Hey Russ I looked at the 1000. Those are really nice and would have loved to have one. The power, 6 speed, ect is awesome. Had a coworker buy a 1000 when he saw mine. He needed the extra grunt the 1000 provided for use on his property. He has more tied up in his SxS than he does his Jeep he uses to cruise his property. The old adage of it only costs 100% more to go first class does seem to come into play
I had to draw a line for myself. The 1000 started out being about $4000 more than the 700. I had the dealer install hard roof and front windshield which I knew I wanted. I also knew I wanted a winch but dealer install for that was outrageous so did it myself. Several guys have extremely lifted and well over 100 hp rigs but you know what? I keep up with them even on the old asphalt roads for the most part. You cant drive that fast on any of them due to the hidden washouts and chunks of hidden asphalt in all the overgrown grass on the road. You have to slow way down for those areas and I catch up with them very quickly. One guy i was following on my old atv hit one of those while flying down the road and tore the whole front right wheel assembly off (A arms and everything). Where I go there you really cant go 60 plus mph like a 1000 will do (maybe short distances) and usually risky going over 20 or 30 mph. The 700 has plenty of power to go everywhere I need to and going though the woods it is a "just a fit" for the trials where other wider lifted guys have to make their own path and get stuck a lot. One bridge is just to narrow for some and have to go way around to get through a creek. They are always having to blaze a new path to get across the creek because every time it rains, the sides of the creek where they go through gets washed out. They get stuck so much that a couple guys fashioned a brace to hold their SxS in place when having to pull out those stuck guys. When they get stuck they really get stuck!