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Posted by: weez440
welcome to the forum and my parents have honda's which are a good reliable machine and i got my cat. out of the two the cat works out alot better on the farm for farm work. the honda is very rough riding where my cat soaks the bumps up with ease. with the mrp rack you can put alot of attachments on it to help you out with all your chores. it doesn't sound like you need a 650 unless you really need the power to go through mud and to put oversized tires on. for what your needs are i think a 400 or a 500 would be great choices.
Posted by: weez440
engine breaking on the cats is awesome. when playing in the gravel pits i can climb to the top and when going down the other side i am in low range i just let off the throttle and the engine breaking takes me down nice and slow. they aren't suicidal like the old polaris's with no engine breaking and you had to ride the breaks all of them i believe have some sort of this.
Posted by: m74me
Here is a list from the Arctic Cat web site of dealers within 500 miles of Vancouver, Washington. If you are more eastern Washington you can put in your location and get a list from there.
Arctic Cat Dealer Search Results:
Click on highlighted dealer names to visit their Web sites.
FACTORY MOTOR SPORTS, INC
Snowmobiles
ATVs
UTV
1301 MAIN ST
OREGON CITY, OR 97045Map It!
(503) 667-2200
· 18 miles HOODVIEW MOTORSPORTS
Snowmobiles
ATVs
UTV
39831 HWY 26
SANDY, OR 97055Map It!
(503) 826-0570
· 25 miles PRO-CALIBER MOTORSPORTS
ATVs
UTV
1020 INDUSTRIAL WAY
LONGVIEW, WA 98632Map It!
(360) 636-1220
· 36 miles THE OUTDOOR TOY STORE
Snowmobiles
ATVs
Watercraft
UTV
1162 WIND RIVER RD
CARSON, WA 98610Map It!
(509) 427-7474
· 40 miles STAYTON MOTOR SPORTS
Snowmobiles
ATVs
Watercraft
Generators
UTV
11361 MILL CREEK ROAD
AUMSVILLE, OR 97325Map It!
(503) 769-6666
· 56 miles
L & D RACE TECH INC
ATVs
UTV
1035 MARLIN AVENUE SE
WARRENTON, OR 97146Map It!
(503) 861-2636
· 70 miles INDUSTRIAL SPECIALTIES INC
ATVs
Generators
UTV
900 NW STATE AVENUE
CHEHALIS, WA 98532Map It!
(360) 748-0247
· 73 miles PAULSON'S
Snowmobiles
ATVs
UTV
4402 6TH AVE SE
LACEY, WA 98503Map It!
(360) 456-8444
· 97 miles KENT KAWASAKI
Snowmobiles
ATVs
Watercraft
Generators
UTV
821 CENTRAL AVE S
KENT, WA 98032Map It!
(253) 852-8670
· 121 miles VALLEY MARINE INC
Snowmobiles
ATVs
Watercraft
UTV
1904 FRUITVALE BLVD
YAKIMA, WA 98902Map It!
(509) 453-6302
· 122 miles
Posted by: Chumley
My buddy has a H1, uses it for misc light work. As far as power goes, it's way overkill for what he uses it for and how he rides. Mechanically it has been very good, just had the exhaust bolts wiggle out so the header pipe came loose. The 500 is a solid machine that has been proven many times to be a good worker. Both the 500 and 650 are definitely work taking a good hard look at.
Honda's are reliable as hell, but I don't care for their tranny nor their suspension. It's personal taste, so get to the dealerships and take them for a test.
Posted by: Chumley
Make sure you let us know what quad you end up getting.
Posted by: buckaroo50
I don't think that you would regret going with AC. When and if the time comes that you need to work on it, they are pretty easy to work on, by comparison. And they are relatively low maintenance.
They are big, heavy and strong (in class about 100lbs heavier - so you know that they are not made of beer cans), and I feel they are very, very reliable. The Suzuki engines are every bit as reliable as Honda or for that matter any offerings.
Personally I like the CVT transmission over the Honda auto. I help my friend haul wood and my 400 pulls just as good as his Honda. I have an edge in the tire department so if it is a little muddy or slick I do better. When we trail ride together, he don't try to outdo the AC anymore because he knows that I'll win.
My best friend has a Honda and wanted me to do a tune up, change oil etc... Tell you what - to get at the top of the engine to adjust the valves - I had to go into the house and get out my dictonary of 'swear words' because I ran out of my own.
Posted by: kaptap
I have an 06 400 and use it to pull trees, dump carts, thatcher, disk slicer etc. and never have a problem. I do wish I went with a 500 to get that little bit of extra power for speed on trails. The AC will not win a speed contest, but has great low end power to get through mud and pull equipment. Keep looking at other posts becuase there are many AC riders who use their ATV for farming everyday. AC also has the 3-point hitch system which you could probably use on your farm.
Posted by: booboobear
I have a 02 400i manual, with the manual and the high low, you can sure make it into a work horse, but like they say you wont get no trophies with the speed but with working it you would
Posted by: olywa
Hello All,
This is my first post on this forum. I am an ATV newbie and have decided to buy a mid-size (or larger) ATV for my 80 acres. I will be putting a 16-26 gallon rackmount sprayer on it and using it to tend fence most of the time but will probably do some light trail riding and hunting with it as well.
I was all set to buy a Honda Foreman because I have a long history of good experiences with their cars, motorcycles, and outboards. They also seem to get pretty good reviews on their ATVs for light farm work. Then I had a buddy tell me that I ought to check into Arctic Cat so I've started doing a little research. I've been very impressed so far with the how committed AC seems to be to providing real utility for the working ATV crowd.
Are any of you guys using the 500 or 650 Arctic Cats for light farm work? Care to share your experiences with me? I'm going to be buying new so I'm most interested in the more recent models.
Posted by: olywa
Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. I think I'll have to take a closer look at the AC 500.
Posted by: olywa
Can anyone recommend an Arctic Cat dealer in the Oregon area? I live in Washington but my local AC dealer has a pretty poor rep and I'd like to save on the sales tax. Which leads to my next question. What sort of regular maintenance is needed on these and are they pretty user serviceable?
One thing I dislike about the Hondas is that they need regular valve adjustments. It always amazes me that Honda hasn't figured out how to incorporate self-adjusting valves like everyone else.
Posted by: olywa
Does the automatic CVT transmission with EBS (engine braking system) work pretty well in using engine compression to keep the load off the brakes on downhill grades? Is there any reason not to get the auto tranny over the manual?
Posted by: olywa
Glad to hear that the engine braking is so effective.
So here's where things stand in my mind now. All the forum reviews seem to indicate that the newer models are much improved over the older models. There doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground though. About 75% of owners are wildly enthusiastic and 25% think AC is junk. I have to admit that 25% is pretty worrisome to me because the local AC dealer has a pretty poor rep.
However I just got the latest BassPro catalogue and they have many of the Arctic Cat models several hundred dollars below dealer prices. They also have many of the AC accessories at great prices. I'm going to call them tomorrow and ask how they handle warranty repairs. BassPro's backing ought to be worth something.
Posted by: olywa
Shucks, further review shows that the nearest BassPro is in Vegas. I'll have to check out the northern Oregon dealers. Any recommendations?
