Utility vehicle for use around the cabin...Polaris Ranger?

[jmbrowning]

The "need" for a utility 4x4 ATV is upon me. While the Jeep could probably do the work needed at the cabin (firewood gathering, scouting out and bringing home mulie bucks, pulling a disc harrow for the BioLogic, transporting the generator down to the barn that has no power, driving down the logging road to say hi to the neighbors, and so on), it would be probably a bit of overkill and would undoubtedly be somewhat inefficient and wide for trails.

Furthermore, the TJ (at a curb weight of ~4000 pounds) is a bit too heavy to travel lightly on snow. The road to the cabin doesn't get plowed during the winter and therefore snowmobiles are the favored mode of transport when the white stuff is thick.

I am thinking about a used Polaris Ranger to do the utility work above. The other option is to go with two utility 4x4 ATV's for about the same money (~350 mL displacement). I was thinking that advantages to buying a single Ranger would include: seating three abreast, having a pickup bed, being able to enclose the cab and applying snow tracks.

I was hoping to turn the vehicle into a miniature SnowCat that I could drive up to the cabin with the Missus and the "Quickie" with room in the back for gear. Not quite as fast or elegant as snowmachines (or as safety redundant as two vehicles), but certainly more cushy.

Polaris Ranger with snowtracks

Anybody here have experience with ATV's/utility vehicles and/or getting around in heavy snow (Michigan'ers??)?

[rick]

I don't have any experience with how they would be in snow, but I suspect that you might be disappointed in the snow performance particularly after the first time you get stuck... Having ridden snowmobiles in Michigan for many years, I cannot imagine that the tracks will provide enough surface are to prevent sinking in under certain circumstances. Will it be travelling on more or less level ground? If not, plan on getting stuck with any weight in it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would definitely talk to this Kevin fella or someone that has experience in one in deep snow. Snowmobiles get stuck very easily in anything over a couple foot deep snow, and I would image you'll have that on the ground come early December.

So you basically need something that you can haul with you on the trailer to deal with the snow when you get there, correct? Why not a big snow blower for the front of the Dodge?

Mr. Plow, that's my name...

:shades:

[blkTJ]

I say get a snow cat. Then you can be winter caretakers at a remote resort somewhere in the colorado rockies. :yay:

just remember... all work and no play makes jack a dull boy... :confused2

[tonkadave]

you could get those matrax things for your jeep just like the ones for the ranger. I think they would work well but i have no experance with them. I grew up in michigan and we played in the snow with our ATV's and snowmobiles for the deeper stuff.

[Dukes69]

I say get a snow cat. Then you can be winter caretakers at a remote resort somewhere in the colorado rockies. :yay:

just remember... all work and no play makes jack a dull boy... :confused2

Ya know . . . Its like when you burn a piece of toasst

[blkTJ]

Ya know . . . Its like when you burn a piece of toasst

I don't get it.

[avnative]

I don't get it.

Your not the only one... :confused2

[Dukes69]

Obviously youre not a golfer

[blkTJ]

the obviousness of it should have been obvious before that post.