John Deere Gator

[Bob in Oakboro]

My wife is after me to buy her a John Deere Gator (You read that right, it"s the wife"s idea)!! I would like it to be a diesel model, since all of my tractors and my mower are diesel. I am seeing the 850D for about 6-7000 dollars with about 1500 hours on them. Would that be a reasonable price? How many hours can I expect for it to last? I am pretty sure the motor will last for another 500 hours, but how about the rest of the machine? Your thoughts...

 

[Graham from New Zealand]

Our son has had two of them, the second brand new and it seems either way they are expensive to buy and expensive to maintain and not as reliable as the sales people would have us believe. He won't be bothering with another one.

 

[Animal]

That will be the best investment, gas or diesel that you have made in quite a while. Mine is the first thing started in the morning and the last thing shut off at night.

 

[Anonymous-0]

When you are looking at a unit with high hours I would look at the condition. Both body and power train. I think the diesel in that model is made in China and with that I would be concerned about longevity. You may wish to look at a HPX with a Yanmar diesel. That is a proven engine.

 

[Mark6005]

Our gator is pretty light duty. Bought it new 2008 the TX model has around 600 hours on it now .lots carrying firewood ,grand kids and rolling around tractor shows. Not a problem at all. 4wd would be nice but tractors around for other jobs. More than paid for itself

 

[Geo-TH,In]

To give you something to compare it to. I purchased a new 4010 mule, 2012, after the 2013 came out. $8500 out the door sales tax included.

Google the 4010. If you only plan to put 500 hrs on it, I think it will last that long.

Neighbor bought a new 610 mule, a toy compared to the 4010. I decided on a mule over a gator because some gators are only 2 wheel drive and rear brakes only, besides gators use Kawasaki motors, so why not go with a Kaw? I also have a kaw motorcycle dealer in town. Don't know where I would get a gator worked on.

Something to think about, unless you are like BIL who has to have JD green/yellow. He even restored my mom's 1970 ez-go and painted it JD green, seats JD yellow, sharp.

 

[dahlin]

We bought a 2013 625i and I don't know what we would do without it. We have hauled many loads of firewood and really like the hydraulic dump box. We have great clearance and can go just about anywhere with its 4 wheel drive. I can't say enough about it and would be glad to get another one when needed.

 

[JD Farmer]

I would stay away from the HPX models, the XUV series has much better suspension system and more ground clearance.

Here is a couple of pictures of mine which is the diesel model XUV series 850D I bought new. These have the Yanmar diesel.

Here is a picture of my sons new 850I. It has the 3 cylinder China made 3 cylinder gas motor, can run up to 45 mph and has around 50 HP.

These 4wd Gators will go where a 4wd farm tractor won't go and do it much faster and cheaper to operate.
I will never be without one. The 825! uses a 2 cyl Kawasaki motor.

That price for used with that many hrs. seems a little steep to me. I have just over 500 hrs on mine now.

 

[Dick2]

Avoid anything with a 2-cycle engine. Check out the model of the Yanmar engines. The smaller air cooled Diesels are very good engines, but they are considered a "Throw Away" engine. Parts to rebuild one will cost more than a new engine. The liquid cooled engines are considered rebuildable engines.

I don't know the models, but I have heard bad things about Gators in the past. Are there any competitive machines on the market, that might be better engineered? Check around.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

How difficult is it to start a gator diesel when temps are sub-zero?

 

[JD Farmer]

(quoted from post at 21:51:59 05/08/14) How difficult is it to start a gator diesel when temps are sub-zero?

Have never tried that because mine stays inside a heated garage all winter.
I am sure you can get a block heater for these and keep it plugged in for an hour before you want to use it. these Yanmar diesels are very reliable engines, good for 3000 hrs. if oil and air filters are kept clean. JD started using these in there 430 garden tractors back in 1984 and many of them are still around today and can be seen dominating garden tractor plow days. My family has 4 of the 430's.

 

[jm.]

Do yourself a favor and find you a RTV 900 diesel KUBOTA . Factor power steering, hydrostatic transmission. Do not know where you are located but here in Tennessee know where there are two units with around 500 hrs each for $6900.00