Cushman mini-Truck or jumbo-UTV?

[Bob_Skurka]

I'm on a business trip and stumbled across the grounds crew at the resort where my meetings are being held. They are using a lot of Cushman, EZ Go and Toro UTVs. The Toro units are awesome, I even got into one to play around with it (yes, I had permission!) they are the Heavy Duty 4200 and 4300 units.

And this morning I saw this one from Cushman. I WANT ONE OF THESE!

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a side view, this one has a couple hundred gallon spray rig in the bed.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is an interior view.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

These are NOT street legal. I suspect they are made by Mitsubishi, Diahatsu, King or one of the other Asian manufacturers. I've seen them before, they run on the roads in the Caribbean islands and will easily do 50 or 60 miles an hour. I was unaware that anyone was importing new units from Asia, but another TBN member (tractor ernie) has a used unit that is very similar and he turned me on to an importer who brings in used units. I'd prefer new . . . but I wonder what the prices would be.

By the way, these are 4 wheel drive, the rear cargo bed is about 6' long.

 

[RobS]

Those are pretty common on the roads in Japan too Bob. I like them as well. Seen them in crew cabs with all sorts of bed options. I'm sure they wouldn't meet our crash standards over here but why can't we have an entirely different class of vehicle for urban, non-highway (low speed) use only? Would save space and fuel in cities all over our country /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[rdln]

I can build my own dune buggy with headlights and flashers and get a plate for it, why not this? especially with it being used.

I have seen these on my two carribean cruises, in fact that was the only type of truck available until we landed at St. Thomas where we took a tour on a cutaway Ford Econoline bus which took up 1.5 lanes. I saw the first crew cab Chevy S trucks in Puerto Rico, before they were sold here.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is another picture, this is a front view. By the way, this particular unit was so new that the plastic was still covering the passenger seat, it only had a few miles on the odometer.

It is only marginally larger than a regular UTV, but looks to have a payload that would easily double the regular UTVs on the market. (the 200 gallon tank on the back weighs about 1600 pounds, plus all the equipment must EASILY take the payload over 2000 pounds total)

This Cushman is about the same size as a JD Pro-Gator or a Toro 4200 or 4300. By the way, I looked up the Cushman website and could not find this vehicle on their site. If anyone knows the price I'd be really curious. I've been looking at the Toro units, and with a cab they are running about $17,000 to over $20,000.

 

[buckle97]

There is a MS State Park near my house that has one of those for their maintenance department. It didn't have a brand name stamped big enough for me to notice it. I do remember that three sides of the bed folded down to make a large flat surface. I could tell just by looking at it that it was brand new. There must be someone bringing in new units, now it's just a matter of you finding them /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

Lawrence

 

[Dargo]

They use them on the resort where I stayed in St. Thomas a few months ago. When going to the other side of the island for shopping, we passed several dealerships who had some used ones on their lot. I had the guy I was riding with stop just for the heck of it. For a fairly nice used one on the lot, they were only asking $4500. I thought it was a real deal at that price. It was made my Dahatsu (sp?) and was a diesel. It didn't have a dump bed, but it did have A/C. I didn't think I could get it though Customs or on my flight though. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Yea, I've seen them on many of the islands . . . BUT I TOOK THOSE PHOTOS TODAY AND I AM HERE IN THE U.S.A. at a resort and so that means they are now being imported. Obviously Cushman is bringing them in because they have Cushman logos plastered on the sides. It apears to be the same units that are all over the islands, just labled as NOT street legal here. I'd use if for moving dirt, mulch, trees, etc on the property and maybe for the occasional run down the private roads in our neighborhood. I like the fact that I could drop 4 to 5 bucket fulls of dirt in the dump bed versus about 1.5 buckets in the back of an RTV or similar.