I chose the 8 mm for the added protection over the 6 mm as well as the slightly lighter weight and tiny ground clearance advantage compared to the 10 mm.
When i winched the grizz up in my garage tonight and removed the factory plastic underneath i was expecting a smooth install, however that wasn’t the case. First of all, the included instructions were written in finnish, which is a damned hard language to learn as it’s complicated and only shares its roots with hungarian, estonian and sami (lappish).
After copying the instructions letter by letter into google translate and receiving a surprisingly good translation into swedish (my native tongue), i set to work. After lightly seating the two front-mid screws into the chassis, i tried fitting the rear of the skid plate into place. I quickly realised that the tow hitch that’s mounted on at least the swedish Grizzlies fouls the skid plate by about 4-5 cm (1.5 to about 2 inches), i decided to let my dealer install it instead. I could fit it myself by dragging out the angle grinder, however i’m not really comfortable with dissecting my brand new plastic armour. There was also drilling to be done in the factory plastics and these two factors combined made me change my mind and i’m going to pay the dealer to do the install.
I had a new 2013 AC 700 which i fitted the alu skid plate and a-arm protectors to myself, that was very straight forward as it used only factory threaded mounting locations and custom hardware wrapped around the frame and a-arms to make the install bolt on – no drilling or grinding to be done.
Anyway, i just wanted to tell you about this, in case someone is on the fence about having the dealer install their skid plate or doing it themselves. The "Yamaha" oem tow hitch as well as most of the Yamaha oem accessories here in Sweden are produced by a swedish company though, so i can’t speak for the NA models and accessories.
On another note, i love the Grizzly! I’ve got about 40 miles on it and other than three or four stalls just above or coming down to idle when hot, it’s great. It feels light and nimble as well as powerful. I couldn’t wait to try a wheelie and it was easy to get it up on its hind legs in low while sitting at the rear of the seat. I didn’t get it to wheelie in high, however i’m guessing it’ll loosen up a bit when it’s had a few more miles under its belt. I’m probably going to get the shim mod done if i can’t get it up in high =)
