Buying Advice Opinions on Gator model for 10 Acres

[yankeerider]

....My brother in law has a Gator (2WD) and the bed is useful just for hauling tools. Any material put into it has to be hand loaded and unloaded because it is a manual dump. Some of the Gators have electric motor driven hydraulic dump but there have been lots of negative reviews on them because of lack of power and dump system burn out.

I had not heard that about the power dump on the Gators. Ours has been power dump since new about 5 years ago, and has been dumped hundreds of times since the, including moving 16 yards of hardpack last summer. It will be doing that again in a few weeks. Not a single failure to dump, nor a single maintenance issue with it.

 

[miket0813]

What do you mean by "grooming some trails"?? Just mow?

Arly,, your neighbors to the north of MI,,, A

So I just mean that I will be grooming some trails on the property to ride on with the UTV...not to use the UTV for the actual grooming.

 

[miket0813]

That is an awesome trailer. I will definitely add it to the list.

 

[Xfaxman]

Here is another brand to check into: Side by Side Utility Vehicles - Intimidator 4x4 UTVs

This might be our next UTV, the Classic, with the 48 volt electric motor.

 

[coralhead]

I had not heard that about the power dump on the Gators. Ours has been power dump since new about 5 years ago, and has been dumped hundreds of times since the, including moving 16 yards of hardpack last summer. It will be doing that again in a few weeks. Not a single failure to dump, nor a single maintenance issue with it.

In regard to the dump actuator, I am in the process of repairing the third actuator on a gator. My dads was the first to separate at the gear box, last year it was my brothers I repaired, and now my brother-in-law contacted me last week about fixing his. The problem is that the screws that hold the aluminum gear housing together pull out of the aluminum gearbox housing thus dropping the internal parts on the ground. The fix is to get the gears that may have been lost and I tap out the housing to 1/4-20unc and use longer bolts. John Deere sells a repair kit that has the internals of the gearbox. Must be a high failure lift.

 

[ultrarunner]

Wonder what king of range is reasonable to expect with an electric?

Much of the tree farm is level... some is quite steep.

 

[Xfaxman]

Wonder what king of range is reasonable to expect with an electric?

Much of the tree farm is level... some is quite steep.

I think Polaris claims 50 miles in the Max range, but from reading the Ranger Forums nobody gets that.

In High range, speed is 25mph. In Low range it will climb a tree.

Ours has always had plenty of range for use on our 80 acres. :thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

Thanks for the in the field report...

I do think electric could be just the ticket for farm, nursery setup...

Sometime their are elderly visitors and the paths are too narrow for a full size 4wd... it would be nice to be able to show them around and take them to the vista point...

Another benefit is the rest of get are walking exercise with no RTV

 

[yankeerider]

Coralhead:
I think we are discussing apples and oranges here. What model Gators are you talking about? Our HPX has two double-acting hydraulic cylinders for the dump-there's no aluminum housing or gears that I can see associated with the lift.

 

[Xfaxman]

The Ranger EV showed 125 hours in the picture above that was taken 6-8-2015. Took some pictures today showing 160 hours. We bought it 8-5-2013

Thought that I would prove my claim that it would climb a tree.