Thread: Side by sides utv

Am looking at getting a side by side for work but mainly to be used for hunting and bit of playing! Narrowed it down to either a canam commander 800 or Yamaha Viking anyone used either or had experience with? Cheers

There are heaps of hondas around this area.
The first series of muvs wernt overly reliable but the new pioneers seem to be another step up.
The 500 is new and have driven that and pretty impressed.
The other bikes i have had a bit to do with are the latest polaris the 570 and the 900 both with engine breaking.
They seem to have conquered the reliability issues as i now know a few farmers that have bought more than one.
I have an old 2006 700 ranger that has given me a few headaches but what an amazing machine ..
I could never go back to a quad for work or hunting especially with taking my family with me

Canam But if your wanting a bit more play I would be going for the 1000cc. They are a great hunting set up and extremely capable off road, bush bashing is great fun as the roll bars deflect all the branches away.
I've been amazed where mines gone, from stoney river crossings to the wrong way on MTB tracks.
I'm not sure how good they are from a work front as they aren't the easiest thing to climb in and out off all day and the steering lock is shit for small places. I miss my 4 wheeler when it comes to weed spraying and gate opening.
Touch wood, we have had no problems with it except for running it into a fence and having to get the parts from the USA (my fault).

Dont buy a canam I know 3 canam 4 wheelers in our area two in day to day work & both have big problems with then they always a shop getting fixed some under wantry some not & the other a weekend user & he had problems wit his to

Worked on both can am and yamaha and had factory training on both. Commanders are great toys, They dont really hold up well to day to day hard work on sheep farms towing shit and being rough. IF you're nice on gear and service them on time they are fine.

Left the industry before the vikings came out but had hours of experiance on the Rhino which was it predecessor, And it would handle abit more abuse than the commander but wasnt as nice to drive. But with anything off road if you don't service it it'll cost you in the long run.

Both are good machines. And both have good warranty back up.

We've got a Can Am 800R. Done around 5000kms and most of that is towing a bale feeder in winter. So far no problems except the stock tyres were crap and split around the lugs and the the lugs started pealing. Fitted duel rate springs as the stock ones are a bit soft. They need wheel arch extension as the shit gets thrown inside. They biggest down side for a work perspective is the small deck size. I've seen a few flat deck conversions done but its extra costs. Only seen the Vikings while dropping my quad in for a service and they seem a lot wider which could be an issue if you have tight tracks. So far the Commander has been cheaper to service than my Grizzly quad (both at the same dealer). Personally I think the Yamahas have better build quality.