while and they just didn't stand up for them

 

[Tonty]

I bought a ‘96 Honda Foreman 400 4x4 several years ago. It was in good shape. I thought I overpaid at the time, but I’ve never regretted it. It just runs, always starts, even down in the negative temps. I question now if the 4x4 is necessary, I’ve never even come close to having stuck. But it is nice, especially in the snow. I don’t find the steering pressure any issue, my 10 year old daughter who is slightly built drives it easily. I think the 4x4 does make the turning radius bigger. My younger son thinks I should disconnect the front drive shaft because he wants to do donuts. 🤔 You can’t cut donuts with it on dry ground. Don’t ask how I know. The only things I’ve replaced are the starter, ball joints, fuel shutoff, and we recently broke the shift plate, so we had to fix that. We did it all ourselves.
My 17 year old son bought a ‘98 Polaris 425 4x4. It had 83 miles on when he purchased it a couple of years ago. It hadn’t run for years. We got it going, and it runs fine. The Honda seems to run better, and seems more stable, although we’ve rolled both of them. 😱 You sit up higher on the Polaris, so it seems that the center of gravity would be higher. The Honda starts easier, but that’s partly because we haven’t got the Polaris tuned quite right. It runs rich. One nice thing about the Polaris is the 4x4 is not full time. The carb is sure easier to remove/work on with the Honda.

 

[duramaxman05]

The polaris's are a lot harder on front differentials also. When you put it in 4wd, it doesn't engage until the back tires spin 10% faster than the front. I have seen guys blow them out when they are running them hard. On the older polaris atvs, the hillard clutch was on each front wheel instead of the front differential. When they were cold, one side would want to engage and it would pull to one side. You really had to watch in the winter time in the snow, you could be spinning around in the snow in 2wd and one of the front clutches would want to kick in. It would about jerk the handle bars out of your hands. That's the way my 500 scrambler was

 

[j7art2]

I've got a 1996 Yamaha Big Bear 350 full time 4x4 and a 2003 Honda Foreman 450 ES.

I'm a huge Yamaha fan, but the Honda walks circles around my Big Bear in every single category. The only thing the Big Bear has going for it is that it's narrow and one of the lightest 4x4 ATV's ever made. It's a good machine, but sees very little use now that I have the Foreman. I'm actually intending on selling it this year to get my wife an automatic since she'll be using it strictly for off-road and doesn't want to learn to shift.

If you're intending on doing a lot of hauling and firewood with it, you might want to steer away from CVT transmissions. Neither of what you're looking at has one that I know of, but Yamaha was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon (and arguably has one of the better CVT systems on the market) I say this as a might solely because I'm sure there will be people who will likely want to argue with me about this and really have no interest in doing so, simply sharing my ongoing personal experiences.

CVT transmissions make the ATV go significantly faster on the trail, but have a bit of a trade off. I do light off-roading with the Foreman with a crew of 6 other ATV's and I'm the only geared machine there is. My Foreman tops out at about 40mph, and I've taken joy rides on my buddies machines who easily go anywhere from 65 to well over 100mph (Can Am Outlander 1000 gets real sketchy in the front end around 90mph lol) and it's impossible for me to keep up at times.

What I've seen though is that in slow speeds, such as going up small steep hills (and this would also apply to plowing or towing say a trailer with 800lbs of wood in it) that belts can slip and/or start to burn. I've seen belts slip and burn at slow speeds in hill climbs and towing out stuck friends in mud. Everyone's miles may vary of course, and I'm sure some brands are more prone to this than others.

Something to consider potentially for folks ATV shopping -- I've hesitated to upgrade to a newer CVT machine for this very reason. My buddy has gone through 3 belts on his Cam Am this past 2022. I'd rather go slower on the trails and be assured that I can reliably always tow wood from my piles to my rack on my deck.

 

[Shank]

I've got a 1996 Yamaha Big Bear 350 full time 4x4 and a 2003 Honda Foreman 450 ES.

I'm a huge Yamaha fan, but the Honda walks circles around my Big Bear in every single category. The only thing the Big Bear has going for it is that it's narrow and one of the lightest 4x4 ATV's ever made. It's a good machine, but sees very little use now that I have the Foreman. I'm actually intending on selling it this year to get my wife an automatic since she'll be using it strictly for off-road and doesn't want to learn to shift.

If you're intending on doing a lot of hauling and firewood with it, you might want to steer away from CVT transmissions. Neither of what you're looking at has one that I know of, but Yamaha was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon (and arguably has one of the better CVT systems on the market) I say this as a might solely because I'm sure there will be people who will likely want to argue with me about this and really have no interest in doing so, simply sharing my ongoing personal experiences.

CVT transmissions make the ATV go significantly faster on the trail, but have a bit of a trade off. I do light off-roading with the Foreman with a crew of 6 other ATV's and I'm the only geared machine there is. My Foreman tops out at about 40mph, and I've taken joy rides on my buddies machines who easily go anywhere from 65 to well over 100mph (Can Am Outlander 1000 gets real sketchy in the front end around 90mph lol) and it's impossible for me to keep up at times.

