UTV-Anyone own Recoil IS or Prowler EV?
Equipment
Looking for a Electric UTV. Anyone own a Recoil IS or Prowler EV, electric UTV that could share their experience with reliability and performance?
Not looking to start a debate of Electric vs Gas, Polaris EV vs Honda, etc. Just looking for feedback from someone who owns one of these UTV's.
Thanks in advance for your help.
I'm no help, but I'm interested in the answers. I currently own an older Bad Boy Buggy, and while it's pretty reliable, the brakes are only fair and it takes a half acre to turn it around. I also have an EZ Go Beast, which is a good buggy, but I'd like to upgrade the BB Buggy to something better. Something that has a 10/15 mile range before recharging and is easier to steer.
The Recoil is supposed to have a 100 mile range per the manufacturer but the dealer said a more realistic and personally tested number was 60 miles. I drove it and was happy with how it performed. The IS with independent suspension rode really well.
I know the older BB's had a lot of electrical issues so just wanted to see if anyone had any experience with the new improved "Textron" one.
I looked at the Prowler on the web, looks pretty good but I don't much care for the golf cart-like load platform. I'd much rather have a box bed that tilts. I haven't looked at the Ambush, but I'm thinking it's gas/electric ?
The ambush is gas/electric but they aren’t making them anymore,
My friend has the Hunt Ve and like the bad boy, it has the turn radius of a large box truck. And because of the 4WD unit in the front, not much ground clearence. I have another friend who has a lifted golf cart that has better ground clearence and turn radius. Both ride rough.
i have a 2010 Polaris Ranger EV. i purchased it used in 2014 - i Paid $6,400.00 for it. it had 3 month old batteries when i purchased.
it has been great. i still have the batteries from when i purchased and i still get good range 15 - 18 miles in the woods. It's really quite, very capable off road, we mostly get mud not real Hilly. the ride is absolutely great with the independent suspension. the turning radius is much better than anything else i have owned.
during turkey season i will drive within 100 yds of roosting gobblers and they never know it.
i really like it during early bow season - when its in the 90's and i can drive with in close distance of my stands - really saves on Sweat, scent, and time.
i have owned suped up golf carts, a bad boy buggy, a beast golf cart, and the Polaris Ranger is by far my favorite.
HI Quinn, Is this what you're looking for? I'm a Quietkat dealer and I offer 10% to all members of Bowsite. Let me know if this interests you at all. for the Prowler or anything else for that matter, by entering the word BOWSITE in the discount code you get the 10% discount. hope this helps John
Ended up buying a new 2017 Recoil IS. Haven't had a chance to take it much out of the neighborhood but so far so good. Have about 20 miles on it and still have 3/4 battery charge. Will post again once I've had a chance in a few weeks to put a lot of mountain miles on it.
Best of luck with it Quinn and let us know how it performs.
Well I had a chance to use this machine and put a few hundred miles on it on typical FS roads, ranch roads and 2 tracks. The terrain has moderate inclines, some areas of rough road but nothing you would call extreme terrain where you would use a typical gas powered atv like my polaris sportsman 500.
It was a new machine but a 2017. It had sat on the showroom floor for about 8 moths. The dealer just charged it as needed to keep it topped off with a full charge. This was actually the only issue I had with the machine so far. The batteries really need to be drained completely and then charged fully numerous times to get an acceptable range out of the machine.
Unknown to me I took the machine out on a forest service road and ran it only 14 miles before the batteries went dead. I was not happy. Put a full charge on it and got 16 miles the second trip. I then took it back to the dealer as it was under warranty and 14-16 miles was not acceptable and much below the spec'd distance the dealer said.
The dealer used a machine to deplete the batteries and then charged them about 8 times in hope of conditioning the batteries and increasing it's range. This seemed to work.
I'm now getting about 28 miles per charge in sport mode (uses more battery charge) and gets about 38-40 miles in ECO mode. Sport mode is max speed of 25 mph and ECO mode is 14 mph.
The machine has been a great tool for hunting as we are able to access the property without making any noise and have noticed the animals not spooking like they did when we ran gas powered atv's or trucks.
If you are looking for a work horse this machine is not for you. It will not climb mountains. It simply is a hunting machine to get you from point a to point b silently and scent free.
So far so good.
Thanks for the review. I'm interested in the turning radius and how it steers. The older I get, the more uses I find for a cart :-) I hunt a property that's two hours away and I usually stay a couple nights. I would like to have a dependable E vehicle that I can put ten miles a day on for two/three days and not have to charge. There is no challenging terrain on this place, but it's 2.5 miles from the camp house to where I hunt. This sounds like it could work. Are there any other options on the load platform besides the flip-seat type ? Thanks !
Drycreek,
I think you may be able to get a dump body for the back?
If you're going to try and put 10 miles a day for 3 days in a row I would have a small Honda generator so you could plug it in if the charge got low on you after day 2. It would probably make it the 3 days but wouldn't want to chance it.
The steering seems easy as well as the turning radius but I have nothing to compare it to. You do need a 2 point turn to do a 180 in the middle of a typical Forest service road.
Thanks Quinn, sounds better than my Bad Boy. It has a loooong turn radius and it's hard to steer to boot. In searching the web I came across another brand that I can't remember the name of, but they made an all electric as well as a hybrid. I have a dealer not too far from me and I'm gonna check them out.
