What Heavy Duty ATV or UTV Do You Recommend?

When you need recommendations for the best ATV or side-by-side for beach use and for heavy duty loads like hauling tree stumps, it’s best to ask a seasoned pro.

Partzilla’s ATV/UTV expert John Talley hosts live Q&A sessions on our YouTube channel every Friday at 3pm Eastern. In this session, John was asked for his recommendations on ATV and side-by-side models that are best for handling heavy duty workloads.

ATV/UTV Recommendations for Beach Use and Heavy Loads

What UTV/ATV would you recommend for beach use? I need one for conservation work, for dragging big loads like tree stumps.

John Talley: This will be easy on the UTV side. If you’re going to work one, the Kawasaki Mule Pro FXT. All day long, every day. We had, well we’ve moved buildings now and that’s why it’s so quiet in here. There were 40 people in this building and now there’s just me, but not for much longer. They’re going to make me move out of my studio here eventually, but I digress. We had another building a little over 15 feet away, and there was basically a trail between the two buildings. And for six years, we had a specialty trailer constructed that we pulled behind a 2013 Kawasaki Pro FXT . All day, every day, all day long. And I think that machine has 16,000 miles on it, and they’re all hellishly hard miles, because it had a rating of X number of pounds for towing capacity and how much you’re supposed to have on the tongue weight, and we exceeded that every day, pretty much by a factor of at least 5, maybe even 10 sometimes. But that machine put up with it all. Now that’s not to say we didn’t destroy a bunch of wheel bearings by overloading the machine, but if you want a working machine, that is the way to go. Now, on the ATV side, I’ve always been a huge Honda fan. Whether it be a Rancher 420 or a 500 Foreman, it sounds like you may want to step up to the 500. You will not be disappointed with that. 

Watch the video below to see how to install a rear bumper on a Kawasaki Mule Pro FXT.

Watch the video below to see how to change the oil in a Honda Foreman 500.

Watch the video below to see how to change the front wheel bearings on a Honda Rancher 420.

Want to see more live repair questions answered? See more motorcycle and ATV repair questions answered here.