https://www.kawasaki.com/en-us/side-x-side/mule/mule-2-passenger/mule-pro-mx?cm_re=GLOBALNAV-_-PRODUCTGROUPLIST-_-MPP

I'm looking at this for basically puttering around the farm/ranch.

Thoughts on the Mule? Are there any other competitors that might be worth considering also? Does not need to be two seated. Speed is not a concern. It'll probably never be put on a trailer or hauled anyplace once it's "home".

Would steer you towards the PRO-FXT over the MX.

The MX isnt a true Kawi IIRC, made by another manufactuer with a Kawi name. Not near as many options, aftermarket parts or capabilty of the FXT.

Slow and boring, but they work

In laws have one at the lake house and we/they love it.

Have two Pro-FXTs. Love them.

I have both a pro mx and fxt. The mx is very capable, great suspension, and is actually faster off the jump than the fxt. If you are looking for a little smaller machine, you will be pleased with the mx.

Honda is worth considering

https://powersports.honda.com/sxs/recutility/pioneer-700

The floor board gets hot in the summer. My only negative. I believe there are aftermarket parts that help address the heat issue but we haven't done them.

I have have the FXT and it's been a great rig.

I have owned 7 Mules over the last 20 years with one terrible Polaris Ranger in between. I live in very unforgiving terrain and Mules stand up better than anything I've seen. was going to trade my FXT for a new one this past week. My always reliable dealer did not have any in stock and called all over the area for me,no luck, Supply chain issues according to the dealer. I ended up with a CanAm Defender 10. I'll know shortly if I made a good decision.

JeremiahJohnson said:

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Slow and boring, but they work

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Haha. For this use case…that's a great endorsement!

Thanks everyone.

Get a Honda and thank me later

I'm partial to the Honda pioneer for the fact that it has a real geared transmission and not a CVT. For long drives the CVT gets real exhausting and loud, but i can get my Pioneer in 4th gear putting along at 20 for rolling down the miles of gravel roads I do. I'll never buy a SxS with a CVT again

Ragoo said:

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The floor board gets hot in the summer. My only negative. I believe there are aftermarket parts that help address the heat issue but we haven't done them.

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Hood scoop, easy install and fixes the issue

The Kawasaki Mule is the best UTV on the market. They can take a beating and keep on performing. The only downside to them is that most of them are governed at 25 mph. They do have some models that will go up to 50 mph.

I drove a 4010 Trans for many years. I rarely ever went the top speed in it.

ghollow said:

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The Kawasaki Mule is the best UTV on the market. They can take a beating and keep on performing. The only downside to them is that most of them are governed at 25 mph. They do have some models that will go up to 50 mph.

I drove a 4010 Trans for many years. I rarely ever went the top speed in it.

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I agree, although our Mule Pro FXT will run in the mid-30s I believe. Count me as one that doesn't see the need to go fast in a UTV. Most of the time it's either being used for work and loaded or riding to/from hunting areas. I don't see the need to run fast during either of those times. Not to mention any safety issues that arise with high speeds.

I just like that they're more roomy, you aren't crammed in the cab to fit

Passed a truck on IH 35 south of SA last week that had a trailer loaded with a Polaris Ranger, a Can Am, and a Mule. Sure would have liked to pick his brain.
I'm taking delivery next week on a Kubota Diesel UTV and have had great success with a 12 Polaris Ranger Diesel Crew. Horrible luck with same model in gasoline.

I have a mule pro fxt, bought it in 2019. Only thing i've done is change the oil, run ethanol-free gas, and it runs like an SOB. It's not as fast as a polaris, but who cares?

I have a 2021 Mule Pro FXT. It is a great machine. It will go 45ish MPH before it governs out, but rarely ever go that fast or have much need to do so.

Being able to expand the bed for more cargo is awesome and it keeps the overall length of the vehicle shorter. We loaded mine down 20+ bags of corn (a little over the 1000 lbs capacity, but not much more) filling feeders this year with no problems in the Texas hill country terrain.

If you go with the Mule and opt for a windshield, go with the glass. A little more expensive, but the plastic style windshields will get scratched up and make visibility horrible.

You will not be disappointed with it.

Oh, and you will want to go with the electronic steering (EPS).

AgEng06 said:

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ghollow said:

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The Kawasaki Mule is the best UTV on the market. They can take a beating and keep on performing. The only downside to them is that most of them are governed at 25 mph. They do have some models that will go up to 50 mph.

I drove a 4010 Trans for many years. I rarely ever went the top speed in it.

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I agree, although our Mule Pro FXT will run in the mid-30s I believe. Count me as one that doesn't see the need to go fast in a UTV. Most of the time it's either being used for work and loaded or riding to/from hunting areas. I don't see the need to run fast during either of those times. Not to mention any safety issues that arise with high speeds.

