Crow Hunter, I would love to hear your thoughts on the Defender. I seriously considered it when I bought the Honda. Is it as capable, quiet and smooth? Obviously heat isnt an issue with the engine behind you. How is the engine braking on steep hills?
Here is a link to my review:
My new Canned Ham!
Recently updated from my trip yesterday.
The heat is, to me, is significantly less than on the Honda. There is heat, but it is further away and isn't coming up under the seat to warm your butt/back of your legs and it isn't blowing in your face through the shifter holes. (Fixable issue now on the Pioneer). There is some heat that is coming off the radiator that blows through the openings under the dash where the heater would be. There is probably a way to stop them up with some foam but I haven't looked into it yet. We rode for a long time yesterday very slow in Low Range with 3 full grown men in the seat and no body complained about the heat even though we were shoulder to shoulder.
It is much quieter than the Honda at low speeds. It is probably equal in noise at higher speeds but the Honda has the ability to be made quieter by upshifting the transmission into a higher gear where the Defender does not. From 1-15 MPH the Defender is much quieter, especially in Low Range. It is quiet enough that last time we rode my wife was sitting on the front porch of my brothers house and she said she could hear my brother talking before she heard the Defender. (My brother is loud though
). From 15-30 MPH the Defender is quieter in High Range (wind is louder than the machine) but the Pioneer can be upshifted to make it quieter. From 30MPH-up the Pioneer definitely is quieter since you don't have the CVT whine plus the Pioneer can be upshifted into 6th gear and it makes almost no noise. I spend most of my time in Low Range and 10 MPH so the Defender works better for me.
Engine braking doesn't work the same between the two. The Honda has true engine braking. It will wrench your neck if you aren't expecting it but it works the same all the time. The Defender doesn't have engine braking the same way. If you start off on a hill with no throttle the Defender will creep down at 1 MPH but if you give it some gas, it will go faster if you give it enough gas, it won't have engine braking at all.
***Edit added for clarification: If you give it gas and let off, it will "engine brake" at the last RPM the engine was at. So if you give it enough gas that it will go 3MPH downhill and let off the gas, it will continue 3MPH and the higher than idle RPM. If you never give it any gas it will creep at 1 MPH or even stop at idle RPM. If you give it enough gas, and then let off it will basically "free wheel" similar to a Polaris. Where with the Pioneer, it will return to the lowest engine RPM that the incline will pull it down at rather than continuing. There are some situations that I prefer the Defender method and others that I prefer the Pioneer method. The Pioneer has a much more consistent and easy to predict hold back while the Defender requires some work with the throttle/brakes to get it where you want it.
There is a particular extremely steep hill on my farm trail that I prefer the Pioneer engine braking on. I could just let off the gas as I got to the crest and crawl down it with a little bit of brakes. The Defender I have to remember to slow way down or use the brake to get to the engine braking speed I want. While on the hill behind my house, that isn't as steep, I prefer the Defender because I can modulate the downward speed easier where with the Pioneer it would always slow down more than I wanted when I let off the gas.***
The Defender uses a one way bearing in the primary clutch that keeps the belt engaged so depending on the engine RPM, you get more or less belt slip. While I don't have any data to support this I believe that the Honda system will be more durable over time. I don't think you get as much clutch slip on the Honda doing this as you get belt slip on the Defender and I figure the belt will wear out on the Defender before the clutch disc on the Pioneer.
While I like my Defender more than I did my Pioneer for my particular uses, I think it is completely dependent how a person is using it as to which is superior.
For instance, if you wanted a machine that can seat 4-5 people, have a dump bed and be less than 120" long, your only choice is the Pioneer 1000.
