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Posted by: maddog56
Here is how I see it. I had a honda 350 rancher es 4x4. It weighed about 530 lbs. The new 400at rancher weighs 560. My kawasaki prarie 700 vtwin weighs 600 pounds. I have a lot more power, and only sacraficed 40 pounds. The size is greater, but the rancher is one of the smallest midsize atvs. Look at a kodiak 450 vs a grizz 660. 551lbs to 600, 2 more inches of ground clearance, IRS, 2 inches longer (all in wheelbase), 3 wider, and another gallon and a half of fuel capacity. Price wise, you will only end up spending a few hundred dollars more for the big bore, and get a lot more of a machine. The grizz msrp is 7199, but everywhere I went I was offered 6400 or less. Compare that to the 5600 i was quoted for the rancher at, and I just couldnt fathom spending that much money for the midsize, and not spending just a little more for twice the machine. JMO
Posted by: reconranger
Size and weight, is why I will probably never own anything bigger than a Rancher. This machine is a SUPERB rock crawler! I have a friend who rides a big Polaris, and he watched me ride through a tough technical section. His comment was that I make it "LOOK SO EASY". The truth is that it IS EASY, on the right machine. Not big, not heavy, and not top heavy. OK, not the most powerful, but when you are creaping along in the rocks, or riding a tight trail, you don't need any more power or speed.
Posted by: DirtVH
We have owned several different machines from a Rancher 350, a Rally 200, a suzuki Quadmaster 500, and my Prairie 700. I have way more fun on the Prairie than any of the others the light weight of the rally kind of made it fun just because you could really muscle it around. But after riding all of them I still prefer my Prairie over all the others. Now after riding all of them my wife wants a Prairie 700. Just depends on what you want but I think the Prairie is just as easy to ride as the Rancher was and really at least as stable if not more so. For the difference in price I would say buy the big bore. They can be rode much faster and sportier when you want to or put along fine at a snails pace if you want. You are used to a raptor if you go with a medium size machine it will feel like it is stuck in slow motion. I have friends who have 400 4x4s they always complain about trying to keep up when ever the trail opens up or the hills get really steep they go were we do but it takes them much longer to get there.
Posted by: Raptormatic
Newbie here,
Just bought an '04 Raptor and enjoy jumping stuff but miss playing in the mud!! Thinking about getting a new 4X4. Had an old Polaris 350 4X4 and put some hard miles on it and never let me down. My questions is, from a trail riding, rock crawilng standpoint, which is better, a 500 cc machine (Kodiak, SP 500 HO ect.) or big bore (Grizzly, 700 EFI ect.). I'm an average sized guy (6' 200 lbs.) and I worry that the big quads will ride me and not the other way around and my body weight will not be able to influence the machine. Also it would seem that the weight of these big suckers would be bad in the mud. Thanks for the help guys, its hard to get a feel for a bike doing s-turns in the dealer parking lot.