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47 is the governed top end speed on a mule PRO-FXT.

I've hit that mark a few times on mine, but only tooling around the neighborhood on a straight paved road. The thought of trying to hit that speed on a gravel road or bouncing through the trails at my lease is not appealing. Most of the time we max out in the mid 20's when it's dry. When it's muddy AF like it is right now...about 8 or 9 is our top end.

Great thing about the PRO is that you can go from a single seat with a huge bed to a double seat with a decent bed in no time, and you still have the relatively short wheelbase. Other double seat UTV's are long as hell and not as capable IMO. Mules are not without issues or things I'd change personally, but for the 4 years I've had the PRO - wouldnt' trade it at all for another make or model out there. And we are hard on them because we have to be - lots of mud, water and they spend almost the entire season in 4wd. We have 5 of them on our lease, and another 4010 model as well. They outperform the one Honda (which isn't bad, just small and not a fan of the seats) and the two janky ass Polaris buggies all day and twice on Sundays.

Yeah, thanks. I knew it was mid-30s or mid-40s, but went with the lower to be conservative. The only time we hit the governor is when we run it down the FM road about 1/4 mile to some other land. Other than that, I enjoy "putting" around on it.

Deerdude said:

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Passed a truck on IH 35 south of SA last week that had a trailer loaded with a Polaris Ranger, a Can Am, and a Mule. Sure would have liked to pick his brain.
I'm taking delivery next week on a Kubota Diesel UTV and have had great success with a 12 Polaris Ranger Diesel Crew. Horrible luck with same model in gasoline.

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Curious about that kubota diesel. What made you go that route? Did you test drive it? Seem well built and thoughtful design? Did you consider the yanmar diesel utv ?

AgEng06 said:

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Yeah, thanks. I knew it was mid-30s or mid-40s, but went with the lower to be conservative. The only time we hit the governor is when we run it down the FM road about 1/4 mile to some other land. Other than that, I enjoy "putting" around on it.

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Same here. If I wanted to go fast, i'd get a Teryx or Razr. But I'd rather cruise along and enjoy a beer or whiskey instead of acting like I'm in a baja rally.

Proc92 said:

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Deerdude said:

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Passed a truck on IH 35 south of SA last week that had a trailer loaded with a Polaris Ranger, a Can Am, and a Mule. Sure would have liked to pick his brain.
I'm taking delivery next week on a Kubota Diesel UTV and have had great success with a 12 Polaris Ranger Diesel Crew. Horrible luck with same model in gasoline.

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Curious about that kubota diesel. What made you go that route? Did you test drive it? Seem well built and thoughtful design? Did you consider the yanmar diesel utv ?

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No, did not consider anything else. My Polaris diesel runs about 52 and my sons Polaris gas will hit upper 70's.
With that in mind, I've never had problems with Kubota diesel engines, and needed it to be slower because of 23 yo bull in a China shop nephew that will be operating it.

Deerdude said:

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Proc92 said:

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Deerdude said:

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Passed a truck on IH 35 south of SA last week that had a trailer loaded with a Polaris Ranger, a Can Am, and a Mule. Sure would have liked to pick his brain.
I'm taking delivery next week on a Kubota Diesel UTV and have had great success with a 12 Polaris Ranger Diesel Crew. Horrible luck with same model in gasoline.

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Curious about that kubota diesel. What made you go that route? Did you test drive it? Seem well built and thoughtful design? Did you consider the yanmar diesel utv ?

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No, did not consider anything else. My Polaris diesel runs about 52 and my sons Polaris gas will hit upper 70's.
With that in mind, I've never had problems with Kubota diesel engines, and needed it to be slower because of 23 yo bull in a China shop nephew that will be operating it.

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We have a 12 year old gas Polaris that is needing to be retired and that yanmar diesel caught my eye but I haven't seen it in person. I know their engines are quality but don't know if they can make a utv.

My father in law did something similar right before the year ended but bought the Ranger 1000 Crew and Pioneer 1000 Crew. His thought process was that he thought Honda's were the most reliable partly due to that full transmission. And he always had Honda growing up but they never had a Crew until recently. His thought process on the Ranger was that it may be better for ranch work and strictly work and the other work SXS are also Ranger. The Pioneer is for cruising so he added sub-woofers and full audio system. I guess in his mind the Ranger is the Ford XL and the Honda is the Ford Platinum.

Proc92 said:

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Deerdude said:

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Proc92 said:

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Deerdude said:

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Passed a truck on IH 35 south of SA last week that had a trailer loaded with a Polaris Ranger, a Can Am, and a Mule. Sure would have liked to pick his brain.
I'm taking delivery next week on a Kubota Diesel UTV and have had great success with a 12 Polaris Ranger Diesel Crew. Horrible luck with same model in gasoline.

