UTV Opinions/Advice Solicited

[TreeDaddy]

This is just an anecdotal observation that might be relevant: The other day I was hunting the pine farm. One of the other owners was hunting as well. We coordinate so I knew where he was hunting. His stand was about a half mile from mine. I saw nothing that night, but about sunset, I heard a faint engine in his direction. I thought that either he shot something and was headed back or we had a trespasser, so I paid attention. It quickly became clear it was an ATV headed in my direction. It was loud when I first saw it about 250 yards and it got very loud when he passed at 150 yards. I realized I could track that ATV for a long distance on sound. When it stopped, I knew where it stopped. His ATV is not particularly loud and he just putters along under 10 mph.

Tonight, I was hunting my little 16 acre retirement property. I had not seen anything but I thought I heard something moving my way, but I wasn't sure. It wasn't until just before I saw it through the underbrush. It was the neighbor boy in golf cart. He stopped about 45 yards from me, got out, and did something. I couldn't see quite what through the underbrush. He got back in and drove down the trail. He did not get very far, before I could not hear the cart any more. I could only track him by sound for about 75 yards total.

Now, my hearing is not great. Not close to a deer. But I have to think that a motorized ATV/UTV has to give deer more information to pattern us than and electric one.

Again, just an observation, not proof of anything...

Thanks,

Jack

Makes no difference

They already know you're there

thanks

bill

 

[4wanderingeyes]

9 months out of the year, I can drive my 4 wheeler to and through my food plots while the deer watch me from a short distance, they may hop in to the treeline, but have very little concern of me being there. After I leave the area, they are right back to what they were doing before I got there, according to pictures from trail cameras. Now if I walk out to the food plots, and walk around, they are pretty much gone for the day, or at least during daylight hours.

How this relates, if they can hear me, and watch me from afar, and know where I am, and what I am doing, it doesnt spook them. If I am quiet, and they see me before hearing me, they are gone, and dont come back for a while.

I have an apple orchard about 75 yards from my house, I can make all the noise I want, banging on stuff, running impact tools, mowing lawn, riding around on the atv, they dont leave the orchard. It has nothing to do with noise.

Then again, I dont have squat on my land for big bucks, and this could be why :)

 

[TreeDaddy]

9 months out of the year, I can drive my 4 wheeler to and through my food plots while the deer watch me from a short distance, they may hop in to the treeline, but have very little concern of me being there. After I leave the area, they are right back to what they were doing before I got there, according to pictures from trail cameras. Now if I walk out to the food plots, and walk around, they are pretty much gone for the day, or at least during daylight hours.

How this relates, if they can hear me, and watch me from afar, and know where I am, and what I am doing, it doesnt spook them. If I am quiet, and they see me before hearing me, they are gone, and dont come back for a while.

I have an apple orchard about 75 yards from my house, I can make all the noise I want, banging on stuff, running impact tools, mowing lawn, riding around on the atv, they dont leave the orchard. It has nothing to do with noise.

Then again, I dont have squat on my land for big bucks, and this could be why :)

Fascinating animals

They seem to know the difference between habitat mode and hunting mode

bill

 

[Bassattackr]

Fascinating animals

They seem to know the difference between habitat mode and hunting mode

bill

Or how you can drive a tractor 10 yards from them and they don't bat an eye. Pull in and park your car 200 yards away and they're gone to the next property..

 

[Triple C]

Love my electric. Just had it rebuilt. 8 Trojan batteries replaced what was in it plus a host of other small issues from running it since 2012. It's my go to at the farm. Ranger does the heavy lifting but the electric gets 80 to 90% of my drive time when I'm there.

If money were no object, I'd check out the Greenworks Commerical lithium battery side-by-side. Just don't have $27K to drop in to that puppy.

 

[yoderjac]

Fascinating animals

They seem to know the difference between habitat mode and hunting mode

bill

I've told the story before about how suburban deer are quite different creatures. They are amazingly adaptable and have great pattern recognition skills when it comes to danger. I've watched deer feeding calmly on acorns within a few yards of houses. Kids are playing basketball on the other side of the house, dogs are barking at them. The neighbor is mowing his lawn 70 yards away. Doesn't bother them in the least. Then the guy pulls the bagger off his mower and walks 5 yards into the wood lot to empty it. Bang! They are on alert and run. In 50 yards or so they stop, watch him as he goes back in the yard, and continue feeding on acrons.

