[Ketchn]

Hi,
I have been reading some of the threads and wanted to say Hi.
I currently have a:
2003 Yamaha Kodiak 400 ATV.
2010 Massy GC-2400 subcompact tractor with a 4' bush cutter, 5' mower, and front snow blower.
For the last 8 years I have been looking for something that could take the place of all that stuff.
I spotted the Brutus at a local dealer last fall and thought, (finally, my dream has come true).
Unfortunately that local dealer and the 3 others within an hour of me decided not to carry the Brutus due to the high cost of adding a commercial equipment dealership from Polaris.
Not wanting to drive 3-4 hours on the interstate to try one out I drove over to the local Bobcat dealer and my wife and I tried out a 3650.
Loved the way it drove and the great ride over the bumps ( I have a real bad back and my tractor jolts me around on the bumps). I removed and replaced the snowblower a couple of times with no struggling, or hurting my back.
I don't think this one had the speed fixing mod done to it yet as it had a hard time going up a hill and got up to only 22 mph coming down it. We normally only go 15-30 mph on the ATV trails anyway so if the Brutus will get up to 25-30 mph after it's fixed that will be fine with us.
I mow about 20 acres of old bumpy farm fields and I snow blow 3 or 4 local driveways for the neighbors, I also some times have to clear the road early some mornings before I go to work when we have big storms, we also like to ride on the hundreds of miles of ATV trails.
We only had 2 things we didn't like:
1. The engine is incredibly loud in the cab ( my tractor has a 3 cylinder diesel engine and it is quite and smooth at full throttle, it just hums). You shouldn't need hearing protection in something with this nice of a cab on it.
2: The drivers window flips open for a breeze, but the passenger side doesn't. My wife didn't like that. The Bobcat flyer shows both sides open. The Polaris flyer shows neither side opens. Do the windows open on the Polaris?

The heat and air worked great, sure will be nice.
Over all we loved it and it would be perfect for mowing, snow blowing and riding on the trails, I also would use it to put my boat in and out of the water.

Hopefully the noise can be toned down some with sound deadening material.

 

[Jorts]

The machine is loud, I agree. It almost sounds like the cab traps the sound inside and magnifies it. There are flip open windows available for it, and I agree that should be standard. It's goofy to open the door to talk to people outside of the machine.

Aside from those two "preference" items, my brutus has worked very well. I have almost 750 hours now and she runs great. Good luck.

 

[Ketchn]

Thanks,

 

[polarisfan]

welcome to the forum

 

[Ketchn]

I should be picking up mine tomorrow.

Ok it is going to be the Bobcat 3650, as no Polaris dealers sell them in my area.
Hope I don't get kicked out of the a polaris forum. ( they are the same machine).
I will be getting the snow blower, mower, and bucket.
I drove it on some trails for around 2 hours the other day.
It handled some rough trails real good, lots of bumps ruts and hills. It was very slow in low gear going up a very steep hill in all wheel drive. It did not spin or slip, but I could of walked past it. I hope that can adjusted out of it. On a slight downhill I got it up to 33 mph. I liked the way it drove and rode, so did the Guy that rode with me from the dealer, he had not been it it before and said it rode much better than his parents Polaris RZR.
Hope I can pick it up tomorrow.

 

[Thumper]

We had some snow last winter, maybe a foot deep. I took our Brutus to check our spring (or maybe just to screw around). I had it in all wheel drive. It came to the point where it would not go, period. I did not think much of it at first. I now wonder if that is the point it would not go and, as far as I can tell, it won't spin the tires, even in all wheel drive. I am really just guessing here, but I was on a steep slope, and when it stopped I simply backed out.
Another thing, when driving down a steep slope, in all wheel drive, with loose rocks, I have learned to give a bit of pedal to keep the front wheels engaged. If I let off the fuel pedal all the way, the rear wheels (or wheel, I don't know) drag and the Brutus will try to turn sideways as it descends. If I give it just a bit of pedal, I have more control. I would appreciate some feedback from other owners of their experiences. We mowed fields this weekend, and only put about 4-5 gallons of diesel to keep the Brutus topped off. The gas mower we pull with the Brutus takes 2.5 gallons every 2 hours. We have a john Deere 870 tractor With a Yanmar engine in it and it seems to forever on a tank of fuel, much like the Brutus.

 

[polarisfan]

thumper, with your experience would you suggest someone get it or shop around and try to look for other good options?

 

[Ketchn]

I picked up the Bobcat 3650 today and drove it home with the bucket, it was about a 35 mile drive on a mix of very hilly and rough to very smooth old railroad bed trails. I took off the bucket and my wife and I went for a ride, she tried driving for a while, but she was having to sit forward in the seat so she could reach the pedals. (No seat adjustment).
I loved the ride and I used the bucket to move a fallen tree off the trail. The only bad is a big one, the engine is so loud that it's even annoying with earplugs in. I put 50 miles on it this afternoon and evening, I had the earplugs in for the first 40 miles and we both had them out the last 10. Both of us had ringing ears after the ride. I cannot for the life of me figure out what possessed Polaris and Bobcat to use the very noisy Yanmar engine, my Isseki engine in my Massey Ferguson subcompact tractor is very smooth and quiet compared to the Yanmar. Cabs on tractors and construction equipment make things quieter, not more noisy, not sure why it's the opposite here.
I love the Bobcat and it should work great, but it's going to need some extensive sound proofing, so we can hear each other without yelling.

