2004 Kawasaki 550 MULE

[Sir Henry]

My neighbor has a mule for sale and I’m thinking of buying it. I was looking for something newer but they tend to take excellent care of things. Anyone have any experience with one?

[Headhog]

I have a 2005 Mule 3010 that I bought used in 2010. This thing has been a work horse and I use it for carrying fire wood, dirt, rock and just about everything else. I added a snow plow since it already had a winch and have plowed my driveway, our street and several of the neighbors driveways. I would be lost without it.

Just not sure of the difference between the 550 and the 3010 models.

Paul

[Sir Henry]

The 3010 has 4WD and twice the horsepower.

[daytime dave]

I don't know anything about Kawasaki Mules, but any utility vehicle like that is very handy. If your neighbor takes good care of their equipment as you do, that probably is a good deal. I used to use a garden tractor and wagon for many of the things our UTV can do. I sometimes put the wagon behind the UTV.

[Hatchdog]

No experience with a Mule but I have a 2004 Polaris Sportsman 400 I’ve owned since new. It’s plowed literally tons of snow and has done lots of towing and other hard chores. Still runs strong today with nothing but routine maintenance. Seems like with proper care these ATV’s run forever, particularly if adult owned and not run to death on the trails. Sounds like the Mule you’re considering would be right there with mine.

[Ernie]

My neighbor has a mule for sale and I’m thinking of buying it. I was looking for something newer but they tend to take excellent care of things. Anyone have any experience with one?
[/quote
Is the neighbor upgrading?

[Sir Henry]

She is 86 years old and her husband who is 87 just went into the nursing home. She is taking the husbands newer Deer John and selling the Mule.

[rickhem]

I'd say buy it.
Kawasaki makes great little engines, parts are readily available, not that you'll need many. The youngsters all want bigger engines and higher top speeds, but that's not what the mule was designed to do, so it's not on their radar. It's a fantastic little vehicle for general use.
You'll be amazed at how you use it so often, and can't believe you went without one before.

[BrokenolMarine]

We had a small hobby farm in VA, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. As my health declined, I wasn't able to get around like I could when I was younger, and on my birthday one year, we were at the mower repair and I saw the Polaris UTVs sitting outside, and got out of the truck to look. I ended up buying a Polaris Ranger Side By Side, the 500. It was a small one, a basic model. It did all we needed to do and I used it to run to the mailbox, check the property lines and to run the 1100 feet of road frontage picking up litter with my grabber and tossing it in the bed of the Ranger.

BOM Ranger 500.jpg (295.01 KiB) Viewed 1319 times

At first, Miss Tina didn't use it much, but one day I looked out and saw her loading a pile of leaves she had raked into a manual wheelbarrow. I walked out with the keys to the Ranger and said, "You forget we have a gas powered wheelbarrow? The Ranger has a dump bed?" After that, she used it all the time to haul leaves, mulch, gravel, feed to the coops and barn, it got a good workout. I'd use it to haul gear on the range, and to check the woods. We used it to pull pressure on trees we were dropping, to haul things out of the woods, we even used it to move the small Amish buildings when we needed to relocate them. It went with the farm when we sold it, so I didn't have to haul it across country to Oklahoma, but I bought a Polaris 1,000 when we got here.

04 2023 Ranger Driver.jpg (406.25 KiB) Viewed 1319 times

You'll find uses. Here you can drive them on the road in the rural areas, and put motorcycle licenses on them and turnsignals and you can drive them in town. (No, we don't.) We do drive around the rural roads though, checking the area and the back side of the property.

[HenryFan]

I am in possession of my 3rd UTV, this one a Kawasaki Mule SX 4X4. It's a basic machine, only a step above the most basic Mule, a Mule SX which does not have 4-wheel drive. Although power by only a single cylinder air cooled 401cc engine, it does all that I ask of it. It is not fast but I don't need that. The bed is somewhat small compared to my last Mule, a Mule 4010 but it is sufficient for my purposes. I use it to travel between food plots to maintain stands, pull an ag sprayer and somewhat rarely, to put out corn.

If you plan to keep the machine for an extended period, I think that availability of parts may be a factor. Kawasaki has made essentially the same Mule since 2017 and the predecessor to that (Mule 610?) was also quite similar. It uses little fuel and compared to most other UTV's, is very reasonably priced. I must admit that my inherent cheapness was an influence.

I think chinese ATV's and UTV's are cheaper but they are made of chinesium and in my opinion, are of dubious quality. I think a used Mule 550 which was well caed for and properly serviced is of more value that a new chinese product.

I would not hesitate to buy my Mule SX 4X4 again.