Ahhh you just brought back so many memories!!
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I have a diesel Kubota, like another poster. Drags, dumps, spreads manure. I love this thing! Not sure it has a small enough turning radius for you–you said 5m, which is tiny. I’ll go out and check this afternoon.
LOL That’s my ancient one, it went in the shop at a friend’s garage (Gary wrote Jack ass on the replacement muffler) and he had it for AGES pre-COVID, and I can’t recall what he couldn’t get that was on back order). We borrow a neighbor’s field part of the year so at least once a day we’re schlepping feed and three dogs and maybe hay and maybe some other crap down there and us and a beer and oh let’s go see if they harvested ____ down at the cotton fields (we just call it that no matter what’s planted). so it was gone for months and months and working out of the flatbed was a bitch b/c it’s too tall for the dogs to jump on and they are wayyyy too big to get in the king cab and dang we missed the mule and what if they can’t ever get that part? so we got another Mule. Couldn’t find a used one that wasn’t run to death. Brand new the red one was what, 9K, I think? I mean if someone spent 22k on some Razr racer thing ok? that’s not the same thing as a Mule - whatevah LOL
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Hi All
Well, I’ll share a foto of my Muckmobile, just for fun. This is a 1985 Cushman “Truckster” that I brought home as a project. And a project it was, and remains to some extent, tho I have it working well enough to do the doo for me.
22HP gas engine, 6spd tranny, simply amazing turning radius; it will turn 180° in it’s own footprint, and a hydraulic dump bed.
That said, I can’t really recommend one (if you can even find one for sale), unless you just happen to like working on antique power equipment; parts are virtually unobtanium, as is the skill-set to service one, (“Points? Whatsa Point?”).
But itsa cool old tool, and I like it.
The Cushie, on the job:
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Thanks. I meant 10 M. So I can turn to CL from long side of arena …
At $7K US funds, I bet it doesn’t have the rusted out cancer lacerations that ours has! But hey, the interior is “mint”! It took a fair bit of work with the vacuum to reveal the cloth seats, but we did get lucky. DH is a Toyota fanatic.
Yes, Kubotas, and I would guess that all other UTVs, can drag using the turn down the centerline. That’s a 33’ turning radius, which is huge for these small machines.
Cushmans are quite collectable. You might have a gold mine there.
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Has anyone gotten one of the little electric trucks for farm use? Smaller than the old Toyotas, Datsuns, Nissons, come with a few options like 4WD, AC, a nice box for hauling things in.
Mule 4000 for me. It actually has more miles on its odometer than my same age pickup truck. The Mule’s hydraulic dump bed ($1000 option) is priceless as far as saving my back. The optional speedometer / odometer ($200) helps immensely in maintaining correct speed while spreading fertilizer, seeding, and spreading fire ant bait. No 4-WD needed because my land is flat, flat, flat. But I do regret not getting power steering.
Given UTV demand far exceeding supply, buy whatever you can find. My Mule has an almost identical Gator equivalent, but Deere wanted $3000 more. I used the $3000 and added a glass windshield, roof, and hydraulic bed to the Mule. I went with a more expensive safety glass windshield (another $1000) because of prior poor experience with plastic ones.
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I use a Polaris Ranger 500 UTV to drag my arena, but I have sand with rubber, no fiber, and I use an EZGroomer. I also have a winch and attach a snow plow in front in winter and use it to push about 4 inches or so of snow. I also pull a chain harrow to drag my pastures, a seed thrower, a weed sprayer trailer (30 gallons) and I have a dump trailer (and the Polaris has a dump bed, but it’s manual on springs). It all works very well on 6 acres. If I had more cash when I bought it (while doing a renovation of the farm), I would have upgraded the UTV. Four years ago, I paid around $11,500 for the new UTV, the winch and snowplow. I have been very happy with it. Polaris is an excellent brand.
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I have a Kubota RTV and love it. It’s perfect for dragging my 5 acres, moving hay, grooming the arena, and just general work around the farm. I can’t imagine what I would do without it!
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We bought a Mule back in 2005. It has had issues, but is mostly reliable, and the repairs have been easy. Not great in deep snow (low clearance). I think we got the base model with the manual dump. I particularly appreciate the bench seat; the cats and I can sit together, and with my current injury, I can use my left leg on the pedals.
If we replace it we want to try electric - those are back ordered here though!
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I have a 4x gator diesel now. It has about 500hrs on it.
I got it to replace my old gator when it got about 2000 hrs.
Which replaced the Mule which also had about 2k hrs.
I could discuss all the little problems with all of them, but all-in-all i liked the Mule better. What i liked about it was the higher clearance of the undercarriage. We have some gnarly terrain here… and it seemed to have more torque from a dead stop…say if i had to tow a dead cow out of a deep creek bed with a 50’ chain. It was NOT as good on ice as my current gator as it had a more narrow axel base…wider is better on ice/snow/sand.
The ONLY reason i got a gator instead of mule is the JD dealership is 5 miles away and the Kubota about 40. And i want to keep a good relationship with locals for repairs. (they did however service my old mule for me and also kept both my Kubota tractors in working condition until i eventually traded them all in for JD equipment). And, now, i’m ‘family’ and get excellent service.
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In terms of quality;
#1. Kubota.
#2. Kawasaki.
#3. JD.
I looked at all the brands and in the end for best value for the money I chose Kawasaki. I LOVE my Mule. I did get the MXPro, so it has more ground clearance than the regular mule.
My friend came and drove it and bought his own because he loved it
Kawasaki has the best warrantee too.
I wish my Mule had LESS ground clearance. I use it to pick the pastures every day, driving from pile to pile, and climbing back in (up) about 60 times every day. And yep, I have counted the daily manure piles. 
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