Badass looking little thing. Spicy price for us who don't actually need one, but judging by your comments on rought road comfort, and how smoth it seemed in the field, it seems like a really good tool. This was fun.
The people at the stables, where my daughter has her horseback riding lessons, are using a Gator to go around the stables and fields where the horses are kept. It's a very useful all terrain vehicle and very easy to drive.
Yes, noting Unimogs come in various strengths, with many having benefited from an Atkinson Vos intercooler retrofit, very few being racing machines and all easily stopping oncoming white vans on narrow roads. Nothing quite like one for plunging confidently into Icelandic river crossings.
Ian's farm. Now that's a channel I would watch. The Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Army both use 6x6 versions of the Gator. Edit: I feel like you should have given Ms. HubNut a turn at the wheel.
I used to have an electric one when I was a park ranger about 10 years ago. Top speed was 20mph, plastic zip doors, rear wheel drive and lots of heavy lead acid batteries. It got stuck in the most situations as there was no way to lock the diff. Really interesting to see how much they have progressed with functions and capabilities.
In Finland mostly i see those things are 15-17 year old young people drive to school with them, bought by rich farmer parents 😄 But i think it's much more sensible vehicle for young people than normal atv or scooter or those other car-like light fourwheelers like Aixams, Ligier, JDM, Microcar, etc which are much common among teenagers.
I just found out that this vehicle in the US costs over $41,000+ US, which costs more than a good auto! I checked out the Cub Cadet XUV, which is similar but petrol, costs less than this, but similarly equipped, is over $20,000+ US. Top speed for the petrol is 45mph. Businesses use these to do gardening, etc. Very nice, I do like!
Now I didn't expect that, cool little truck that would be very useful around a farm. This channel is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
They use these to collect fallen mountain bikers at Bike Park Wales just outside Merthyr Tydfil, the staff absolutely love them! Literally go anywhere in any weather! Sadly they're also popular with thieves.
I've got the older one of these, beats the hell out of a quadbike. The CVT is very similar to a snow mobile, somebody on youtube put a turbo on one many moons ago.
We have a Kubota RTV similar to this at work i think its some kind of hydraulic gearbox as it also brakes when you let off the throttle a great little vehicle for getting around the country park where I work.
I have a 2020 model. Very powerful, haven't gotten stuck yet, decent mud or a foot of icey snow. That suprised me, pulled a 2 door pickup off the wet grassy hill about 30 feet with absolutely no problem. Didn't even use the rear lock " possi".. mines seems a lot noiser in the cab than this one. But absolutely love this mchine!!
This is a great Ian, a real life Kermit that can go almost anywhere. It would be the perfect town car this week with all the snow in the UK, with the exception of blocked roads there would be no excuse for not getting to work. Probably not much good if you had to use the motorway but if it was possible to drive 'as the crow flies' it would be brilliant. Many thanks for sharing.
It’s a nice unit, but for as little as I have in it, I will stick with my 2013 Polaris ranger XP 900. I chose no options except the half windscreen and a hard top, and only cost $12 thousand.
I have driven many versions of the JD Gator as my dad used to have a John Deere groundscare dealership that sold these, which merged with the company this JD Gator came from. There have been many versions of the John Deere Gators the earliest being the John Deere ATM which was a bike come pickup truck with 4 driven rear axles this then evolved duty to safety reasons into the original Gator utility vehicles with 4x2 (4 wheels 2wd)powered by a Kawasaki Vtwin engine , 4x2 electric EGator and 6x4 (6 wheels with 4 driven rear wheels) powered by a Yanmar diesel engine. If you see a dark green with black wheels 6x4 Gator this is what was known as the M Gator (military Gator) these were brought out for the US army, some were dropped into the deserts during the Gulf war as troop vehicles and a small amount were sold through dealers to the general public and are pretty rare in the UK. There was a mini Gator called the CX Gator designed for those with a large garden who needed an alternative to a wheelbarrow. It had a little kawasaki single cylinder petrol engine fitted to it. The model that started this particular Gators life was the HPX Gator with fixed beam suspension, which then evolved into the 850 XUV series with independent suspension. Many of the UK ones were powered by Yanmar diesels and America and Canada had the option of diesel or EFI petrol engines. We did get a XUV model in the UK with a twin cylinder petrol engine called the XUV 550 which was more of a fun Gator, there was a twin seat version or a 4 seater version. The diesel XUV 850-855 series also spawned a 4 seater variation around 2013-2014.
Interesting vehicle. There's a couple round here; always caked in mud. I think they'll wind up to a bit more than 50 km/h. It would be interesting to compare one with a Haflinger. Poor Miss Hubnut looked frozen. Thanks to her for filming in the sleet.
HubNut Farm coming soon? Lol.what a great vehicle👍 I had a 500cc Honda quad bike when we ran a holiday park and loved zooming around on that, especially over to the local river for a bit of fishing.
I definitely didn't expect you to review this! I was the writer of one of the comments about the Gator being a comparable vehicle. My in-laws own a Kubota utility here in the USA that they use on their farm (it's a remarkably similar vehicle!). One big difference is that in the USA, it's not as road legal as it is in the UK. In a lot of states, a farmer could probably legally drive it down the road with an orange "hazard triangle" affixed (this is how a slow moving piece of equipment like a farm tractor is identified here). If you're not a farmer, you're definitely not allowed to operate it on public roads 🙂 I have seen them being driven (by groudskeepers) on the narrow streets of universities...
