4Wheeler Recommendations?

Hey, all!

Short version first:

We’re looking for a quad to do a little work on a country home: as simple, reliable, inexpensive to maintain as possible / just enough to push/pull/carry/work a bit.


Longer version:

We have always like our little TW200 and XT225/250 kind of bikes for fun and Exploring and have never been interested in anything with 4 wheels that isn’t a full blown truck/suv.

That said, we’d like to be able to carry more firewood, push a little snow, pull a few things, and check out property / do work around a homestead. As reliable and low maintenance as possible!

Is there a sort of TW200 of the 4Wheeler world that y’all would recommend. We don’t want expensive, fancy, heavily featured, hard to work on, etc. Just as simple a tool as possible that can push/pull/carry as a workhorse better than our little bikes.

What would you recommend if you have any expertise in this area? Purely a tool for the land.

Thanks for any insights as we do research!

 

We’re looking at a used Yamaha Kodiak 450, seems to tick the right boxes for our needs.

Fwiw or stumbles upon this lonely sad thread

 

Nice pick!! Can’t go wrong with this. My buddy just picked one up and put a snow plow on it....

 

That’s our plan. Plow us out in the winter, haul firewood in the summer, haul supplies to put in fence, stable platform to shoot from in case of bear or wildlife issues, and the ability to pull a trailer to haul mulch/soil/etc.

Also cheaper than a small tractor haha.

 

Good luck!! Keep us posted on how things go and some pictures will help

 

It’ll be a bit but when we finally do find one I will!

We tend to have vehicles purchases researched, planned, and budget pretty far out so we have time to find the right deal ha.

 

700 grizzly would be a good choice

 

Kodiak 450 or 700. Simple, reliable, relatively inexpensive.

 

Im reading the grizz is just a couple inches wider and a little more geared toward trail riding than utility work. I’m sure we’ll grab whatever good deal comes up.

 

Any idea on the differences other than power and gas mileage. I just assume get the 450 since it’ll be purely for utility and we have two wheeled things for more fun.

 

The 450 is smaller and might be able to fit in the Tacoma bed between the wheel wells. The 350s could easily fit but the 700s were too big. The base version of the 700 is dead simple, no gauge cluster, handlebar headlights, a mechanical actuator into 4x4, etc. I loved it for hard work and simplicity. I rode and hunted with friends with the same year Grizzly 700 and had no problems keeping up and didn't miss the push button 4x4 and other fancy options. There were several times the narrower Kodiak was an advantage in tight terrain.

 

That’s good to hear, thank you! We like as simple as possible over anything extra.

I’ll keep researching between the 450 and 700 and see what kind of used prices come up when we finally move. Thanks again!

 

Here's an example of when the Kodiak 700 shines - no other full sized atv could fit here without substantial damage and even the Kodiak was rubbing the fenders for a good third of the crossing.

 

We had an old, like 1987 or so, Honda fourtrax 250 at a farm I used to work at. I used it to take hay out to the paddocks. Thing was a tank and had plenty of power for what we used it for. I don't think it ever had any issues. I have seen very clean ones for around $3k, but most will be used hard. I would get one in a heartbeat if I had the need.

 

That’s awesome!

 

Thank you, sir!

 

Looks like the 700 is only about an inch longer and 3” taller (same width) as the 450 so that’s good to know!

 

Sounds like a compact tractor would be a good choice for the work you want to do.

 

Yeah, we've considered that and are researching a well! But we won't have any livestock and other than putting buildings up we're not sure how much we will need heavy hauling/working capabilities or not.

We certainly haven't ruled a small tractor out at all. The cost is just much higher and storage space larger, maintenance and accessories more, etc. so before we go that route we'd want to be really sure we need it rather than "probably" will use it, if that makes sense.

I like that I can get around the woods on a used 4wheeler for about 5 grand.

But it would be nice to be able to do some heavy work and we may end up with a small tractor someday, who knows!

 

Compact tractor has very high versatility, only limited by the attachment. Bucket, post hole digger, mower, brush mower, snow blower, grader,log spliter....... Look around for a used unit with low hours. Farm auctions, implement dealers, classifieds......

Tractors are usually simple maintenance.