As long as humans are were they are "supposed to be" when they are "supposed to be", they ignore us. When we vary our "pattern of life" beyond some point, it puts them on alert. When they interpret our actions as potential danger, they react.

Deer elsewhere have the same senses and processing capability. They have just adapted to different stimuli and conditions.

On our farm, I've got a wireless camera network that runs 24.7/365. All of the data goes into a DB. At one point I did a data pull over a number of years and charted it. I plotted the number and percentage of pictures that were daytime (based on 1/2 hour before sunrise till 1/2 hour after sunset) across Julian date. The results were interesting.

The total picture count varied somewhat seasonally as one would expect, but the percentage of pictures taken during daylight. It actually began to decline in mid-Sept as guys began to check stands. While I'm working on the farm all summer, I'm not in the same places with the treestands. There are different folks with different ATVs, different driving patterns, and such. Deer can tell something is up. The daytime count slowly but steadily declines over the month of October at our place. You then see a hump in the data, probably associated with the rut, but the trend is still downward. When general firearms season comes in in mid-November and hunting with dogs is permitted, the daytime picture count drops drastically. It stays low well after our season ends in early Jan. It seems to take several months of low human activity for deer to return to more daytime activity.

How much deer patterning humans is a result of sight, sound, and smell is debatable. I'm of the opinion that anything I do to reduce any of these will improve my personal opportunities. When others are more detectable then I am, they create "zones of concern" that are relatively greater than where I'm hunting.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I don’t doubt deer pattern humans, and when the local humans change their habits, the deer react.

But which do you think will effect a deers behavior more, a loud atv driving into a food plot, and the deer leave the food plot, or you walking quietly into that same food plot and the deer see you and run. Which instance do you think the deer would return to the same food plot and continue eating as they normally would?

I am about the furthest thing from a suburban area that is possible. Sure there is a road in front of me, but if I count 5 vehicles pass my place in a day, there is something going on in the area. The road I live on is about 3 miles long, and there is 3 houses on it that people live, and a few cabins that may have someone at a couple times a year. Deer are far from use to people, but I will tell you they aren’t concerned with noise.

 

[yoderjac]

I don’t doubt deer pattern humans, and when the local humans change their habits, the deer react.

But which do you think will effect a deers behavior more, a loud atv driving into a food plot, and the deer leave the food plot, or you walking quietly into that same food plot and the deer see you and run. Which instance do you think the deer would return to the same food plot and continue eating as they normally would?

I am about the furthest thing from a suburban area that is possible. Sure there is a road in front of me, but if I count 5 vehicles pass my place in a day, there is something going on in the area. The road I live on is about 3 miles long, and there is 3 houses on it that people live, and a few cabins that may have someone at a couple times a year. Deer are far from use to people, but I will tell you they aren’t concerned with noise.

I agree, deer are not concerned with noise. Their brains are setup for pattern matching. Sound is only one of the sensory inputs. When a deer encounters perceived danger, sensory input related to that encounter and other encounters add up over time. When similar patterns are seen in the future, they become more alert and skittish. We often say things like "Deer know they are being hunted". Well, that is what it seems like to us. In reality they are more alert simply because they are spooked more often by encounters people where they don't belong. My suburban hunting example just shows how much they can differentiate subtleties in patterns of life. My pine farm is not in a suburban environment. The more remote a location, the less human activity, in general, that it takes to put them on alert.

We often talk about deer ignoring us as we drive a tractor on the farm. It is simply because that pattern of life is not perceived as a danger.

In direct answer to your question, vehicles are generally not associated direct with danger, where in most environments people in close proximity are. So, driving to a stand and dropping someone off to hunt is usually less impactful than walking into that location.

In a previous post I talked about the youtube video. Again, this was not any kind of study or controlled experiment. The guy simply had his wife pick him up from his stand in a gas utv sometimes and and electric other times. He said he found (based on game cameras in the food plot) that the time it took for deer to return to the food plot (of course this is after shooting hours) was shorter, on average, than with the gas UTV.

