Blog

Here's John's review of our new Kubota:

Well its finally arrived! The big orange beast! And we’re all very impressed. The new Kubota ATV has landed, it took some time its fair to say, at some points we all doubted it was ever to arrive at all, but when it did, we were all very pleased. Its full name is the Kubota RTVX1110TWUK HSDLMC UTIL, RTV1110 to its friends, it’s the classic ATV but very sophisticated!

Choosing which ATV to purchase was an arduous process. We use our ATV a lot, it performs many functions for all departments across the site, from the lorry park to the ménage, from the gallop track to filling the drinkers, it tows the pole trailer, the bowser and sundry other trailers, all of the tasks are important, so reliability and ease of use all played their part in the eventual decision. There were some other considerations such as the ability of the vehicle to facilitate drivers ranging in height from 5ft to 6ft4in and the vehicles ability to cope with the very wet ground we are all currently experiencing.

The John Deere Gator has performed very well, it has never let us down, it has performed creditably in all circumstances and is much loved by the staff, the Kubota however just gives us that little bit more in terms of capacity. Its bigger, it’s certainly more noticeable but the specification is also excellent. Part of that is buying a “new bit of kit”, It’s easier to get the spec right when your working from a clean sheet of paper, much harder when your trying to adapt an existing piece of equipment with all the wrinkles in place. The addition of front and rear work lights and a safety beacon have been very handy.

The other key question I was asked by the person who controls the purse strings was “Why now?”. Getting the timing right on the changing of a core piece of equipment is very difficult, generally you only know when you’ve got the decision wrong. I had made the decision that as this was such an important piece of the company jigsaw, that the time had come to change the vehicle long before reliability became a problem and to make sure that we got the specification absolutely right for the forthcoming winter.

In looking we of course went to John Deere to get a cost to replace but I had also decided to throw the net a little wider and see what else was available on the market. Having done a tonne of research I narrowed it down to two options, namely John Deere and Kubota, the decision hung on the vehicle test drive and the Kubota did superbly. As I said at the start of the piece, the vehicle was slightly bigger but was also taller with more ground clearance, which is useful as the vehicle operates for the lions share of its time off road and is regularly expected to wade. The cab was more spacious and the addition of a heater has certainly improved matters, it’s not powerful enough to get the cab hot, which is just as well as I have enough trouble getting the team out of the vehicle as it is but it keeps the windscreen clear which in the current climate is not only handy but a big improvement in driving safety particularly on event days.

We also had to consider the after sales support available from the Dealership. Having worked with RVT for many years the bar had been set pretty high but the friendly, personal and enthusiastic approach from Buxtons left us in no doubt that they would take good care of us.

So there you have it we’ve changed from green to orange, we say good luck to our old friend and hello to the new, here’s to years of trouble free driving.