TOOLS WITH HORSEPOWER

CHOOSE THE RIGHT WORK VEHICLE FOR YOUR LAND

- GLENN HANSEN

Some of my favorite tools don't fit in a toolbox or on a workbench. Take a close look at the tools on the following pages. If you have land to care for, you should consider adding a utility vehicle, tractor or zero turn radius (ZTR) mower to your tool shed. Here's what you need to know.

UTILITY VEHICLES

With the capabilities of small pickups and a much higher fun factor, utility vehicles (UTVS) are soaring in popularity with landowners nationwide. Consider them grown-up four-wheel ATVs; utility vehicles can carry up to six passengers while doing a whole lot more work. Yes, that makes them more difficult to store and tow than a small ATV, but if you have land, a UTV is worth the effort.

I've spent a lot of time testing UTVs over the years, and I recently added a Polaris Ranger 570 NorthStar ($19,299, suggested retail price) to my tool kit for our greenhouse project. Here's what I learned.

If you've driven a car or truck in the last 100 years, you can drive a UTV. On the ease-of-use scale, UTVs are the champ. They have power steering, gas and brake pedals, automatic transmission and seat belts just like a truck. It might take a while to master the response characteristics of a UTV's belt-drive continuously variable transmission (CVT). Finding the engagement point (how far to move the foot pedal before the vehicle moves) takes time to get used to. The advantages of a CVT? It automatically finds a good gear range for the situation, and the simple belt-and-pulley design allows performance upgrades with aftermarket components. The driver can easily select high- or low-range gearing, plus reverse.