I say get something the whole family can enjoy...
I like Honda products.
Probably not the answer you want to hear, but off-roading is a dangerous sport. Fun and rewarding, yes, but aside from proper training and safety gear (a must for Quads) crashes WILL happen.
They are simply part of the experience. Just don’t let Junior believe he’s Travis Pastrana and it’s a great sport.
Most all have a screw-in throttle regulator - use it!
Are you sure you want a 90? Maybe you should look into a small adult model. Consider his size and how he is going to grow. Are you willing to buy another in a year or two....
Stay away from the junk crap built in China.
Stay with the name brands Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha.
If you can, find a good used Suzuki LT80.
Just put a top end on one (bored cylinder, new piston, rings, gaskets)
cost $110.00
I’m not embedding a link, just throwing it out there.
The Argo (And others) 6x6 vehicles can be had super-cheap in the used market.
my boys thought I was the mother from hell, they were the only kids in the neighborhood that didn’t have one. Three of those neighborhood kids should have had mothers from hell. One was killed in an ATV/car accident, one is blind for live due to brain damage from a roll over, another is in a wheel chair, quadriplegic, from another roll over. Kids should not have those things before they get a drivers license.
My kids grew up on horses, which took very good care of them.
“Also, are there any modifications I can make to the quad to make it more safe?”
Yeah. Remove the engine.
My wife and I have Polaris 500s for our West Virginia hills. They’ve been very good for us. A friend of ours has a Yamaha Grizzly he keeps in our barn and it’s a good quality machine also. These aren’t really machines for kids though.
I have a friend whose son died in one. I’m not sure how you make them safe for boys.
Kids and horsepower all too often lead to bad things happening. To put it bluntly, when it comes to safety, no ATV is idiot proof.
When we lived in Alaska I had a hard and fixed rule, absolutely no unsupervised snowmachine riding by the kids.
A similar rule applied for horse horsepower, they could go riding unsupervised, but sans saddles and bareback only. They could perhaps get thrown, or fall off and hurt, but at least not dragged to death with a foot hung up in a stirrup.
Being elderly (AKA old) the Wife and I are now avid ATV riders, as it is now the only way we can get off-road and enjoy the back country with a certain amount of freedom. But knowing accidents are always in the offing, we temper it with caution, and more than a bit of trepidation.
I think four wheelers provide a false sense of safety. I put my kids on two wheels. I got my son a little Honda 50, followed by a Yamaha PW80 and he is now riding a Kawasaki KX65. After the 50 I had to get my own bike. Got tired of chasing after him and picking him up out of mud holes on trails etc. We have a blast trail riding and he understands limits of his abilities. A four wheeler on the other hand, we always see kids flying on them, way faster than they can really control, or stop in time should they need too. Thats my two cents worth.
Wait til he’s old enough to get a learner’s permit...
Don’t let folks discourage you. I personally think we’re way too overprotective of our kids now-a-days and have managed to turn them into a nation of wuss’s. Being a kid in America at one time getting a broken bone here and there. It builds character. Just teach responsibility and be responsible yourself. When my son was 8, we bought a Polaris 325 Trailboss. It was 2wd, but worked great for general utility use as well. No need to teach him to change gears and was easy to hop on and learn. He’ll be 20 in another couple of weeks and we still ride it.
Bought one of the Chi-com units and regretted it every day I owned it. It was just plain junk. Hard to start, fried batteries, bad starter, parts rattled off...
Then I bought a used 2000 Yamaha Breeze. It has reverse and a constant speed transmission. Just put it in forward or reverse and mash the throttle.
It starts easy and runs strong.
I liked it so much that I bought the other kid one (2002). Paid about $800 each. They drive them like they’re stolen!
Put a carb kit in one when we first got it.
I got both off of Craigslist.