Sidekick 850 issues
- Thread starter B2620-2014
- Start date
I WOULD ALWAYS BUY A DIESEL OVER A GAS MOTOR OF ANY BRAND, WHETHER IT BE A UTILITY VEHICLE, MOWER, TRACTOR ETC. EASIER WINTER STARTING, NO ETHANOL FUEL PROBLEMS AND DIESEL COST IS NOT THAT MUCH MORE THAN ETHANOL FREE. I'M ABOUT TO TRADE MY KAWA ATV FOR A DIESEL UTV.
I'M NOT THAT HAPPY WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF THE RTV500 BUT THAT IS MY WIFE'S VEHICLE AND SHE DOESN'T MIND GOING SO SLOW.
I'M NOT THAT HAPPY WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF THE RTV500 BUT THAT IS MY WIFE'S VEHICLE AND SHE DOESN'T MIND GOING SO SLOW.
not everyone wants a slow utility vehicle. Not everyone wants the extra expense either.
850 sidekick was never my favorite. Kubota does ok on the RTV diesels, which are horribly slow, heavy, and no fun to operate (and expensive to fix....) and when they got into the gas UTV market, I told the reps to look at Kawasaki and Polaris and Yamaha, and then try to use those as an example. They did their own thing. Just like the 500. It was a flop. a few folks tolerate them but they were and still are (the 500 and 520 both) horribly underpowered, horribly rough riding, and don't have the features that other brands do. The reps said that their (then) new RTV400 was "better" than the Mule 610 so they sent some enginerds out to compare them. Nothing on the 400 was better than the Mule 610. Nothing. Rode rougher, noisier, same ground clearance, worse steering, terrible quality engine, rough shifting transmission, etc. The 610 was proven, and has been since 2006 I think, and Kubota thinks they're gonna compete? Not hardly. So they built the 850 sidekick which was supposed to meet the competition's offerings, and they failed there too. But it's less expensive and it has to be for people to buy it. The 850 has less ground clearance, rides worse, steering is kind of weird, the air intake is mounted lower, the belt is not sealed so when you cross a shallow creek, it's gonna slip, the belt area is also not ventilated well enough, it's a bear to work on (just like the diesels in some ways), the throttle is terribly jerky and very hard to control, parts are expensive, and this is just the beginning. But it's less expensive than a Ranger 1000...or a Viking...or maybe not a Mule 4010, but it is (or was?) less expensive than a Mule pro FX/T. Only way I'd have one for our little place, is if someone paid me to. Since that didn't happen, we picked up a used 2019 Ranger XP1000, and so far it's been a beast.