My much waited for Gator arrived at the homestead!

I had to buy a container to house to his farm truck. It has a dump bed, and after I add a power dump; it will become a dump truck when I build my wallipini greenhouse.

I will also need a cab for bad / cold weather:

This is a view of the front, with the bed down. I know the front shocks are bad, and I'll need to replace them right away.

It has a cute little hood, with almost nothing under it:

But it will keep some of the water out, so it is useful. The air intake is under the passenger seat, but I plan to move it higher when I add a cab. I may raise the exhaust too, will decide on that later.

Here it is with the bed tilted:

This only reinforces my decision to power this bed, this beastie is Heavy! Thick steel here, and some needs rust mitigation and painting.

The main works:

It's apparently a 25 hp Suzuki engine with a continuously variable belt drive, like my industrial mill has on it. The sides of the belt run on two tapered plates. When you want less speed, or more torque; you close the gap some between the tapered plates. The other set of tapered plates on the opposite end moves inversely to help slow down and to also take up the difference in belt length. I was told the VW Jetta uses this same system.

The tires were bad before I bought it:

But the seller agreed to add new tires, before he delivered this Gator. These are a sand based design, and brand new on my all four rims!

Pedals surprisingly fit my legs and feet:

I was a little concerned, because I'm a fairly big boy, but apparently they allowed for this! I do see on the fender, paint weartyat shows where the previous owner put his left foot. You can see that the seats will need to be replaced, but they're about $75 each; so this is minor!

Here's the transmission control:

Not really a shifter, because the continuously variable transmission doesn't require speed shifting. Only a forward, neutral, and reverse selector is needed.

My friend had a lock that he lost the key for:

He snapped it on my bumper to use as a recovery hook. I have a winch to add here, and this hook, combined with a snatch block; will be very handy!

I will use this to carry 55 gallons of lake water at a time, for coolant to drill my well. I will need 500 gallons, but the lake is close; so it won't be a big problem.