Mr. Rawles,
I saw your posts about ATVs and your question about the John Deere Gator. I am a former soldier and work with SOCOM troops in Afghanistan. My experience is they use the Gators only on main bases. The workhorse ATVs in the field are Polaris MV 700s or Sportsman 500s. They are gas powered and very tough. The MV 700 is heavily modified and is bulky and rather heavy, but can haul a lot of gear, etc. The Sportsman 500s have some modifications from the standard version, but are largely the same as you can buy from the showroom. I’ve used them over here with those guys, and based on my personal experience and the good recommendations of the SOCOM guys I know, I bought a 500 when I was home on leave. I can’t say much about the Gator, they may be great, but the actual SOCOM field workhorse is almost always a Polaris machine. – Jeff in Afghanistan
Letter from Afghanistan Re: SOCOM’s ATVs
