Great work machine for hauling or pulling. Navigates terrain well. Lacks some design features that most might find useful, such as horizontal rifle mount for rear of cab & a holding device for a 3 gallon hand sprayer. Added aftermarket horizontal grip mounts to the bars on the bed to hold long tools , such as shovels, rakes, and weedwackers.

Machina

SW PA

Hi, this is a brief review on the 6 wheel, 4wd diesel gator - the green one with the little tipper tray.  Please take into account I've only ever tried out a fairly old, poorly maintained and battered one - maybe they've improved these things.  Anyway...My father (bless his aging wisdom) thought that a gator would be the business for tackling our mountainous farm. A few days later after a high speed (25kmh or so) crash through a fence he decided it would be better utilized as a workbench.  So I popped by to take the new workbench for a spin. It quickly became apparent that the gator is fine pottering about on flat ground missions - albeit at a tediously geriactric pace (if you want to see cows laugh, try rounding them up in a gator).  The only issue on flat land (besides boredom) is if you hit a reasonable sized rock/stump/whatever with one front wheel - even at walking pace, the steering wheel will spin violently enough to break your wrists or anything else that gets in the way and fire your gater off in a different direction on full steering lock.Anyway - once you hit hills the gator rapidly becomes a lurching collection of serious design flaws, heres what I've have discovered so far: - only the back 4 wheels have drive, so the front wheels won't help you climb over the rough stuff or go through serious bogs (it ploughs through rather than climbing over) - only the back 4 wheels have brakes! A spectacular design flaw - when going downhill in a vehicle something like 70-80%+ of braking is in the front wheels. If you take a gater down a steep gravelly/muddy incline it **will **lose traction and it wont get it back until the terrain gets easier - Theres no engine braking! it has a belt drive that disengages going downhill - leaving you with only the sketchy feeling drum brakes.  Also, if you put the revs back on the belt will re-engage slam it in 'gear' and plant the steering wheel in your chest - if your tire pressure is low on one of the back 4 tires and you apply the brakes the geeker - sorry gator will immediately turn on a dime and send you into the closest bank In summary if you live on the flats and the thought of getting somewhere faster than you can ride on a push bike makes you break out in a cold sweat - the gater is the machine for you.  If you want something to get around in very steep rugged country and don't want to die a baffling and embarrassing low speed death, don't get a gator.

JustPassing

Minneapolis, MN

I really enjoy driving the Gator on our five acres and into the woods.  The dump truck feature makes it easy to dump stuff into the compost heap and to haul rocks.  This is a fun vehicle and easy to use.  Economical on gas.  You have to get used to starting it so it doesn't stall out.  Even the teenagers can drive this.  Very stable.  Much more stable than our ATV. 

gloria

BuffaloBuffalo, NY

We have been absolutely overjoyed with our Gator. We purchased it new in 2004, and we are still enjoying it as we go into 2010. Our Gator was purchased as a farm tool, as well as a baby pacifier. Our son was so hard to get to sleep until we got our Gator. All we had to do was get on the gator and take our baby for a ride, he would be asleep before we made it too far down the road, but you could bet he would wake up as soon as the Gator was turned off. This ATV has been a GODsend with our children, and on the farm. I couldn't tell you at the times that we have had to use it to look for runaway cows. We have even used ours to pull off a big dump truck. I couldn't believe at the versitility of this equipment. It never ceases to amaze me. Our son is now fixing to turn 6, and we still ride our Gator everyday. He and his Dad use it as a hunting vehicle, and Mom uses it to find rocks for her flower bed. It has also been used to haul feed to the cows. It has been well worth the amount we paid for it. Unlike the cons listed below, ours has never been wrecked or rolled over. We have had it stuck in the mud a few times, but it is so light weight that we were able to push it out by hand most of the time. In my opinion it isn't too expensive, it is well worth the price we paid for ours.

ChristyMAdams

Boaz, AL