ATV advice

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buckaroo

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Dear All,

Looking for some advice on what is the best ATV to get?
I am thinking about a Kubota, Gator or Polaris.
To be used for feeding partridges and pheasants on heather hills and at lower levels on wet bogland/bracken.
I have been advised that a quad would be better but I need to shift a good load of feeding across the terrain and don't really want to be running back and forward if I can move it in one go-all the better.
 
Gator. Kubota wasn't in the same league, Polaris can be a bit fragile. Quite surprising where a gator will go, if you take your time. Except very soft, boggy ground. In which case, you need a winch......
 
I'd look at the ranger 6x6 if your carrying a good load, they are awesome bits of kit and are far from fragile. The kubota is reliable but they are ***** in the mud, I'm not sure on there actual weight, but feel heavy and less agile than the polaris/gators and mules.
We had 2 brand-new gaiters last week for a job, and they drive great but by the end of the week, the gear selection was having issues.
The mules are very good off road when loaded up and seem pretty reliable as long as they are maintained.
Honda now do a side by side(not sure on model name?) but we hired one out in salt Lake city last year along with 6 polaris(polaris and can am are most popular stateside) and it performed very well, only prob was we managed to roll it on a side slope which the polaris all managed no problem?! But it sat higher than the polaris, so understandable.
I personally favour the quad and trailer over a utv, but if it was for my full time job, then I'd prob go with a utv as a cab would protect you from the elements!
 
It 1 of them everyone has there favourite brand/colour and swear by them while the next man slates them.
1 farmer was just speaking to has changed from gators to a kubeto and was giving the gsators a real slagging despite him having 4, think it was the price of spare parts was a major gripe

Most of the utv's have different mechanical quirks/problems but there big downfall is the wieght of them and how easy they are to load, tyres are not really much bigger than a quad yet wiegh 2 or 3 times as much unloaded (critically also too heavy to push/pull/dig out on ur own) and very easy to put a decent load on the back.
On dry gound not a problem but on wet ground they mark the ground very quickly if running to same wood/feed ride regularly.

Seen the 6x6 polaris's on grouse moors and there 1 serious piece of kit, travel very well off road over some pretty wet ground.

I'd possibly say a quad would be more adaptable and with a trailer not hard to get 10 odd bags+ out at a time and thats over wet ground. Not sure wot a full utv load is? but a quad trailer load is split over 6 wheels althou quads don't like pulling heavy trailers uphill in wet greasy conditions.

Really depend on how much stuff u need to shift and how quick and how wet steep the ground is.
Dunno if u an get 1 out on demo, even a few different brands, but not cheap almost the price of a pick up now
 
Would a Jimny be too heavy? Amazing heater, weatherproof etc. You can get pickup conversions. A more comfortable place to be stuck in, I'd warrant. Mine has a big winch on the front and with a decent ground anchor it should be fairly easy to get unstuck
 
Hi All,

Many thanks for the advice so far, every comment and piece of information is useful.
The Polaris 6x6 certainly looks very capable
I think in the ideal world a 6x6 and a quad bike would be the best option to cover all eventualities, but that would probably cost £20,000 for the two.
Please keep the advice and personal experiences coming, I am interested to hear more from the people who actually operate these machines.
ATB
 
We have 2 kawasaki mules on the estate I work on.... previously we had polaris rangers.
The genergy concensus is that for the terrain which is a mixture of fields..rough hill tracks. .... moorland.... and roads.... the mule is the better machine. One of the mules is used quite hard daily on all the above terrain by the head keeper with a spinner bolted on the back and a back full of wheat...
He prefers it to the polaris and the kubota that he's used in the past as he reckons it carries the weight better over the rough. The downside so far is that both are in their first season.... just over 6 months old and his has issues with handbrake.. engine mountings and fuel gauge. still under warranty. ... but doesn't bide well for the future perhaps. Our other mule gets a lot less use so is still in good order.... it goes o the hill mainly but also sometime used by me on the farm to move cattle. My thoughts on the mule are that it's extremely noisy in the cab to the point the where I'd wear earplugs if I used it more and there is too much bodywork on the newer ones which makes power washing them harder.
I've used a polaris in past when I worked on a game farm. And I thought it was ok..... but it didn't get any rough work like our mules.

Can't comment on other utvs as I have no experience of them. I've been out as a passenger a couple of times in a jcb work max. ... and that was over some rough stuff And it seemed quite capable.
 
no ones has mentioned suzuki quads
we have used quads for a number of years and we always had honda's.
Now we have run suzuki's for the last 6 years and wouldn't look back.
They have a 500cc which is a beast compared to the 400cc and much better for towing than the hondas. trust me coz we lamb 600 sheep outside and need a quad for towing that runs for a month flat out!
the suzuki are fully automatic which is better for lamping when you have to drive with one hand.
 
Can u not get some out on demo from agents?

Keepers are generally murder on machines as get quite a hard life over rough ground and very few will take a few feed bags off to make it lighter if it means doing more runs.
Really horses for courses, in my opinion the Utv's really replace a pick up rather than a bike.
So if u had 2 keepers/farmworkrs, 2 quads 1 pick up and a utv wouldn't be a bad combo
 
Quads generally get more places. But the drawback being a load of 5 bags of feed/wheat is the maximum on the racks. I use mine for feeding game birds on hilly ground. So my answer is, when I need it, plonk a trailer on the back. So you get the versatility of the two vehicles. I've got a Yamaha Grizzly which is good, but physically a bit small. Farmers round about have Suzukis or Can Ams, both because dealers are close by, but both are good. Don't get anything with a smaller motor than 400cc.
 
We run a Polaris ranger, Argocat and quad bike on similar ground which you describe. We chose the ranger over other Atvs after test driving them all on our ground and the ranger came out on top. They are however very fragile and can't hold a candle to the argocat on the wet moorland. Although very expensive I would say an argocat would be the best vehicle for you, failing that a quad bike and make more journeys. I think if you go down the side by side atv route then you will be constantly getting stuck in the boggy ground.
 
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