UTV as a winter commuter & Summer toy?

SpeedBlur

New Member
Jan 20, 2018
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Howdy, I'd like to bounce a thought I've had about these UTV rigs off you folks. Please shoot me straight - is the following thought experiment viable or am I asking for too much from one vehicle?

My thought is that I might be able to run a road-legal side by side with an enclosed cab and heater as a winter commuter and in-town ski-hill rig while still using it as a recreational off-road adventure vehicle for the other three seasons? I'm thinking large snow tires and an enclosed cab for winter duty - larger tires to smooth out the road manners and improve fuel economy, while running it in a more traditional setup for the other three months.

To give you some context about my environment and goals, I have an AWD car, a camper van, a motorcycle, and a bicycle that do everything that I need. I live in the Rocky Mountains and enjoy all four seasons as much as possible. I'm all set except for for in the winter when my lady uses the AWD car for work and pleasure, leaving me with the van and the bikes, which aren't so comfortable for winter duty. I'd like to minimize my use of her car without having a second AWD highway road car in our fleet.

The concept here is for me to have a fully functional small winter vehicle that performs double duty as a fun summer recreational vehicle. I'd love to hear some other takes on this - what pitfalls do you see that I'm missing? Thanks
 

wshoemaker757

New Member
Jan 31, 2018
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Odd that nobody responded. First and foremost would be checking the potential of making it legal in your state. If it is possible and mildly easy, then yes it is a viable option. Unfortunately I don't think it is going to be very experienced friendly as far as gas milage goes. It's more of a smile per gallon than mile per gallon.

A full can enclosure and heater is not exactly cheap either. You may honestly be better of finding a used Jeep. It comes with power windows and a heater from the factory.

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Tapatalk
 

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