Any ATV is better than no ATV
2002 Honda Rancher 2WD manual shift with Reptile tires and a selection of Plano cargo boxes, rear rack and one double gunrack on the rear and single gun rack on each side and on the front has done good so far with 40in of 6in PVC for toting stuff like lath, machcete, rods, spray paint, etc.
They are just like any other vehicle. Will last as long as you take care of them from the way you drive to your maintenance schedule.
What you do and what you carry and how many you want to carry will decide what is best for you.
B-)
The BEST Four Wheeler
The best for 90 percent of your use is an older farm truck that you are willing to take ANYWHERE. No need to go around young trees. Run over them. Great in tall grass areas with far better visibility than anything shorter. Need a six foot ladder? Stand on top of it. Will haul everything you need and lots more. Exceptionally warm in cold weather and cool in hot weather. Built-in camp stove on the manifold. Blow out or flat? Just keep on driving until you get to a safe spot. Junkyard will sell you a replacement for next to nothing compared to those little four wheeler dealers and their price gouging practices. So what if you tear off the muffler. Replace it someday with glass packs. Able to leap fair-sized ditches in a single bound. Sure, there may be a raised place in the cab roof, but, a little extra headroom is a good thing in the long run. Need to drag half a tree out of your way? Just chain on to it and pull as needed. Will entirely remove smaller trees. Much more comfortable while ordering lunch at Sonic. As needed, it can carry an almost endless supply of iron bars, lath, stakes, etc. on any given day. Seats two old fat boys comfortably most all of the time and seats three old fat boys reasonably well unless one or more has been mixing chili, pickled eggs and beer. Great worktable surface available on the hood except on days you have been doing a lot of mudrunning. High school kids look at you with admiration when you drive through town at the end of the day with 2000 pounds of grass/weeds/small critters and mud decorating your four wheeler. Of course, they stay out of your way because you only have a 2" x 2" clean spot on the window to look through. No need to wash it. The caked mud helps hold together the stray parts that otherwise might fall off and temporarily disable it.
Cautionary note: If you are planning to work in swamps over 18" deep, ignore the above advice.
Kubota RTV diesel 4x4. Spend the extra $1k and get the second row of seats. They are tanks. It will climb a tree and a tank of gas will go far.
The BEST Four Wheeler
There are a hundred things i could do in tight bush/snow and a smother ride that
a pick up four by Four could only dream of.
Yes carry quad to snow line in pick up and unload Quad then do the last tens
miles in quad when that pick up would be stuck in about 600 feet. Cancel tow truck
because you are on a quad that did not get stuck!!! in the first place
Winches are a bit of a waste had one on my first Quad
and as on gets better at quading you will use the winch less and less.
Once again get a Polaris sportsman 400 about $5000.00 new and made in the the USA
i payed around 5k+- Canada bucks
http://www.polaris.com/en-ca/atv-quad/sportsman-400-ho-sage-green
PK
The BEST Four Wheeler
Snow? Why would anyone want to work where there is snow more than six inches deep?
Swamps? Why would anyone want to work in a swamp?
Note that I said 90 percent, not 100 percent, of the time. There are definitely places where the standard four wheeler is the way to go. There are also places where horses would be the best way to go. If you catch me mounted up on a horse you had better record it for history. It has been decades since that happened and I'm not planning on ever doing it again.
We worked out of a sixwheel rig doing a bunch of duck pond surveying a few years ago. That was nice. We would not have agreed to do the job without the client providing that for us to use.
The BEST Four Wheeler
Hi Cow
Most Ranches around here have ditched the 10 horses/canned and kept maybe say TWO.
Yes you may need a horse but then a dirt bike would take care of the last positions
held by horses for mostly those who like the romance of sitting on one of those stupid beasts.
Say 8 quads.
one light weight dirt bike
and one last smart horse if there is such a thing.
Well surveying in snow because they pay 150.00/ hr two man crew plus motel
PK
The BEST Four Wheeler
Probably right where you are located. Won't work in the foothills and mountains of Utah. Some places I've been are walk in only. Need a Lama or something, just don't want to deal with the critter the rest of the time, so I do without. An ATV can get you closer than the pickup to begin the hike.
I have a 2004 Polaris 500 Sportsman 4x4. Only ATV I've ever had, works for me, can't compare it to others (no experience). I put BaJa 8 ply tires on it and got a big bag for the back. So far so good, bought it used a couple years ago for a specific job. Got ramps to load in in the back of my truck, all in all a nice compact outfit, just me, the truck and ATV.
We have a 2006 Polaris Ranger XP 4x4 with the 700cc EFI - bench seat in front, dump bed in rear. We have a 2' range pole we put into the "stake" hole in the side of the bed for GPS receiver, and a mounted a DC bracket on the rollcage to hold DC while navigating. Only downside is the drivebelt - had it go on a job once, and wished then that we had 2 quads instead of the side-by-side so we could use one to tow the other out to the trailer. On certain jobs, it's a very valuable tool; othertimes it just sits.