 

[polarisfan]

post some pictures of it.
did your wife at least like driving it?

 

[Ketchn]

I should be playing with it when I get home from work.
Then I have to figure out the magic way to post a photo or video.

 

[Thumper]

I think you decide the purpose for the purchase (sorry, I can't control myself). We drive ours for for maybe 3-4 hours while mowing or spraying. The fuel mileage has become more of a bonus than I thought it would be. I don't see us trying to ride this on trails with others. They would either be waiting on us or leaving us behind, unless it is a very rough, slow going trail.We will eventually buy an additional UTV, either a ranger or a razor, when we retire in a few years. The Brutus will be the work guy, the gasser will be the fungi. There it goes again!

 

[polarisfan]

yup the brutus is a work horse.

 

[Thumper]

Spun the tires!

Mi espousa and I were out checking things two nights ago. We checked a wildlife tank, and I decided to put the Brutus in all wheel drive to get up to the to the tank. This machine in my opinion is still the best we could have purchased. The fuel mileage is great, and although it slows way down up a steep hill, it carries everything we have put on it. Oh yeah, I said it would not spin the tires, but it did. I backed off the steep hill and everything was good.

 

[polarisfan]

Mi espousa and I were out checking things two nights ago. We checked a wildlife tank, and I decided to put the Brutus in all wheel drive to get up to the to the tank. This machine in my opinion is still the best we could have purchased. The fuel mileage is great, and although it slows way down up a steep hill, it carries everything we have put on it. Oh yeah, I said it would not spin the tires, but it did. I backed off the steep hill and everything was good.

that's great to hear.

 

[Ketchn]

I now have hit the 500 mile and 50 hr. point. Most of it was on the trails. I am going to pick up the mower today, hope I can use it some before the big rains hit for a couple of days.
It rides good with 2 people and a little weight in the back, it's not too bad empty with only me on board. It's happiest at 10-20 mph, and less noisy. I used the bucket to move several large rocks off a trail, smooth some bump in my lawn, and move some large log chunks around. The snow blower shouldn't get used of another 4 months.
On the trails it can get very dusty when traveling with a group, every one was very dusty except us. We had the A/C running and the cabin filter works great, we had a dust free ride and we were the last ones in line and had the most dust going past us.

 

[Ketchn]

The rain ended, I mowed my lawn and it worked great, the ride was so smooth. I mowed my lawn a week ago with my subcompact tractor and about took my back out.
This evening I drove about 45 minutes down the trails to the farm (I averaged 27mph).
I then mowed for 2 hours, the grass and weeds were a little over a foot high, very thick honey suckle was mixed in with most of it. I set the mower on high and the cut was very good. It was very slow going as it was so thick and tall, about 2mph up hill, and 3-4mph down hill. Once I had it mowed I could go over the shorter grass at normal mower speed.
I will be back mowing more over the next 2 or 3 days, it's around 20 acres and I can only mow about 2 hours at a time due to my work hours.

 

[polarisfan]

The rain ended, I mowed my lawn and it worked great, the ride was so smooth. I mowed my lawn a week ago with my subcompact tractor and about took my back out.
This evening I drove about 45 minutes down the trails to the farm (I averaged 27mph).
I then mowed for 2 hours, the grass and weeds were a little over a foot high, very thick honey suckle was mixed in with most of it. I set the mower on high and the cut was very good. It was very slow going as it was so thick and tall, about 2mph up hill, and 3-4mph down hill. Once I had it mowed I could go over the shorter grass at normal mower speed.
I will be back mowing more over the next 2 or 3 days, it's around 20 acres and I can only mow about 2 hours at a time due to my work hours.

great feedback, thanks for sharing, glad to hear that overall it did well for you.

 

[Ketchn]

I finished mowing the tall stuff, about 1-2 feet.
The Unit is very under powered, it goes OK if you go across the hill instead of up it.
The GPS read 0-2 mph going up hill, not a big hill just a mild one.
I was running the PTO at 1900-2000 rpm, engine around 3600 rpm, but the engine could not hold anything near that rpm. ( I was always having to creep or stop)
I then pulled the engine rpm back to 3400 rpm and the PTO was around 1800 rpm, that gets it a little closer to the engines max torque range of (I think) 2900 rpm. That means it has more grunt power the closer it gets to its max torque range. It seams it doesn't have much power above 3400 rpm.
After that I could mow at a steady speed and the grass cut was still good.
I think with the engine at full throttle @ about 2000 rpm on the PTO, with the A/C going the poor thing is at max power as it dies quickly when you get into some thicker grass, normally the governor would kick in a little extra power to pull you through, but I think it's already kicked in just to hold it at 2000 rpm with no grass load on it. At 3400 engine rpm I could mow at a steady pace as the governor would kick in a little to help you power through the heavy stuff, I only had to turn off the A/C when going up steeper sections.

 

[polarisfan]

how thick was that grass?

 

[Ketchn]

I say grass, but it's grass, weeds flowers, and some vine thing that is very thick.
I raised the mower and still had a hard time going up hill, also it had rained a couple of days earlier. No drought here in Maine.