What I've seen though is that in slow speeds, such as going up small steep hills (and this would also apply to plowing or towing say a trailer with 800lbs of wood in it) that belts can slip and/or start to burn. I've seen belts slip and burn at slow speeds in hill climbs and towing out stuck friends in mud. Everyone's miles may vary of course, and I'm sure some brands are more prone to this than others.

Something to consider potentially for folks ATV shopping -- I've hesitated to upgrade to a newer CVT machine for this very reason. My buddy has gone through 3 belts on his Cam Am this past 2022. I'd rather go slower on the trails and be assured that I can reliably always tow wood from my piles to my rack on my deck.

3 belts is impressively bad. A lot can be due to needing to use low range and failing to, or water in the housing.

 

[walhondingnashua]

I've got a 1996 Yamaha Big Bear 350 full time 4x4 and a 2003 Honda Foreman 450 ES.

I'm a huge Yamaha fan, but the Honda walks circles around my Big Bear in every single category. The only thing the Big Bear has going for it is that it's narrow and one of the lightest 4x4 ATV's ever made. It's a good machine, but sees very little use now that I have the Foreman. I'm actually intending on selling it this year to get my wife an automatic since she'll be using it strictly for off-road and doesn't want to learn to shift.

If you're intending on doing a lot of hauling and firewood with it, you might want to steer away from CVT transmissions. Neither of what you're looking at has one that I know of, but Yamaha was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon (and arguably has one of the better CVT systems on the market) I say this as a might solely because I'm sure there will be people who will likely want to argue with me about this and really have no interest in doing so, simply sharing my ongoing personal experiences.

CVT transmissions make the ATV go significantly faster on the trail, but have a bit of a trade off. I do light off-roading with the Foreman with a crew of 6 other ATV's and I'm the only geared machine there is. My Foreman tops out at about 40mph, and I've taken joy rides on my buddies machines who easily go anywhere from 65 to well over 100mph (Can Am Outlander 1000 gets real sketchy in the front end around 90mph lol) and it's impossible for me to keep up at times.

What I've seen though is that in slow speeds, such as going up small steep hills (and this would also apply to plowing or towing say a trailer with 800lbs of wood in it) that belts can slip and/or start to burn. I've seen belts slip and burn at slow speeds in hill climbs and towing out stuck friends in mud. Everyone's miles may vary of course, and I'm sure some brands are more prone to this than others.

Something to consider potentially for folks ATV shopping -- I've hesitated to upgrade to a newer CVT machine for this very reason. My buddy has gone through 3 belts on his Cam Am this past 2022. I'd rather go slower on the trails and be assured that I can reliably always tow wood from my piles to my rack on my deck.

My '06 Sportsman was a CVT and I was always very cautious about using LOW. However, it did always make me a bit nervous under real hard working conditions. I never completely swamped mine, but a friend swamped his 700 when we were all creek riding. Even when we pulled the plugs and got it running again, it barely limped out of the woods because we just couldn't get the clutches dry enough or clean enough in the woods.
One of my intended uses I have not mentioned before is to start trail riding more in the UP. We have a family cabin up there and it is on the very intricate atv/snowmobile system. We have never used the cabin for these purposes before, but would like to start. You can get very remote in that area and there is almost no help if you are in real trouble. Having to fix some of the complex issues that could come up on my Sportsman would make me never want to use it. Having an older machine that I think I can fix in the woods, or at least limp home easier, would make me feel much safer.

 

[j7art2]

3 belts is impressively bad. A lot can be due to needing to use low range and failing to, or water in the housing.

Admittedly one of them shredded because my wife was on the back and he was doing 60 or so on a connecting road and forgot to take it outta 4x4. Lol. Even two is a lot, but maybe that's normal for a 1000cc outlander, I'm not sure. His machine has more power than I could ever imagine, but it seems to also need a lot more work than the rest of ours does. Lol.

 

[sloeffle]

I would stick with the Japanese brands. I've had all brands over the years except can am. The 1 arctic cat and the polaris gave me the most trouble. I've had wheelers from a banshee to brute force 750. I was not easy on my stuff when I was younger. Never had any problems with the yamahas. Dad still has his 94 250 timberwolf that I keep at our house for tooling around on. I do a lot of side mechanic work on atv and utvs. The Japanese give me less trouble. I will say polaris rangers give me a lot of business in my shop. Not saying all other brands haven't been in the shop. The biggest thing I will say about any brand is do your maintenance. That's the key to getting them to last.

A Honda Pioneer was my first choice for a SXS in 2021. I was told it would be six months by the largest dealer on the eastern side of the U.S. before they could get one due to the chip shortage that was going on at the time. My local dealer wouldn't even entertain the idea of trying to get one for me. As I understand it, if you are a high volume Honda dealer you get first priority over a smaller dealer.

Ended up with a 2021 Ranger, close to 2k miles, lots of those miles have been on H&M in WV so they haven't been easy. What are the main issues that you see with the Rangers ? Just trying to avoid any potential repairs down the road. No reverse chain in mine since it's a 2021 1000XP.