Renting ATVs?

[PsioniC]

We'll talking with some buddies we came up with the idea to go on an ATV camping trip. Drive a few hours out of the city to a camp ground/national park with a lot of trails and ride ATVs through the woods and camp out at night then drive back the next day.

We hit our first major snag when it came to renting the ATVs. We are all 19+ and all have our drivers licenses. But for the life of me I cannot find somewhere that will let us rent ATVs and use them without their supervision. I found a few places that will take us on ATV tours in the woods if we follow a guide, but who wants to do that right? It seems kind of ridiclous considering I could rent a fullsize car or boat without any supervision but not an ATV. I know that this service must exist somewhere but I'm having trouble finding it. We dont plan on using them for anything other than trail riding.


Has anyone on these boards ever rented an ATV? If so where, when and how much?

Transportation isnt a huge issue, we all drive vehicles capable of towing a small trailer and my truck could even fit one in the bed aswell, but it would be nice not to have to do that.

[speeeeee]

good luck... best bet is to go with a tour for the day and camp out close by.. if you dont have your own quad most places will not rent out quads .. if they do it will be $$$ +++ $$ for insurance...

and no you cant rent my arctic cat :)

[GangStarr]

They don't want to rent them out to ensure a few things, mainly:

1. Nobody would do their tours if they could just rip around themselves
2. People are stupid, people *could* get lost in the woods
3. If you roll over your ATV or get it stuck in some mud, you may have to abandon their ATV's.

It sucks, I know they rent ATV's in places like greece to explore the islands. I too searched to just rent one with no luck.

I'll probably end up buying an ATV. I can easily afford one its just my vehicle can't tow it so its been sort of stopping me from doing it.

[CSK'sMom]

I'm going to guess it's the liability insurance that is keeping the rental business non existent. ATV's can be inherently dangerous in the wrong or inexperienced hands. Yep, they are fun as hell but accidents happen and when they do it can mean a big repair bill or a hospital visit....

[toronto boy]

Was up at north bay and rented them for 2 days. Needed a deposit of 5k. and wasnt cheap. Made phone calls for 6 hours till i found one. Call the resorts in your area your camping and see if they can help.

[i6s1]

I'll probably end up buying an ATV. I can easily afford one its just my vehicle can't tow it so its been sort of stopping me from doing it.

FWIW, my quad is 600lbs, so even allowing 400 for a trailer and gear, most cars can tow that. Depends on the quad+trailer though, I know that there's quads that are a lot heavier.

[GangStarr]

FWIW, my quad is 600lbs, so even allowing 400 for a trailer and gear, most cars can tow that. Depends on the quad+trailer though, I know that there's quads that are a lot heavier.

Thanks good info. I havn't purchased a quad yet, probably going to go for a honda, not sure which one yet. Thing is, I'm waiting til my friend is ready to buy one, in which case we would need to tow two.

[new_vr]

I have seen places that rent them ,I saw them when I was looking for my snowmobile, but mostly just tours
Why are you planning to go with the honda?

[GangStarr]

1. I love honda anything (i have a snowblower and just love it)
2. I have a friend who's high up at Honda Canada, so I can usually get some decent pricing.

Out of curiosity what would you recommend? Probably looking to dump 5-10k

[i6s1]

I have a Rancher TRX400. It's medium sized. I was keen on Honda reliability. It doesn't have as many features, like the rear hydraulic/disc brakes, or IRS, or low range, or front locker. But I like the simplicity, fewer things to break in the field. It's a lot easier to deal with a broken brake cable then a leaking hydraulic system. Hondas don't have as much ground clearance. But they're lighter.

The best mix of reliabilty, features, and price, is probably the Yamahas. If you're willing to sacrifice the features for greater reliability, then Hondas are the top choice.

If it's just for fun, quads in the 400cc class are fine. Anything 600cc or above is overkill. Some people like to get a huge quad if they usually take two people, but you should be going slower with 2 people anyway, so you don't need that power. There are time when I've wanted more power, like climbing steep logging roads. At the time quads were a lot more money, but nowadays, it's really not that much more money to go from a 400 to a 680. The 400 (acually 420) they have now isn't as good as the old 400, so with a Rincon only costing $8000 out of the States, I'd get that if I was buying one today. I like overkill. No lowrange though, but I don't think that's a big deal.

[GangStarr]

There are time when I've wanted more power, like climbing steep logging roads.

hahaha check my location... trust me when I say I'm not going to have to worry about going up steep logging roads ;)

Thanks for the advice. I'll check out yamaha's line in more detail when I decide to buy (probably next season). Its going to take me a lot to move away from Honda.

[new_vr]

hahaha check my location... trust me when I say I'm not going to have to worry about going up steep logging roads ;)

Thanks for the advice. I'll check out yamaha's line in more detail when I decide to buy (probably next season). Its going to take me a lot to move away from Honda.

I was going to say check out the Yamahas too. We were talking about them on the weekend, and my bro-in-law who is a huge atv'er was talking about some feature the yamaha had that was a really good idea....although I can't for the life of me remember.
That being said, he has a honda, and I will buy a honda...so I am not knocking them ;)