Yamaha 700 or Honda 500

[cowmop]

Hi,
I have a quad quandary.
I have never had a quad before but fancy one for taking small bale hay and water out to a few local paddocks and towing a small sheep trailer whilst moving sheep about, some short road trips of about a mile, we are very hilly.

Should I go new or good used ? I do pay VAT

Auto or manual ( Honda)

Yamaha 700 Kodiak? In stock at local dealer?

Have I missed another option or brand that would suit my use.

New ones come with training which I assume some of the folks on here have done in the past, was it worth it?

Thanks.

Martin.

 

[jellybean]

If you have not had a quad before and you have steep ground I suggest you at least get one on demo to see how scary you find it. Alternatively do you have neighbours or friends with one who could give you a taster session?
Whatever you get there will be a learning curve, my learning curves usually ended up expensive and I ended up modifying my Yamaha to make it safer on the slopes. There is a huge difference running one on flat ground as opposed to steep ground.

 

[aangus]

Honda manual indestructible, but that’s only my opinion others will be along shortly with a different answer. Unfortunately no new ones available until later this year.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

If you've never had or driven a quad before I'd say you'd be better off with the Yamaha auto but for your tasks a 700 is a bit overkill, a grizzly 450 would be perfect

 

[hilux]

If you fancy a new big quad ,try a Kawasaki 750 ,they are very reliable.

 

[box]

700 is a bit overkill

That. 450 is more than enough. I've got an old Grizzly 400 and it's more than enough for me doing general work and towing as much as I possibly can...750 - 1000 kg if conditions allow. If I had the money for another ATV, I'd be buying a new Kodiak 350.

I like Yamaha Ultramatic, it's been around for ages and seems to be bulletproof. Why would you want to change gear manually? Whatever you do, stay away from an automatic Honda.

Manual Hondas work well, but as above, why would you want to change gear?

If you've got the money, go new. Second hand is a bit of a false economy when it comes to quads, the new ones are pretty sharply priced at the moment and maintenance costs are going to be almost non existent. Get a used one, fix up the niggly problems, throw some new tyres at it, new brakes, a new battery maybe...the $$$ start to add up.

I don't know anything about the training though. There's not much to them tbh.....treat them with respect and don't do anything stupid. They're potentially deadly if you give them a chance. Jump on Youtube, watch the dumb Americans driving them like idiots and then do the opposite. Consider some kind of flexible roll over protection system...something like this if it's available over there

TRAX Equipment - UTV & ATV Accessories | New Zealand

TRAX Equipment specialises in innovative accessories & attachments for the UTV & ATV industry. Explore our range of high-quality solutions designed to enhance performance, comfort and versatility. Pimp your ride today!

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Time for a pointless rant: What's with the push for massive engines in ATVs? 20 years ago, 250 or 300cc did the job and still went fast enough to kill you. The towing capacity has hardly changed over the years, the only thing that happened is they use twice as much petrol.

 

[Al R]

That. 450 is more than enough. I've got an old Grizzly 400 and it's more than enough for me doing general work and towing as much as I possibly can...750 - 1000 kg if conditions allow. If I had the money for another ATV, I'd be buying a new Kodiak 350.

I like Yamaha Ultramatic, it's been around for ages and seems to be bulletproof. Why would you want to change gear manually? Whatever you do, stay away from an automatic Honda.

Manual Hondas work well, but as above, why would you want to change gear?

If you've got the money, go new. Second hand is a bit of a false economy when it comes to quads, the new ones are pretty sharply priced at the moment and maintenance costs are going to be almost non existent. Get a used one, fix up the niggly problems, throw some new tyres at it, new brakes, a new battery maybe...the $$$ start to add up.

I don't know anything about the training though. There's not much to them tbh.....treat them with respect and don't do anything stupid. They're potentially deadly if you give them a chance. Jump on Youtube, watch the dumb Americans driving them like idiots and then do the opposite. Consider some kind of flexible roll over protection system...something like this if it's available over there

TRAX Equipment - UTV & ATV Accessories | New Zealand

TRAX Equipment specialises in innovative accessories & attachments for the UTV & ATV industry. Explore our range of high-quality solutions designed to enhance performance, comfort and versatility. Pimp your ride today!

www.atvlifeguard.co.nz

Time for a pointless rant: What's with the push for massive engines in ATVs? 20 years ago, 250 or 300cc did the job and still went fast enough to kill you. The towing capacity has hardly changed over the years, the only thing that happened is they use twice as much petrol.

I concur with all that you said, have a Yamaha 450 kodiak and it does everything, often pulling 1.3t with ease, the Honda 420 DCT is a piece of sh!te in comparison, after 13 hondas I couldn’t have another that bad so went Yamaha.
Someone turned up here the other day with a 3 year old hardly used Yamaha 700, I drove it 400 metres and gave it back, definitely the fastest bike I’ve ever been on and I can guarantee I’d roll it or hit something with how fast it was if I bought one. Glad the guy turned up or I would have ordered a new 700 over the phone without trying one

 

[cowmop]

Thanks for the advice so far.
Local dealer has 2 700 Kodiak in stock but nowt else, rang around loads of dealer's but almost impossible to get a new quad at the moment.
Thinking I should bite the bullet as old ones seem to be advertised as much as I can get a new one, list price on the Kodiak 450 I don't think was much below the 700?

