My professional forester had recommended I obtain a Gator (small, all-terrain utility vehicle) to enable me to cruise around the forest performing my Timber Improvement Plan.

I had learned the term “Gator” had two meanings: a John Deere Gator (probably best known of the many brands of this type of vehicle), and as a generic term for any similar vehicle produced by such manufacturers as Polaris, Kubota and Case IH. These are generally known as side-by-sides or UTV’s (Utility Task Vehicle).

They are a miniature version of a cross between a Jeep and a Pickup Truck.

The Professional Forester’s recommendation made sense to me:

• The Gator would vastly increase my mobility, allowing me to cover areas deep into the woods without too much effort.
• The all-terrain aspects of the Gator meant that my relatively rustic trails would be fine. I didn’t need a perfectly manicured trail.
  The bed in the back of the Gator would give me a place to keep my tools (sprayer, trimmer, chain saw, etc.)
• The alternative was me carrying around my tools over the 33 acre woods. Not likely to happen.

I considered a number of different brands, but ultimately decided on the John Deere version for a number of reasons:

• There was a John Deere dealer not too far away.
• They could deliver the Gator, and service it on site. If it needed major repairs, they would pick it up and return it to the woods.
• Being relatively isolated, reliability was very important to me. This seemed reliable.
• They were all surprisingly similar in price.

In picking out my Gator, there were a number of decisions I needed to make. I wanted 4-wheel drive, the better to navigate the rough, sloped woods. I wanted the more powerful engine, to facilitate dragging fallen trees out of the way. I wanted some degree of protection from forest things falling on me, or whipping into my face while driving around. This included a roll-bar, seat belts, and windscreen. I settled on the John Deere UXV 825i.

On the delivery day, there were no problems, other than they had only brought a single key. I later fixed that issue.

In driving it around, I discovered two surprising things…the Gator was relatively noisy, and the gas pedal was relatively insensitive. You really had to tromp on it to get the Gator wound up and moving.

The reason for this relative insensitivity (I later learned) is that the transmission doesn’t really have any gears, at least not in the traditional sense. This simplifies things and means there’s one less system to malfunction, but also means you need to really wind up the RPMs to get the speed up.

But I also discovered the joy of riding through the woods in my open air vehicle.

The Professional Forester was right. I did enjoy driving around in the Gator.