UTV's

What brand of UTV should I get? Got 2 Kawasaki ATV's,but dealer is a long ways away. Polaris is close but some think they fall apart under heavy use. HELP !!!!!! Wisdom needed!

WHAT is a "UTV" vs. an ATV?

I"ve been away from this stuff so long, the only thing I know is "3-wheeler", vs. "4-wheeler"!

"Course that sort of stuff you folks drive costs a LOT more than may best "pickup"!

Utility , like a john deere gator, polaris ranger, kawasaki mule ect,

Had a new 98 Polaris Big Boss and it was still running without any problems when I sold it to buy a new one. Current Polaris Big Boss 6x6 is five years old and have never had a problem. The new one has an 800 fuel injected twin engine.

Both units were used to haul fire wood and to plow snow.

Neighbor used to have a Kawasuckie and now has a small Polaris Ranger and is very happy with it.

Units are great for hauling the govt beef (deer)out of the woods.

I have a Kawasaki Mule -- 2 cyl. liquid cooled -- 4 wheel drive with a high and low and a diff. lock -- six bales fit real nice -- a weeks worth of fire wood -- 8 pales of feed -- and it sips gas --dont get any better than that --love it -- good luck on your shopping --

A good friend had a Kubota (diesel).At 9000 ft altitude,they got good service.A couple close neighbors each have Kawasaki 'Mules'. Run the crap out of them.They seem to be bulletproof.Another neighbor has a Cub Cadet that gives good service.Around here,they get used pretty hard as they're used for daily irrigateing chores/duties

Have three KUBOTA rtvs one with over 2,000 hrs no problems.. Hydrostatic transmission INSTEAD of variable belt drive found on most others. Also diesel , power steering but on the upper end of the price range. Still worth ever penny , get run the heck out of them .

I have a 2012 kaw 4010. Sounds like we have similiar mules. I like mine a lot.

Kabota 900!!!

I won't ever buy another Polaris. Good dealer service but I hate everything about that sucker.

I picked up a Bobcat 2200 on an ironplanet.com auction. It was a used sunbelt rental unit. New is $18k, got this one for $3k. absolutely love it. Even though it has a Bobcat badge on it, there is a Kubato 3cyl diesel under the hood. also has a hydraulic dump bed. Use it for everything around the farm.

forgot to post a pic of the bobcat.

I worked on a construction site in South Alabama that was about 300 acres. It was nasty, sandy, muddy, among other things. Just about all of the units on site were rentals. All of the contractors on site had some sort of a UTV and a lot of them had more than one. The Kubota"s on site held up better than any other UTV. I would say that the Gator and the Bobcat were next as far as holding up. The gas mules were junk but the diesel ones held up a little better. One of the other contractors that I worked with had a Gator and it had a bad rattle around the exhaust pipe. After what I saw working down there, I would buy a diesel Kubota.

We have had about every brand there is. For Farm use and lower speed Kubota 900 with cab. For Light farm work and faster ground speed for 4 wheeling. Rhino. Did not like the JD, and the Polaris was OK, but. Will be looking for a Polaris again in a month.

i have a 1996 club car 272
its only 2 wheel dr but its got over 13000 hrs on it now
has a 4x4x1' dump that i over load with gravel
springs are right on the stops
load a stove cord of wood at a time
basicly abuse it daily here 7 days a week 365 days a yr
has a kawaski single cyl engine in it
other than i set of brake pads two sets of tires and a new drive belt about every 4 yrs
just regular oil changes done in the last 18 yrs now
wouldn't trade it for anything else i've seen out there

i looked at them all,end up getting a honda big red, no belts, no chains. 700CC,with 3 speed auto trany and full time 4x4 if you want it. so far no problems and have 175 hours on it.

The other farm forum everyone likes Polaris Ranger. A good utv. No one likes their ATV, totally different animals.....

I have a Ranger, but only thing I've had so probably can't offer much of a review - I like it, has worked well, love the 3 wide seating and foot room, but nothing to compare it to I guess.

Paul

Love, love, LOVE MY diesel mule. 1200 pound box capacity.1 to 1 and a half quarts of fuel per hour.use it hard. No problems after 10 years and 3000 hrs.

A friend who works for the Polaris dealer says he's had Rangers come in that the work order said "new motor". Drove into the shop running on 1 cylinder. The other piston hanging out the side of the block. They're the best selling unit for a reason, and come in 2 sizes with 2 available engines. Smaller 570 and 800, will fit in a truck bed, and a larger 800 that will, if you hop the wheelwells with it. Then there's a diesel model with hydraulics and power steering.

They've got the Ace new this year. It's built on the Sportsman chassis, single-seat, roll cage, no stepping over the seat to get into it, something like the old Honda Oddessy and Pilot. Sitting on a concrete floor, you can reach in and turn the wheel with a finger. But it's only 325CC, and pretty loud, too. It's about just what the boss' dad is looking for otherwise.

Stay away from the rhino. The boss' kid at 15 told me not to compare anything to that POS. What a joke it is.

Honda supposedly had some issues with the big red, sucking up too much dust from underneath, and ruining the engine. It was replaced with the Pioneer. Now they've got the Pioneer 700, which can be had as a 2- or 4-seater, and uses the engine and transmission out of the Rincon, with slower axle gears. And a 2-seater 500, with a rear rack instead of rear box, using the 500 out of the Foreman. It also fits between your wheelwells.

My fat backside can fit comfortably in the 500, but they've only got a manual mode on the DSG transmission (same as in the top-end Rancher), with paddle shifters. I know someone who would have one on order if they had an automatic mode in it.

You'd think that with shows like Husker Harvest Days and Ag Progress, etc, Honda would make an effort to get a few of their redesigned units out to those shows.

If you have a Kioti dealer in your area you might take a look at the Mechron. They only come in diesel. I"ve had one for a couple of years and have been very pleased with it. They are a bit noisy and don"t have the speed of Polaris Ranger and others but that wasn"t an issue for me.

I have a John Deere Gator. 850 diesel. I love it, but it won't hold up the way I use it. I don't know what the pay load is supposed to be, but if you put 600 pounds of salt and mineral in it, it squats like crazy. The front end has been rebuilt once and needs it again, and it WILL not start if you park it so that the right side is higher then the left. Somehow get air in the fuel system.
I will stay with a diesel, but probably not a Gator. I am in tall grass all summer, and like the idea of the diesel.

Have an Arctic Cat dealer near you? We are lucky and have one 3 miles from my house. Often have people drive a couple hours to get there machines from them. They have a great service record and our atv has probably 4000 hours on it of hard use and has had one major problem that I cause by pulling a ford 9N with it. Which It did pull but had a C clip go out in the tranny. I would def buy something from them. Also Kimco has an alright UTV. My cousin just bought one. Smaller name but seems like a good machine. To early to tell what it will be like in the long run.