I have a 06 Kawasaki Prarie 360, 05 Polaris Sportsman 700, 2018 Polaris Ranger 900xp and all 3 are Belt Driven, (And purchased new) and I've never experienced belt slippage because of water. Guess it's because i try and avoid crossing Rivers & Lakes with 'em 🤣

The new gator with the full cab is damn fine.

Back in my younger days I would. Not so much now but it turned me off of belt driven vehicles since.

It's real nice, but you can buy a good truck or a midsized tractor for the same price.

Yep my grandad had it narrowed to gator n kubota cab and chose kubota...i wish he woulda got the gator tho... the kubota fits him cuz it's slow and loud and he's old and bout deaf anyway but a 25mph is bout all it gonna do

Stuff will get down in there for sure. But, it doesn’t hurt anything.

I have hunted in one of those on a ranch in Texas. The back seats are difficult to get into, as you have to climb over the side. In addition, whatever gets in the bed, gets on the seats. Mud, blood, crap, corn, fertilizer, doesn't matter. The fold down back seats are always filthy, and you lose bed space when one or both of them is open.

You’re dang right about that.

I was at a camp last week and there was a new Mule a new Can Am and a new Ranger. The Can Am was significantly quieter than the other two. I did notice this particular model had lower ground clearance but I know Can Am has a couple models with different ground clearance measurements.

This is why I've turned to "knowledgable people" of good repute. Someone needs to take the best of all of them and build a quality machine for work/hunting/fishing/and some fun. I'm sure some would take it and try to float it across an area beavers have damed up, then complain the company didn't honor the extended warranty. Some may build a ramp and try to be the "Duke Boys" over the dam. Some would jack it up on a 5" lift and complain it sways when running 70 down a dirt road with pot holes while swerving around the gullies. Some wouldn't do the necessary oil changes and what-not resulting in black dirt oil that has lost almost all it's viscosity, then complain their pistons burned up, and the manufacturer is poor and won't honor a warranty.

Honda or a kawasaki mule.

I don't have any experience with the newer Deere Gators. I hear they are nice. I would hate to have to deal with Sunsouth if anything ever went wrong. Even to the point if I needed to order a piece of broken plastic. They would act like I was trying to order a flux capacitor. The machine is probably great.

Of all the others mentioned I would say the Can AM and the Honda 1000 are at a higher level of engineering. They run smooth and everything is super tight and I feel like I'm driving a car as compared to some of the others mentioned. I have a Honda and Polaris Crew, Kubotas and Mules at work. I would say the Kawasaki is about like the Pioneer 700. Still a great machine but not quite the achievement they made with the 1000.


To keep trash from falling down between the seats on the Honda machines you can get a hard plastic bed liner (molded like you see in a pickup truck) for about $300 from Honda. It is an accessory. They also make a rubber bed mat.

I had and sold a kubota RTV900 because my buddy bought the honda and keeps it at my place (can't beat that deal). Really miss it for doing real work, but the smaller Honda is affordable and has not had any performance issues, but it is a pain in the rear to keep clean. It flings mud everywhere and on the passengers and under the jump seats. The rubber mat helps keep non-liquids from coming through the bed, but it still sucks. He plans to sell it and get something else cause it is a pain. But mechanically it is pretty awesome and great to drive.

My experience with the new gators is that 2 guys that I know well that have had them sold them and bought Rangers. The way the floorboards are in the gators causes dust to rise up in the cab and cover everything. I had to totally take down my turkey gun to clean it after a day in it. They are also loud going downhill (kind of a hiss).

My uncle has had 2 mules and likes them. They are good on the farm, but I think that they handle about like a kubota and don't have all the benefits.

I have never seen a CanAM. Only city folk buy those in my part of the country. But I don't know anybody with a Toyota truck either, so take that for what its worth.

Everybody and their brother has a Ranger, so that info is out there. and as far as water goes that is what my waterfowl buddies all have and you just ride out to the pits in waders cause the water is up to the seat. Some have snorkels. It is amazing what those machines can do if you use low range when you are supposed to.

If I had the $$ I would go with the Viking. It rides great, takes serious abuse, and is a yamaha. My 95 kodiak still runs about the same as 25 years ago with only a couple carb jobs.

Though my old kubota could gravel roads, dump logs, and once had 4 bucks and a doe with three guys all over 220# and was still crawling up some steep hills for our 9 mile drive to the cabin. which surprisingly didn't take much longer than if it would have been empty. Those old ones were slow, slow, slow.

It isn't the floorboard in the Gator, it's whether or not it has a back window. Rangers without back windows are the same way in dusty conditions. After this trip, I will be adding one. There was also a Polaris Ranger at camp last week, and I have spent significant time driving multiple Rangers. I would rather have the Gator. I got over 13 MPG on this last trip.

On top of everything else, the Gator comes standard with 14" wheels and 27" tires, which are a pricey option on the Ranger.

These both had back windows that were glass and roofs. So, whatever it was it filled the cab full of dust. Friend made a box for the back to keep stuff in when riding around while he had it but eventually sold it.

Like I said, I would buy the viking. But the John Deere guys switched to Rangers.

That new cab on the gator isn’t letting any dust in. We put 30 miles on one Friday evening

That may have been the issue. I know one of them fabricated the cab himself. It looked great, but maybe it wasn't sealed the same. I just remember the outer floorboard was not straight.

Second thing is our topsoil is loess. These fine silty soils can really sneak in to about anything. You would be surprised how it gets in trucks when you think the windows up. In Alabama you won't have as big of an issue with that.

Lastly, hasn't it rained like every day? Where would you have found dust?

Cuz this is a sealed cab like on a deere tractor. It’s not home made. Our dirt roads dry fast and you will kick up dust with only a day of wind or sun.

My dad always said tractors were made to be red, so...... I'm just messing with you. Though, the only non-red tractors in our family were an olive colored Oliver crawler and an old grey ferguson-20.

Glad you like your gator.

We really like our Yamaha viking
When was looking we looked at about all of them but the can am and the Yamaha won our vote