Now that my wife & I have purchased some property up in northern Wisconsin, I'm thinking about investing in an ATV. Our plan is to also purchase a pull-behind rough cut mower to manage the fields (that some day will be pastures for my wife's horses).

That means that I'm looking for an ATV that will pull the mower without trashing the CVT belt.

Any advice on brands/models??

I'm leaning toward the Honda Rincon with the true automatic transmission, but I'm also interested in the Polaris X2 since it is built for two passengers (my wife & I).

Thanks,

Ken

A utility ATV like a Deere Gator is going to be useful for a lot more jobs than a "recreational" ATV without a rear bed. I didn't see an Polaris X2 with two seats but they have other models that do.

How big is the area you plan to shred, and how often can you do it? The more often you shred the less power needed for the shredder, or the wider the cut (depending).

A real tractor (used) will cost more but will do a lot more too. If the property is big enough for a horse a tractor may make more sense, and you may want to disc, plant seed for the horse or other wildlife, etc.

Pricing for tractors is different because farmers expect them to be durable (wearing out a tractor in 30 years means it's a dud or poorly maintained, and I doubt a farmer will be happy unless they get 50 years out of it).

PS. Never underestimate the safety issues with any of this. A ROPS is not a bad idea.

Ken- I have a Polaris Sportsman 800 and my brother has the Polaris Sportsman 500 X2. I burned through a belt in less than a year by keeping it in high when I should have been in low... spinning rear tires all the time in high is apparently a bad idea I had it replaced w/the "stronger" belt, and have used it daily since I got my property and have bulled trailers with 1000lbs of wood in them, and towed my truck a bit when the battery died, not to mention 4wheeled the crap out of it! I have seriously abused it and it runs great! I have 2 CV boots I need to replace, and the front storage box from when my wife rolled it, but structurally it's awesome! I also plow with it during winter and it works great.

My brother with his X2 has had 0 problems, and it's great for 2 people but don't plan on doing 15+ mile trips comfortably with 2 people the 2nd person gets beat a bit. The box on the back is nice for moving small items, but pulling a small trailer is more handy.

Also there is a huge difference in power and fuel consumption between the 500 and 800. I think they may even have an 850 now... the 800 is great, and I`m glad I have it! It makes moving stuff and plowing EASY.

The X2 2nd seat is not visible unless you fold it up / rest.

Honda recently released the "Big Red" that does not have belt drive according to the TV ads. Looks like a 2 seat utility ATV like a MULE.

Thanks for the input.

We thought about the Gator/Ranger/Rhino/Mule/Big Red type vehicles. I guess they are called UTVs or side-by-sides. Those would be the best for us, BUT ...

The new property is in the heart of Wisconsin's county ATV trails, and while we don't expect to use them a lot now, it turns out that UTVs are not allowed on them (some counties are thinking of allowing them, but so far our's is not on that list). So we figured buying an ATV would at least allow us to use the trails if we wanted to.

Our problem is how to maintain the place on once-monthly visits without spending a fortune.

Our plan is to buy a self-powered pull-behind Kuntz rough cut mower.

It has a 20-ish HP engine that reviews say chews up grass and brush - even small trees - without hiccuping. Our plan is to mow the back pasture areas once per month to keep raspberries and other weeds from taking over, and then hire a local contractor to finish mow the small area on the road (about 1/2 acre where a house will go some day) as needed - to keep it looking nice for neighbors.

We actually already have a nice John Deere 3320 tractor at home in Illinois, but transporting it on monthly visits would be a pain, and buying a second similar tractor would run about $15,000 used. We figured a $4000 rough cut mower plus a $5000 used ATV ($9000 total) would take care of the mowing AND give an ATV to boot allowing us to go on the trails.

Eventually I'd buy a second ATV for the wife. By the time we retire up there (counting the years) I figure then we'll have the tractor and a few ATVs. Sorry kids, you have to buy your own!!

BTW, the property has a mid-sized pole barn to store the "toys", but no house ... yet.

Why mow the rasberries? My parents cut down all of them on their farm and I wish they had left them, when they are too old to farm I'm not going to be able to pasture cattle on a monce per month visit so I'd rather just let the berries grow.

From what I can tell, in that area of the property, what doesn't get mowed eventually grows into a giant impenetrable raspberry patch. We're buying the property - at least part of it - to eventually pasture horses. As is the pasture area is already ringed by raspberry bushes. If we didn't mow for a number of years I suspect that the pasture area would become an enormous raspberry patch. We don't want that to happen.

Actually one of our goals is to mow a few paths through the existing raspberry bushes (more 3.5 foot like walls) so we can walk to the more remote corners without shredding our legs.

The land is pretty cool. We even have blueberries growing next to a lake on the property's edge. We've found fresh-ish bear scat on the land, so we instruct the kids to make noise when walking around.

Sounds like a plan