has anyone got a Gator or similar?

[kerilli]

i'm trying to decide which to get, whether a CX and buy a small trailer to go behind it, or TX, or EZGO, or Yamaha, or something else. any advice gratefully received.
it's to take bales of hay and feeds down the field, and muck from stabled horses to the far muckheap (1/2 mile away...!) all on totally flat land, so no probs with hills etc.

 

[gerrygiraffe]

Not sure if it is the same as what you are looking for but we have a gator with a pick up back that tips!

It is great - OH has made sides for the pick up and a plastic bottom and I use it for mucking out and generally moving things around (like hay/straw).

It is great- also have a Quad and that is as good but a pain to have to hitch trailer when we need it for mucking out etc.

 

[cefyl]

We have Gators and a small John Deere tractor in the UK. The latest Gator is 1 month old and replaced an older one that lasted without one day of trouble for 7 years of VERY hard use. My husband will only buy John Deere machinery as the quality and aftercare is so good. We also have John Deere machinery at our US place - mainly groundcare stuff but again super quality stuff that gets hard work.

Look at You Tube - type in John Deere Gator or just Gator and there are loads of videos with people bashing them about and generally having a blast on them. We even use it to launch a large RIB off the beach.

Have tried the Kawasaki Mule - tinny and could not cope with heavy loads. I love the Kubota RTV900 to drive though the semi-automatic drive gets some getting used to , it is quiter that the John Deere and you sit higher up. BUT the transmission is complicated if anything goes wrong and horrendously expensive to repair.

The John Deere Gator mechanics are really quite simple and easy to service - we have never needed a repair (apart from basic wear and tear) doing on any of ours and they get worked very very hard.

There is also the Yamaha Grizzly but that is really the Bear Tracker Quad with a roof and side by side seats, fun but superficial.

 

[kerilli]

that's fantastic, just what i needed to know, thank you so much to both of you.
my back is feeling the strain of dragging huge wheelbarrows full of muck, feeds, hay bales around, and i reckon a gator will be cheaper than a new back...!

 

[cefyl]

If you can stretch the budget get one with a canopy AND hydraulic tipping on the flat bed. It does make life easier and the only criticism I have about the Gator design is that the manual release latch for the tipping bed is located in an odd place and I had visions of trapping an arm if it dropped suddenly for some reason while releasing it.

And for towing power - we have moved a 510 Ifor Wiliams trailer with it (not on the road), an 18ft tipping Ifor Williams with nearly a ton of stone on, and last night it pulled out my husbands Range Rover that was stuck up to it's axle in mud in a field. Probably pushing the Gator way beyond the limit it was designed for but why not!

 

[kerilli]

was this the 4-wheel or the 6-wheel? that's what i'm trying to decide between, really. thanks so much for the info, hugely appreciated.

 

[cefyl]

HPX 4X4 is the newest one we bought last month. The 4x4 drive is an automatic sensor so each wheel adjusts individaully to the terrain and conditions. Brilliant, you can feel the wheels working. This was the one that had the work yesterday. It has disc brakes and they are super efficient.

We have the 6x4 too but it does not seem to have quite the pulling power and in very wet soggy ground (marshy) it does leave more tracks.

And no I do not work or have any connection with the company John Deere! Most dealerships will let you have one on trial for a few days. I trialled a Gator, a Kubota RTV, and a Kawasaki Mule 2 months ago because though we have always used John Deere stuff I thought I wanted a change. My husband is a confirmed John Deere fan and told me I would go back to the Gator which I did after looking into and using the others.

 

[kerilli]

brilliant, thank you so much.