I can’t speak for the 700, but just reached first service on a 520 picked up in July. It sounds like your use is similar, and we went with the 520 due to size—wanted something to fit in tight spaces.
The previous machine doing the jobs was a Polaris Sportsman 800 Big Boss 6x6. It was a beast with plenty of power to push snow, including uphill. We hauled heavy loads of wood and mulch stacking both to the top of 2’ wooden sides added to 800 lb capacity dump bed. A bungy cord or two across the back above the closed tailgate kept wood from falling out going up steep hills. It would go anywhere 4 wheel ATVs did and some places they couldn’t. Overall, it was an awesome machine for the work and also fun to ride. Polaris suspension really smoothed out the bumps. But it was awfully thirsty and we spent $$$$ maintaining it. Every time I worked on it, the quality—or lack thereof—was annoying. So we skipped the engine rebuild and looked for a replacement.
in our case, any ATV is undersized for our snowfall so we’re delegating that job to another purchase (CTL). But we wanted something more durable than the Polaris for everything else and settled on the P520, though we wondered a bit about reduced box size and weight capacity, less ground clearance, and rougher suspension.
We’ve had it for 1.5 months and brought in 3 cords of wood with it from various places in the woods around, including up a steep trail (35% grade). It’s also hauled mulch and a bit of dirt.
It’s loud, rough riding, and growing on me. For utility use, I like the side-by-side config better than the old Polaris 6x6 ATV. Geared transmission with low first is great for hills. I don’t need the brakes hauling heavy loads of wood down a long steep hill. With the tailgate open, I can stack two rows of wood in it like I did with the tailgate closed on the larger Polaris box. I stack well above the sides using large pieces on the sides so nothing rolls out, but won’t extend the box sides up as I can get plenty of weight in as it is. Most of my wood comes from gentle grades, or up the steep hill so I’m loaded on the way down. Open tailgate is fine for that. I picked some wood up in a spot where I had to go up a short but very steep uphill before going down the long steep hill. With the Polaris and closed tailgate, I’d carefully take that going forwards without issues. With the P520 I backed up it as I would’ve lost the whole load of wood out the open tailgate otherwise. In the future, I’ll probably need to figure out a way to tie in the wood with tailgate open or just take smaller loads when going further along the trail with a bunch of steep ups and downs (steep enough that front of Polaris 6x6 got very light with a load of wood in the back). I’m also getting a trailer, which will be more convenient for moving mulch, though I’m not sure how much I’ll want to use it on the steep trail.
The P520 will go most places the Polaris would go, though the roll cage can be a bit limiting.
Overall, I’m happy with the P520 and would probably choose it again for our primarily utility use. My favourite things are gears, side-by-side seating, roof, and working on it (just first service so far), it seems fairly well engineered (not constantly thinking “Really?” Like when working on the Polaris. If I could change anything, it would get a bit smoother suspension and cushier seat, a bit longer, square box (as long as wide, like the Polaris had), and be quieter—though the Polaris was noisey too.
Now that it’s cooling down, I think we may add a windshield. I’d definitely want that for plowing, though we plan to do that with a different machine.
Hope this helps!
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