Personally, I don't think this matters much. It is just one data point.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Well, the new Polaris Ranger is listed now. Of course with the screwed up supply chain everything shows out of stock. We've had performance data on it with the teaser videos released. We now have full specs. It looks great from a performance and functionality perspective, but I'll never be able to justify the price. Who knows when I would actually be able to get one. I used the on-line build and price. I added basics like a windshield, top, and winch; nothing fancy. When you include all the added charges destination and prep, you are in the $28K range.

In the early part of this thread, one of the gas powered SxS I was considering was a Honda Pioneer 500. I have a friend with one who really loves it. So, for comparison, I "comparably" equipped a Honda 520 with their online build and price tool. The 520 is a build on the same frame but with a few upgrades I like. It came out around $13K. I think this is a smaller frame than the new Ranger EV but for me that is a plus.

So, while I still like the idea of a EV SxS, the technology I see as workable simply isn't cost effective for me. In time, I'm sure it will be, but with the current state of my ATV, I don't think I can wait for that. My ATV is currently running, but I no longer consider it reliable. It should get me through the rest of this hunting season, but I'll need to start a search for a UTV soon.

Right now, the Honda 520 is on the top of my list, but I'm open to suggestions for alternatives to consider.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Gravel Road]

Well, the new Polaris Ranger is listed now. Of course with the screwed up supply chain everything shows out of stock. We've had performance data on it with the teaser videos released. We now have full specs. It looks great from a performance and functionality perspective, but I'll never be able to justify the price. Who knows when I would actually be able to get one. I used the on-line build and price. I added basics like a windshield, top, and winch; nothing fancy. When you include all the added charges destination and prep, you are in the $28K range.

In the early part of this thread, one of the gas powered SxS I was considering was a Honda Pioneer 500. I have a friend with one who really loves it. So, for comparison, I "comparably" equipped a Honda 520 with their online build and price tool. The 520 is a build on the same frame but with a few upgrades I like. It came out around $13K. I think this is a smaller frame than the new Ranger EV but for me that is a plus.

So, while I still like the idea of a EV SxS, the technology I see as workable simply isn't cost effective for me. In time, I'm sure it will be, but with the current state of my ATV, I don't think I can wait for that. My ATV is currently running, but I no longer consider it reliable. It should get me through the rest of this hunting season, but I'll need to start a search for a UTV soon.

Right now, the Honda 520 is on the top of my list, but I'm open to suggestions for alternatives to consider.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jack

The price on the new Ranger Kinetic is too high for me. The model with the battery upgrade is $30k!!!! With upgrades and shipping, etc it'll be 35k+.Sorry, but I can't justify that, even as a farm expense. I don't need 110 hp either. Wish they would have made the 48? hp model from Zero available too. Guess I'll have to relook at some ezgo golf carts.

I like the Honda 520. The only reason why I haven't bought one is that it has a solid rear axle, so it would be really hard on the lawn around the house. Wish it had a turf mode. My brother has the 500 and he likes it, although he said the ride is rough compared to the 1000.

 

[yoderjac]

The price on the new Ranger Kinetic is too high for me. The model with the battery upgrade is $30k!!!! With upgrades and shipping, etc it'll be 35k+.Sorry, but I can't justify that, even as a farm expense. I don't need 110 hp either. Wish they would have made the 48? hp model from Zero available too. Guess I'll have to relook at some ezgo golf carts.

I like the Honda 520. The only reason why I haven't bought one is that it has a solid rear axle, so it would be really hard on the lawn around the house. Wish it had a turf mode. My brother has the 500 and he likes it, although he said the ride is rough compared to the 1000.

I'm not a trail rider. I putter around at 10 mph. I use my ATV to work at the farm as well as to hunt. I don't think a little rougher ride would be an issue for me.

 

[Bill]

My Polaris has lots of life left. But if and when it’s time to replace it I’m going with a small 4x4 truck. Heck an old Toyota with a muffler is quieter than my Polaris. Plus it has heat, air and more cargo space and costs 1/4 of the price. 10K miles on a side by side is a lot. 10k miles on an old beater truck that started with 180k miles ain’t much.

 

[yoderjac]

My Polaris has lots of life left. But if and when it’s time to replace it I’m going with a small 4x4 truck. Heck an old Toyota with a muffler is quieter than my Polaris. Plus it has heat, air and more cargo space and costs 1/4 of the price. 10K miles on a side by side is a lot. 10k miles on an old beater truck that started with 180k miles ain’t much.

