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I can't understand why Rangers are so popular with all the problems they have. I know they were really one of the first ones in the UTV market. I remember in the early years the guys I hunted with had a lot of problems. Here we are years later and people still have problems out of them. I have a friend that had fuel pump problems with his fathers Ranger they had to fix last year. This wasn't an old bike, maybe 3 years old.

I've had my Viking for 2 duck seasons and have used and abused it. Haven't had a lick of trouble with it. It is loud for sure though. If Yamaha would put a v-twin in it, it would be a lot quieter. I pull around a 16 ft trailer around with mine and it does fine. When in the mud and water, I stay in low range and it doesn't have any problems. I have 28 inch tires on it with no lift and it does everything I want it to.

To quieten the Viking they install a sound damper, they should be coming from factory with them installed now, if not make dealer throw that in the deal, bout $75 I think. Also aftermarket mufflers quieten it down a bit. The Viking is wide which to some is a disadvantage, I went riding with a group of over a dozen other various UTV's and before the ride they commented that there would be some places I wouldn't be able to follow. It was tight and I had to back up and maneuver a time or too until I realized That was ridiculous, so I just started running over small trees up to size of a softball with no problem, by the end of the day they had me blazing the trail. With that width and suspension I could zoom across terrain twice as fast as most and still have a nice ride, very important to me since I had back surgery two yrs ago. Have always been a Honda person til now but love that Viking, also was able to bust through some mud holes with stock setup that some of the others with mods got stuck in. Only complaint on Viking is rear diff is positive traction all the time, so you will tear up your yard.

Did you install the sound dampener yourself? Was it a big help with noise? That's the only issue I have with my Viking is that it is LOUD. If I could seriously silence it a good bit, it would be a perfect bike.

No I noticed on the Viking forums that they were coming factory installed so I got the dealer to include that in my package, but if I remember correctly it was appx $75. I only drove mine once at dealer without it so I can't honestly say how much quieter it is, nothing to compare too. It's still noisy to me and planning on adding quieter muffler before season. Haven't done any mods to mine yet except built flip up glass windshield.

From talking to numerous people over the last few weeks, it looks like you guys are right with the problems with Rangers. Most people I have talked to, including dealers, recommend the Yamaha Viking or the Honda pioneer.

so what does a sound dampening kit consist of. Been trying to join the vikingforum.net but for some reason I am having a lot of trouble joining it.. picking up my viking this week. Hope to get the forum thing straighten out, got a lot of questions, but then again i always do
Never had a side by side for starters, winch first maybe a front and rear windshield, then I'll look into muffler

http://www.rc-trucks.org/yamaha-rhino-noise.htm

most use a sound deadening material on the bed (to quell metal vibrations) as well as on the inside of the engine cowling.

Also heard of several people wrapping their exhaust pipes with an insulated wrap. Reduces heat in the engine bay as well as dampens the sound.

i used rubberized undercoating (rattle cans from napa) on the entire bed and it held up to a few years' abuse and worked pretty well to reduce vibration. it is time to re-do and more advanced products have been introduced since the first time it was done.
for the heat flowing up in the summer i just stuff an old towel in the gap around seats...feels really nice during 20mph, 27deg mornings, though!

Just wanted to defend my ranger. Got a 2014 900 that I use hard just about everyday. Been a great machine with zero problems. Did upgrade tires and rims.

The Rangers are nice and I have always been a Honda fan, still have an 82 250 Big Red I bought new and yep it still runs, but when I drove the Honda then drove the Viking, it's hard to describe but that Viking seemed beefier, more capable, more punch, no way to measure as those were just perceptions. I was actually sad since Honda always seemed to build above everyone else, at least to me but this time I didn't get that impression.

Deltaduk few things you might wanna do right away to that Viking. Go to lowes and get (crap don't know what it's called) it is a sheet of wire mesh, has a diamond pattern, you see people weld on metal steps to prevent slipping, anyway fabricate you a radiator guard, get small enough mesh pattern to block sticks. Granted I'm hard on my Viking and have pushed over trees up to 5" if there is not a trail, I'll make one. The front of that Viking when you look under it allows too much chance for punctured radiator in my opinion.

Also the Viking has a pretty good metal skid plate, but there is an area that is plastic, only took me two weeks to lose that, replaced it with metal. Believe it's where drain oil. If you are a trail buster like me, go ahead and order the heavy duty front bumper, the stock one is covered with plastic that will come off to reveal the bumper does not stick out enough to protect headlights.

Only problem I've really found so far is that it's so new that the aftermarket selection isn't all that great. I wanted a windshield made of glass so I could have a wiper someday, only glass ones I found were fixed and outrageously expensive so I made my own flip up glass windshield. I built frame cut, welded then had it powder coated local glass installer charged $250 for glass and mounting. I'll try to get some pics if interested.

Just some things to keep in mind from my experience so far