I will have a look again online today at the 450 stuff and see if there is anything half decent about, then ask the dealer for a demo at his yard on the new one in the showroom if he will.

 

[Al R]

Thanks for the advice so far.
Local dealer has 2 700 Kodiak in stock but nowt else, rang around loads of dealer's but almost impossible to get a new quad at the moment.
Thinking I should bite the bullet as old ones seem to be advertised as much as I can get a new one, list price on the Kodiak 450 I don't think was much below the 700?

I will have a look again online today at the 450 stuff and see if there is anything half decent about, then ask the dealer for a demo at his yard on the new one in the showroom if he will.

Definitely try before you buy, if your not that far they should give you a demo for you to try at yours, I’m around 1.5-2hrs away from my dealer and get the odd demo but we’ve bought on the back of almost every demo, unfortunately they never let us buy the demo machines though

 

[box]

Down here there's only about $2,000 difference between the 700 and the EPS 450. Not much in it, you're right.

The 350 on the other hand is almost half the price of the 700 and will do everying the 700 will do....just saying.

I know which one I'd rather have.

+1 for getting a demo on farm though. It's the least they could do.

 

[Tony1989]

Honda out of the two but a Suzuki 500 is the one to go for!

 

[Ducati899]

@buffalo_soldier

 

[hally]

I am having a good bit of bother with my yam 700 and no one seems to find a solution so will probably be going back to Honda next time.

 

[ford4000]

We've got a honda 420 and suzuki 400 here, both manual, they do over 4000 miles a year between them taking out feed, and sheep from lambing shed, weed wiping, spot spraying and everything else on a livestock farm.
We find they are plenty powerful enough. Someone above asked why change gear? Well you can chugg around in a higher gear at lower revs when going about doing light work. I had a automatic canam on test for a weekend.... Hated it!!! Where does all its power go???? It was so noisy and slow!!!

 

[cowmop]

I am having a good bit of bother with my yam 700 and no one seems to find a solution so will probably be going back to Honda next time.

What's up with it? did you have it new?

 

[buffalo_soldier]

I've swapped a Honda 500 for a Yam 700 this time.
I was initially comparing between a Honda 520, which is the new model and the Yam 450. Very similar bikes.

A thing then happened left me needing to swap at short notice.
Honda had a massive lead time for any bike.
Yamaha had a fair lead as well but the dealer put the effort in and found me a 700.

The 700 is a big bike obviously . Fuel wise I'm probably getting 15ish clock hours out of a Jerry can.
It's my first auto bike, auto is excellent. Hi-Lo range covers all your bases.
It is fast.
Suspension and therefore ride is better.
As is braking.
Reliability is unknown as I'm only about 60hrs in.
Spec wise I always take the wide tyre option on bikes, stability improves so much. Again better than the Honda I think.

That's all I can think of off the top of me head.

 

[hally]

What's up with it? did you have it new?

Yes bought new , 2 year old 7k miles. Has a habit of showing the reverse light when in forward gear which kicks in the Rev limiter so no power, dealer been at it numerous times and fitted numerous parts that often help for a week or so then it reverts back to the fault. Tried another yam dealer last week and he adjusted gear linkage etc, again was better for a few days then back to normal. Strange thing is it only does it when hot and when going down a hill!!!!!
very strange but I don’t like trading anything in not right but as soon as we fix it I will get rid of it ( if I can find a dealer with a quad to sell).

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Oh, Driver training.

Tend to send staff, so no personal experience.
They do find it useful, and I rarely seem to need to mention safety.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Thanks for the advice so far.
Local dealer has 2 700 Kodiak in stock but nowt else, rang around loads of dealer's but almost impossible to get a new quad at the moment.
Thinking I should bite the bullet as old ones seem to be advertised as much as I can get a new one, list price on the Kodiak 450 I don't think was much below the 700?

I will have a look again online today at the 450 stuff and see if there is anything half decent about, then ask the dealer for a demo at his yard on the new one in the showroom if he will.

Asked about a new Yamaha 450 a while ago just over the £7000 I was quoted. All too much money for how long they last.

 

[cowmop]

Asked about a new Yamaha 450 a while ago just over the £7000 I was quoted. All too much money for how long they last.

I don't mind spending the money as it will be for occasional use, kept in very good order and not abused like you might expect on a busy dairy farm for example, my flock isn't a commercial affair, more "hobby farm" but never the less it will be useful.
What's driving a new one is the fact they are so expensive second hand for anything that looks like it might not have been put through its paces on a previous life.