Over the years we have had several here on the farm.
Diesel Kubota- That thing was a BEAST!! It had the expandable seating section (you could have a larger bed or an extra row of seats). We bought it from a couple who were divorcing and it only had 50 hrs on it. We sold it a few years later because it was the only piece of equipment at the time that was diesel. We sold it for more than we bought it for with MANY more hours on it.
Kawasaki Mule- It was used and the only one that had a powered dump bed (electric). We used that as the main work horse for many years because of the electric dump bed. It was losing power (aging engine) so we sold it to someone who didn’t need a work horse. Side note- our neighbor is a small engine mechanic who LOVES to work on Kawasaki. He says they were designed to be easy to work on.
Gas golf cart (Easy Go I think)- This was nice because it would shut off if you were idling (ie mucking stalls), but came back to life as soon as you touched the gas pedal. No an incredible amount of power and no 4 wheel drive, but it was good.
We currently have a newer Kubota, no power dump, but it is something we plan on adding in the future. It is pretty powerful, and almost scary fast.
My husband has had several electric golf carts for hunting. I don’t particularly like them. We seem to have more trouble with them charging, holding a charge, the charger dying… If you have a lot of hills, or are carrying a lot of weight they will die quicker, and it’s not as simple as refilling with gas and moving on with your day. When the batteries are done, you are done for a while until they charge. The batteries get sapped/taxed in the cold. It is very important to keep a check on the water level in the batteries. The batteries are VERY expensive to replace. Can you tell I don’t really like the electric carts.
If you need a beast, get diesel. It will be more expensive up front but they are solid pieces of equipment.
If you get a gas one, we have found using non-ethanol gas makes them run better and have fewer engine issues. The non-ethanol gas is more expensive, but it saves trips to the mechanic and the frustration of your equipment not running well or at all.
We have never owned a JD Gator, but friends of ours have had a few. I’m not familiar with the newer models, but we didn’t like the ones we drove for 2 reasons. They were lower to the ground, so you had less clearance, which meant they were easier to get stuck. They were also wider than the other carts we have had, which would have made it hard to get around some of the trails we have on the farm.
Happy shopping.