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Curious about that kubota diesel. What made you go that route? Did you test drive it? Seem well built and thoughtful design? Did you consider the yanmar diesel utv ?

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No, did not consider anything else. My Polaris diesel runs about 52 and my sons Polaris gas will hit upper 70's.
With that in mind, I've never had problems with Kubota diesel engines, and needed it to be slower because of 23 yo bull in a China shop nephew that will be operating it.

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We have a 12 year old gas Polaris that is needing to be retired and that yanmar diesel caught my eye but I haven't seen it in person. I know their engines are quality but don't know if they can make a utv.

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It will be a sad day when I need to retire my 12 Ranger Diesel, it's been a great, reliable machine. Broke axles twice when ranchhand shifted it onto one axle drive which should be done only on hard pan or pavement. It's in N Webb county, soft sand bottoms and caliche hills

You can add sound bars and a sub to the ranger too...

The mules are great UTV's and sound perfect for the OP. I have some issues with them but that really just involves bed space, payload, and what I have seen them do in duck ponds vs some of the others. If honda were to ever develop a true competitor to the Ranger/Defender Crew (with a FULL bed) it would be a game changer.

I hunt on a club with probably 30+ UTVs, of which probably 20 are Polaris, 7-8 are CanAm (This number gets higher each year), 1 Mule FXT, and 1 Pioneer.

The number one problem with any UTV is operator error. Most of the problems I have seen on any of the brands are because people put a lift and 30"+ tires on them and then fail to comprehend why they're burning belts or other driveline components while running in High. Most people also just dog the hell out of their machines and don't take care of them. Either way, you're going to eventually break stuff if you keep exposing your machine to harsh environments.

Never seen or know of anyone with the MX.

My dad had a FXT, that he put a lot of hours/miles on in 3 years, hauling Cotton Seed, tools, and a lot of deer in on a 30K acre place in STX we managed, it was a great machine and always served us well. We worked it hard and it was handy to be able to lay the back seat down and have a bigger bed to work out of, the one negative is that the bed is very small when both seats are up.

My brother also has a Polaris 900 and a new 1000, the 900 we have worked hard catching exotics and haven't had many problems with. The 1000 has been unloaded off the trailer and thats about it.

I've spent time in CanAms also, one we would pull a 1,000 LBS All Seasons feed wagon around on the 30K acres and it was a tank, my buddy has one he takes duck hunting a lot, and another buddy that has one he uses for hunting and catching exotics with and he likes it a lot also.

I bought a brand new 4010 trans 4x4 in 2017 that started missing with 30hrs on it. I took it to the dealership and after they kept it for 3 weeks (adjusting valves and a bunch of other non-logical BS), they told me the computer module blew up. Said that there was a design flaw and that the spark plug voltage got back over to the 12V/PCB side of it. It was fixed under warranty, but they said it would have been a $3000 repair otherwise.

Supposedly, the new one they installed had the design fix. Got rid of the mule after that. Probably would not buy another Kawasaki product. Voltage isolation on a module like that is engineering 101.

Yea some of our Rangers have the sound system but the one in the Pioneer is different level. We have two Mule FXTs currently but we're trying to trade those out for the Ranger. They've been up at our place in Camp Wood too long and the mountains kill them over many years. We currently have probably 8 Rangers, 2 Mules, and now one Pioneer Deluxe Crew. The rest are on flatter ground but we rotate them. Is bed size of the Pioneer Deluxe Crew different from the Ranger? I thoughts they were both 1000 lb capacity? The Pioneer Deluxe Crew now seems the same as the Ranger 1000 Crew in terms of size.

Wow! I just realized the finally made a version of the Crew Honda with a full bed… bout dang time! I bet they're going to be great!

Not sure about capacity but it looks to be a full size bed like the ranger. That always irritated me about the Mule if you're rolling with a few folks and loading feeders. Hard to get more than 8 bags in there.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Wow! I just realized the finally made a version of the Crew Honda with a full bed… bout dang time! I bet they're going to be great!

Not sure about capacity but it looks to be a full size bed like the ranger. That always irritated me about the Mule if you're rolling with a few folks and loading feeders. Hard to get more than 8 bags in there.

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And nearly a 10 foot wheelbase. And a 19 foot turn radius. Capacity is 1000 lbs. So if you have 4 guys weighing 200 each...you can haul an additional 200 lbs in that bed. Unless you are in CA, where you are 200lbs over the limit already.

Only a 1 year warranty as well. Does have some good features that I would love to see in my Mule though. I like the display better, cupholders better and it looks like it comes with underseat storage standard.

The short bed on the Mule is limited, and if that is the knock on it, odds are those folks are looking for a reason to knock it anyway. I've never had more than 1 other person with me when filling feeders, definitely wasn't a party trip for that function.