I broke my new Wolverine in at a ride park yesterday with my buddy who has a 500 Scrambler. Here are some opinions that we both had in comparing the two. We are both a little over 6 foot and weigh 200 here and I'm guessing 220 plus for my buddy. Temperature was 43 up to 51 degrees.
(Performance) The 500 has the advantage here. You can drill the gas on the Scrambler, it will easily bust the smaller 22-inch tires loose, and you will feel it torque up to a very long wheel spin. At first, my Wolfy was tight and not as responsive as I expected. It did have wheel spin but not that long, ground-ripping type. But at the end of the day, the new Wolfy with 48 miles now produced some exciting power and torque in the half throttle range. I feel much better now. It may have something for the Scrambler when I can hammer the gas like the Scrambler could. Mine sputters or missed out a little if I crank it hard from a dead stop. But it was getting much better by the end of the day. It just wasn't ready for the "ride it like you stole it" thing.
(Handling) The Scrambler is heavy and felt heavy darting through the woods and trails. It felt more like you are along for the ride rather than you riding it. I'd compare it to a monster truck, good power and a few tricks. The Wolfy has a complete different riding experience. I'd compare it to a motocross bike ride. Good power lightweight and lots of air. Yup this thing is a blast. You can ride easy and enjoy the trial or you can spin it on a dime with little or no effort. You can get air on just about anything you see and powerslide it on any surface. It makes quick work of those tight trails and unforeseen obstacles. Very predictable handling with great balance.
(COMFORT) Both have soft seats. The scrambler feels more like riding a motorcycle with the high placement of the handlebars. While the Wolfy felt like an ATV. We both noticed the Wolfy to have better front end visibility when going over those step hills that drop straight down (if you know what I mean). Also better control leverage riding through those big ruts, timber and things we all manage to get into.
As first, the Wolfy beat me up on ride. The shocks were STIFF. But buy the end of the day the ride was really great. I did set all shocks on next to lowest setting. We think it was because it was new.
(Reliability) No problems. Starts were right on cold or hot.
(Quality & design) Both are quality ATVs but here are a few things we both noticed. I had a 2005 250 TrailB- before so I'm familiar with the Scrambler design.
Tires - The Wolfy had it hands down. Great 23-inch tires. The Wolfy was unstoppable going through big rutted out mud holes. The Scrambler did get hung-up a couple times in the same spots (not stuck, just hung). The Scrambler needed that extra inch of tire I guess.
Mud Protection- The running boards on the Wolfy performed much better. My shoes were mostly clean and his were real wet and muddy. He could not figure that one out. After we looked, we noticed the boards on the scrambler have big flat holes in them. The Wolfy has holes with baffles on the bottom side to keep water from rushing through the board holes.
The bodywork on the Wolfy covered more area of the front and back tires. This was a close match but he though I had less mud on me. I agreed.
Wolfy has a nice size storage box under the seat. The Scrambler has a bend in the plastic that they call a storage compartment.
Scrambler has a fuel gage/ none in the Wolfy.
Wolfy has a speedometer/none on the scrambler.
Wolfy has a shaft drive/ scrambler chain.
Scrambler has pull start/ Wolfy nope.
We think both have about the same accessories options. I hope you find this review helpful.
They are both great 4x4's. The push button 4x4 work great on both. But if they were both sitting on the showroom floor, I would pick the Wolfy again, and I think my buddy would, too.
