Argo in the news

[beungood]

While watching weather reports for Massachusetts I saw a piece on the news about preparations to get Plum Island ready for impending high tides from remnants of Hurricane Sandy and saw a couple of shots of a Tracked Argo being run on the beach with dozers. Looked pretty cool! I'm surprised more Departments don't use these instead of the useless Quads.

[jpswift1]

While watching weather reports for Massachusetts I saw a piece on the news about preparations to get Plum Island ready for impending high tides from remnants of Hurricane Sandy and saw a couple of shots of a Tracked Argo being run on the beach with dozers. Looked pretty cool! I'm surprised more Departments don't use these instead of the useless Quads.

Cool! That's some good publicity for our hobby. And you're right, quads are useless when it comes to the conditions that AATVs are used in. I think more departments and municipalities would use AATVs if they knew about them. Once someone sees what they can do, they're hooked. I think the key word here is promote, promote, promote.

[trevorakm1]

While coming home from Maine Colombus day we stopped at the Mass state line rest area. A guy walking his dog past us saw my bigfoot and asked how I liked it? We got to talking and I told him I was surprised he knew what it was, most people just think it's cool but no idea what it is. He said they use them at work and while he personnally didn't use them he was the mechanic for them. I asked what departments used them and he said the staties have like 4 and D.E.M. had 4. He said they really like them as they could get into the swamps and places other vehicles couldn't. He also said that they liked how light they were and the amount of gear they could haul. Pretty cool I thought.

[famvburg]

You couldn't be more right! At the airport where I work, I use my Max II to run the fencelines and ditches. It's my personal machine but I combine play with work when I use it so it's Ok. About a year ago, the manager bought a Kawasaki Mule for me to use. Well, I knew it would have some limitations because it's like a mini-truck, so a lot of confined areas were automatically out. My first trip out, after a rain, it got stuck. Not buried, but wouldn't climb a muddy hill. I had to walk back to get my Max to pull out the Mule. After that, when it's wet in the back area, I still take my Max. When it's dry, I'll take the Mule, but recently, since it's so tall as compared to the Max, a vine ripped off the roof and a stump ripped off a plastic trim cover on the front. The windshield, while nice, is all scratched up and I'm waiting for it to get busted. It's so top heavy that there are parts of trails I will not take it because of the slope, where the Max is so low and sure-footed I don't think twice. We've had it a year and it has less than five hours on it. It won't go 75% of the area that my Max will. You know what? He never asked my input before he bought the Mule. We had initially talked about the airport just paying me for the use of my Max but he decided getting a Mule would be better. Had he asked my input, besides paying me rent, I would have told him to buy a Max II or IV or even an Argo, because those are the vehicles best suited for the back area. So, that's how departments end up with worthless 4 wheelers or worthless vehicles like the Mule. The department heads don't know and don't ask. They just see 'everybody' using 4 wheelers so that's what they must need too. So, we have a $10,000 piece of unsuitable equipment just sitting. He asked me once after I got stuck in the Mule why I was still using my Max, and I told him that when I go out there in the Max, I know I'm coming back in it.