The Gator

We all buy tools to help us do our jobs more efficiently. On the Ranch, one of our most used tools is our John Deere Gator. It gets used for EVERYTHING. It often has our small 4×8 utility trailer attached to it for added hauling space.

It gets used to distribute tons of feed around the property, carry bales of hay/straw, haul debris up to the high use area to add to the compost pile, move poultry around in crates, hoist animals up for processing with the winch, pull trees with the winch, stretch/build fence with the winch, carry building supplies, and on and on and on.

When we 1^st purchased the Ranch, we quickly discovered we needed something to move stuff around. At first, we mistakenly thought we could do it all using the Landcruiser, wheelbarrow, and 4-wheeled cart. Soon, we purchased a small used cheap four-wheel ATV.  That was not adequate, and we took a bath on that purchase. It wasn’t powerful enough, had old slick tires, didn’t have a bed, couldn’t carry anything, and was falling apart. We quickly realized it was a poor purchase and sold it. Sometimes spending more money on the right tool is a good decision.

Initially, we bought the property in the summer and thought we could just use our SUV to pull the trailer around the property when needed. We designed all of our pastures to have twelve-foot gates to allow large vehicle traffic through, but we quickly learned that driving a heavy vehicle on wet pastures was not practical. With the amount of rain we get in the wet season, the grass gets very slick, and the soil gets very soft. It’s hard for tires to get traction, and the pastures get heavily compacted. The small hill up to the pastures is not accessible by a heavy vehicle in the winter. Honestly, our barn is barely accessible to vehicles in the winter. If a heavy trailer doesn’t get put away during the dry season, it may end up in the driveway all winter (believe me, it has happened).

At that point, we realized it is sometimes worth the money and invest in the correct tool from the beginning. When we went into the John Deere dealership, we knew what features we needed. If we purchased the basic Gator and added those features on, it was the same price as buying the loaded fancy camo model in the showroom. This cracks me up because the Gator has never left our property and probably never will, so we couldn’t care less what color it is and that it has “fancy” wheels, but it does.

Now that we have had it for three years, it has been a workhorse and has paid for itself several times over by the amount of time it has saved us.