Excellent post with a lot of useful info. Just to pick your brain a little. I am considering an ATV that would be used for scouting, hunting and bringing deer and bear back to my truck on a cattle ranch. I may end up getting one of those ATV-specific carts as some of the bears get pretty heavy and I and I can't always get to them with a truck. So I guess that would factor in to deciding on a solid axle versus independent rear suspension. For me, probably the # 1 factor would be reliability and few to no repairs needed.