How To Choose Best ATV For Mud And Water

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How to Choose An ATV for Mudding The Best ATV for Mudding

16 October 2022

Mudding is a challenge to your driving skills and mettle and your ATV’s power, components, and movement. You could get stuck, or your machine could be damaged by water or caked on crud. This is why some machines have been made specifically for mud riding. If you’re planning to make mudding a significant portion of your riding adventures, you should look for the best ATV for mud and water.

How to Choose An ATV for Mudding

An ATV that can stand up to the demands of frequent mudding will have:

More horsepower
Increased torque
Mud tires
Higher ground clearance
A high-quality winch
High water clearance
Snorkeling

You can purchase a powerful machine and outfit it with several of these upgrades, like a winch, mud tires, and snorkeling. If you already own an ATV or UTV you want to keep, it’d be best to perform these upgrades.

Or you can buy a quad that comes prepared for the mud out of the factory, including with stock mud tires.

Off-road waders will keep you dry and safe in water and mud

Find out the best look for you

The Best ATV for Mudding

Can-Am Outlander XMR 1000R

Can-Am is one of the most popular and respected ATV manufacturers, and they are known for making the most machines specifically for mudding. The Outlander is generally considered their ultimate model.

It boasts a powerful 976cc engine, high center of gravity, relocated radiator, aggressive tires, Warn winch, and a wide wheelbase to keep you from getting stuck in the mud.

The downside is that it is pretty expensive. It’s definitely worth the investment, but if you can’t swing it, keep looking at the other models on this list.

Polaris Sportsman XP 1000 High Lifter Edition

Polaris and High Lifter combined their skills at ATV and mudding equipment manufacturing to create a machine built specifically for the mud.

Its powerful 952cc engine and dual cooling fans tackle mud. The shielded components like the intakes and clutch prevent mud and water from entering the machine. Higher seats and ground clearance also optimize this machine for the mud. It employs a CVT transmission with an ultra low speed to help it put the torque to best use.

This too is a pretty expensive model.

Yamaha Grizzly 700 EPS

While this machine wasn’t built specifically for mudding, it is well suited for it, performing as well as other machines that were deliberate mud beasts.

It boasts some of the best handling and CVT transmission available, it has a high ground clearance, and it is very durable. The 700cc engine is not as powerful as the ones listed above, but it is plenty capable of tackling mud.

If you need a mud machine on a tighter budget, you won’t go wrong with this Yamaha.

Arctic Cat Alterra MudPro 700 LTD

This mud machine is lightweight and agile with a 700cc engine. It comes with high-quality stock mud tires and snorkeling. Despite being lightweight and budget-friendly, it is a durable machine. 14” ground clearance makes it higher than the Polaris Sportsman High Lifter.