@Retired Bore places like retirement communities have special local laws that allow golf carts on the streets. Federal law in the USA precludes driving other vehicles on the street (emissions and collision/ safety requirements). A license from one state in the US is honored in any of the other states, however some states have differing requirements (for example, a three wheeled vehicle requires a motorcycle license in many states, but not all states). Commercial vehicle licensing is fairly standard across the states-federal law has seen to that. Almost all states have laws on the books that make exceptions for safety and emissions requirements for "agricultural implements" that have to be moved down public roads.
You see them being used by the hotels on holiday for all kinds of jobs taking food and drinks to bars around the Complex and the gardens to transport tools around I have never noticed which side the string wheel is but I have noticed in Jamaica the truck's are left hand drive American even doe they drive on the same side has the UK
We've got the older XUV850D without the cab from 2008, brilliant little things. there's also a posher version the 865R (in JD speak R is the premium line, M the intermediate line, E economy and D poverty pack) with AC and bit better interior trim and a few other options. Heaps of options can be put on them as well.
Don't tend to see the Dear Johns hereabouts in my bit of Scotland, Kubotas much more popular but that could be down to local dealers. I do know a neighbour who switched years ago from a John Deere to a Kubota after too many expensive transmission repairs on the former, apparently from towing too much. I have to say the drone of those little diesel CVTs gets wearing after a while, both from the inside and outside the machine.
ATVs are popular where I live here in western Finland. They start at about €10k for what is a quad bike with AWD and are cheap enough for households to buy them with a snow plough attachment for clearing their driveways and 'access roads'. Kids also ride them to school.
It's a totally different beast to the Aixan. Looks like great fun to drive too. We've seen a few of those in use already; there's one on a farm which we've stayed at, and the farmer loves it. The farmer's one dislike is the high noise level in the cab, but it's great for moving a few sheep around from field to field, and for general utility work. If John Deere could make an electric version, he would probably swap his Diesel version for it. The quiet running would be less stressful for the flock.
We have these at the country park where I work we have 4 of them as we have 1 for back up as they aren't actually that tough especially on suspension parts and driveshafts.
The lads on the farm next to where I work love the Gator they have, I think it almost comes to fisticuffs over who gets to drive it. My John Deere at work also has a CVT drive (called IVT), but it's a wee bit bigger than the gator...and a lot more expensive.
That's bloody Deere Ian. My uncle Keith has a 20 year old Honda version that's 4wd and can tow half a ton with a 2 cylinder petrol engine. It's great fun on the farm and doesn't scare the cattle but I'm sure it was around $9000 AUD new and I'm sure there's some cheaper Chinese knock offs these days. 32000 quid is too Deere for many farmers.
That three-pot diesel reminds me of Robot Cantina's project of sitting a similar capacity engine in a Saturn over in the US, coupled to the Satrun's original transmission though, so it can (eventually) get to 60-ish mph... :P
This class of vehicles are awesome on farm and ranchland. It was kind of surreal seeing you pull out into Welsh traffic in one, as I've only driven them in rural Texas
I use the Petrol version with camo paint and air conditioning at work, we use predator tires which are like pickup mud tires. Our Gator will top out at 50mph. But is extremely useful at the Cultural Center where I work.
Don't let the Chelsea Tractor types see this drop dead gorgeous run a round or good old London town will be fall of them (if it can have a electric drive chain that is, ULEZ and all that)
Although I don’t really get the idea of them with having such a huge price tag. I did enjoy the video so thank you - be nice to compare it to a Kei truck.
Comparing this to the Aixam Mega reminds me of something Henry Ford said about the Model T, but in a kind of reversed situation; the point isn't that the John Deere costs more than the Aixam, it's that it's worth more although I get that they aren't really comparable with such a price difference.
Well that a little different, but also very interesting. I was half expecting Lord Muck to turn up in some sort of youtube channel cross over! Do well...
Are Kubota was actually stolen last week it's sitting in a police compound but around 20k a little cheaper than the Jon but didn't have heating or doors but did have a hydraulic tail lift
There great but to buy one brand new you'd need to be nuts although second hand they are tempting. Although my head is saying buy a quad and a second hand defender for the same price . Its a great piece of kit and a great boys toy so i can see why people pay the premium
Like this review a lot.....if lottery numbers come up, Ill not be heading to the LandRover, Bentley or Lambo dealers ...Ill be strait off to JD for a 4 and 6 wheeler Gator on the way to the Town and Country estate agents to buy a nice country estate....The stuff dreams are made of.....love it!
I have always loved these John Deere trucks if it would do 50mph I would prefer to have one of them than my car not often I need to go more than about 12miles so it would be perfect.
If it was strictly for off-highway use I'd buy a knackered Classic Subaru Impreza Wagon and put a set of knobbly gravel rally tyres on it. Wouldn't be putting £40k into a Deere. - Got a Mk1 Mazda MX-5 I do gravel Autosolos with. Welded diff and 2nd hand gravel tyres. Amazing what it can get through with only 2WD.
Can get a new jimny with that and spare change for a deposit on another. Can also get a LDV, GEM ute for that, all come with real transmissions, Manual.
enjoyed this vid something bit different from the Hub Nut shenanigans, cant ever see myself driving one but seem like fun,, could you drive that at 16 years old in UK being a little tractor type thing
Looks like a 16 year olds can drive light quadricycles on the road, but this beastie looking at the specs is a bit lardy at 877Kg to permit that Of course on a farm if they can reach the pedals and see out of the windscreen
I nearly choked on my tea when you mentioned the price. I realise you don't get the economies of scale that passenger cars have but 30k still seems very expensive even if it is a useful tool.