A small pickup would be too big for my purposes, but I get your point. I know a lot of guys are buying foreign mini-trucks that are not street legal in the US and using them for offf-road stuff.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

My Polaris has lots of life left. But if and when it’s time to replace it I’m going with a small 4x4 truck. Heck an old Toyota with a muffler is quieter than my Polaris. Plus it has heat, air and more cargo space and costs 1/4 of the price. 10K miles on a side by side is a lot. 10k miles on an old beater truck that started with 180k miles ain’t much.

You priced used Tacomas lately? Might as well buy a Ford raptor (exaggerating)

 

[Gravel Road]

A small pickup would be too big for my purposes, but I get your point. I know a lot of guys are buying foreign mini-trucks that are not street legal in the US and using them for offf-road stuff.

I almost went the mini truck route, but ended up deciding that I didn't want to rely on a 20+ year old vehicle for reliability reasons. Breaking down while burning pasture would not be good Parts availability was another factor, compared to a new UTV. They sure would be awesome to have though, especially the dump bed models. Funny, but my Kawasaki Mule Pro FX uses the same 3 cylinder motor as the mini's!

 

[yoderjac]

Last Friday, when I was running around doing errands, I stopped by a Honda dealer. The sales guy basically told me that they order whatever Honda tells them is available. When it comes in, they keep a list of folks and start calling. The price is the price. If you want it, you buy it, otherwise, they go to the next guy on the list. The next Pioneer 520 they have on their buy list isn't scheduled to arrive until March. I got on the list.

Then, today, when I was back home in the suburbs, I stopped by another Honda dealer. He looked and they one Pioneer 1000 scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2022, but no 520s.

I hate these supply chain issues!

 

[TreeDaddy]

Last Friday, when I was running around doing errands, I stopped by a Honda dealer. The sales guy basically told me that they order whatever Honda tells them is available. When it comes in, they keep a list of folks and start calling. The price is the price. If you want it, you buy it, otherwise, they go to the next guy on the list. The next Pioneer 520 they have on their buy list isn't scheduled to arrive until March. I got on the list.

Then, today, when I was back home in the suburbs, I stopped by another Honda dealer. He looked and they one Pioneer 1000 scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2022, but no 520s.

I hate these supply chain issues!

Same issues here with cars,trucks,tractors,implements,etc

bill

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I'm not a trail rider. I putter around at 10 mph. I use my ATV to work at the farm as well as to hunt. I don't think a little rougher ride would be an issue for me.

Have you looked at the John Deere Gators, or the Kabotas, or a Yanmar? A friend uses a Yanmar diesel for his tree construction company, for clean up around yards, and pulling equipment into yards when he doesn’t want to drive into it with a full sized truck. I don’t think it has ever been driven above 20 mph in its life. It runs forever on a tank of diesel. I am not sure on available, or price, but it is a work horse for sure. If I was in the market for a new utv for the farm, I would at least check one out.

And the Yanmar UTVs are built in your area.

 

[b116757]

From your description of use I’d be looking for a compact tractor with loader. I have a John Deere 50hp compact tractor I pretty much use as a ATV. We had a 6 wheeler and Polaris 4 seat ranger at the farm both are long gone and couldn’t get rid of the Ranger fast enough lots of expensive repairs. Your talking tight quarters so maybe a 25-30hp tractor would be the ticket.

 

[yoderjac]

Have you looked at the John Deere Gators, or the Kabotas, or a Yanmar? A friend uses a Yanmar diesel for his tree construction company, for clean up around yards, and pulling equipment into yards when he doesn’t want to drive into it with a full sized truck. I don’t think it has ever been driven above 20 mph in its life. It runs forever on a tank of diesel. I am not sure on available, or price, but it is a work horse for sure. If I was in the market for a new utv for the farm, I would at least check one out.

And the Yanmar UTVs are built in your area.

I have not looked at Yanmar but I have looked at KD and Kubota. I have not seen any dealers carrying Yanmar on my side of the mountain. I'm not a mechanic, so having a reliable dealership for maintenance is a factor for me. The dealer that sells the Honda also sells Kubota. I do like the small frame on the 520.