We're looking to buy a utility vehicle to use daily in our work, some call them side by sides, some utv, not sure exactly what everyone refers to them but we are wanting one with a full cab with a excellent heater, no ac required, 4x4 that handles nicely and isn't going to shake us to death bouncing across chiseled corn fields while doing ag tiling. I'm leaning more to a diesel model than gas and am wanting one with auxiliary hydraulics to run a cylinder on a pulled implement behind. We'll outfit it how we need it to carry things after we get one, does anyone have any experience with the different models and makes out there. I've done some reading on comparisons but they never tell anything more than just the operational things, like durability, long term use and what breaks down, weak areas of the design, problems starting in cold weather, slow to warm up heaters that people are cold in and it takes an hour to warm up and throw some heat in the cab, a 500 dollar part thats always breaking, life expectancy of the engines, constant transmission belts repair, things like that.
We've ruled out the deere gator for now, we tried one that a customer let us use and we didn't like it at all, too cramped and for some reason it didn't fit us right, haven't tried any others yet, but were looking hard at a kubota 900, my dealer near me will let us try out a used one when he gets one in, but as of yet he hasn't had any trades, everyone around me runs polaris rangers, I've run several over the years, can't really say one way or the other, never ran one with a full cab though, people I know complain a lot about the belt drive transmission always needing fixed on those, about 500 bucks a shot I'm told and several have told me its a yearly event, others more often, some less, depends on how its used. The kawasaki mule is another option, I've had several kawasaki engines over the years and swore I'd never own another one ever again, both never ran or started from the day they were new and always had constant carburetor trouble, but maybe the newer one's are better.
Speed doesn't interest me much, more of a chase here and there, pack mule, carry all, tote people around to save walking, chase fittings from my fitting trailer, do job site inspections and initial scouting type work and no a 4x4 pickup isn't going to work, been there done that and am always stuck or out of gas. Right now we use a 4x4 atv and love it, we take it everywhere, but am wanting a cab with heater and a box to haul things in to take its place.
Anyone with any experience please give some advice, I thought maybe the construction people would give me some better answers than the consumer or weekend users would, I'm not planning on waxing and washing it every weekend, I plan to buy it and wear it out not trade it off every year for another new one, its going to be a long term investment, I'm thinking maybe that 5000 hour mark before trading it off kind of thing, I'm thinking the diesels would last that long, gas probably never would but does anyone know the life expectancy of any of them?
We've ruled out the deere gator for now, we tried one that a customer let us use and we didn't like it at all, too cramped and for some reason it didn't fit us right, haven't tried any others yet, but were looking hard at a kubota 900, my dealer near me will let us try out a used one when he gets one in, but as of yet he hasn't had any trades, everyone around me runs polaris rangers, I've run several over the years, can't really say one way or the other, never ran one with a full cab though, people I know complain a lot about the belt drive transmission always needing fixed on those, about 500 bucks a shot I'm told and several have told me its a yearly event, others more often, some less, depends on how its used. The kawasaki mule is another option, I've had several kawasaki engines over the years and swore I'd never own another one ever again, both never ran or started from the day they were new and always had constant carburetor trouble, but maybe the newer one's are better.
Speed doesn't interest me much, more of a chase here and there, pack mule, carry all, tote people around to save walking, chase fittings from my fitting trailer, do job site inspections and initial scouting type work and no a 4x4 pickup isn't going to work, been there done that and am always stuck or out of gas. Right now we use a 4x4 atv and love it, we take it everywhere, but am wanting a cab with heater and a box to haul things in to take its place.
Anyone with any experience please give some advice, I thought maybe the construction people would give me some better answers than the consumer or weekend users would, I'm not planning on waxing and washing it every weekend, I plan to buy it and wear it out not trade it off every year for another new one, its going to be a long term investment, I'm thinking maybe that 5000 hour mark before trading it off kind of thing, I'm thinking the diesels would last that long, gas probably never would but does anyone know the life expectancy of any of them?