How do you justify a ATV or E-Bike ?

For those folks that do NOT own their own land or lease 100’s of acres to hunt or trap on how do you justify paying $ 8000.00 to $25,000 for a ATV or $2500.00 for a E-Bike ? What am I missing here ? At 62 would like to buy one when I retire but I do not own any land to drive the darn things on. MD

I've owned 1
A Polaris 400 sportsman 2005 model , drove it allaround my small farm tonight filling water tanks n getting eggs

First off a 400 or 500 is all a guy needs with 4x4 power and a Good winch. Don't spare the winch

Keep it up and a $6 to 7thousand model will do all you need.

I bear hunt with mine on private land and State forest trapping.

We can now legally drive them into our town. I have never yet 8 miles is too far.

I use my 4wheeler to trap off of when its to muddy to drive my pickup into pastures. I haul from place to place on a trailer. I fire it up every month or so. I rode it about 5 miles today. On county roads. You could get a ticket for that but no one I know ever has

I'm fat and lazy?

There are thousands of miles of logging roads just north of here where you can ride 4 wheelers.One area north and west of Abitibi canyon that was logged in the 70s is larger than the province of prince edward Island.
Unlimited hunting and fishing if you have a 4 wheeler.

There are things I'd like to do and things I'd like to buy but I can't "justify" them so I refrain. It's a matter of conscience.

Old age?

I'm like Danny. I trap off of my side by side and haul it from one pasture to another. Actually checking with it is the reason for a lot of the permissions I get. Sandhill pastures are pretty fragile, a pickup can leave ruts that never heal up. We can drive them pretty much anywhere here, including in town. I use mine to get the mail, go to grocery store, or the hardware store. Leave pickup in the garage,

Bought a 2005 Polaris sportsman 700 used in 2010. Still got it. Justified with snow plow as i needed something to clear long driveway. It was hard to find. I ended up sending a guy a post dated check with deposit so it wouldn't sell before i could get there on a weekend. Back then any decent used 4 wheeler that was appropriately priced went fast.

We bought a used Honda foreman, an atv not a utv and got it for less than $4 thousand with low hours. We put new tires on it and had it tuned up. It is 4 wheel drive. We shopped hard to find one too. Last year they were crazy popular and not many produced when factories shut down. Everyone at home for a spell wanted toys I guess. Anyway, we found a good one at decent prices locally and it serves us well.
We only have a 3 acre yard and use it quite a bit. Pull behind weed sprayer, pull behind drop spreader for fertilizer and grass seed. We plan to put a blade on it for pushing snow off our drive lane too. Out neighbor has one and he clears his drive fairly quickly with a blade on his.
The boys like to ride ours too. Found with a ball hitch they can haul the jon boat and trailer up from behind the house to our driveway much easier too.
Looking around now for a small trailer as I would use this to trap with also when conditions warrant.
Jim

I would like to buy an e- bike someday. But I despise 4 wheelers. Gas is getting too expensive and hard to find.

If you hunt/trap public land and can use one then get one

Texas is mostly private but they do have public hunts that we use ATVs on

If I did not own land I would probably have no reason to own ATV

You can get a great pre owned atv for 4 grand or less.

You can get an ebike for $1200 and up. I see a lot of them in the city. Perfect for the body that can't afford a car. No licensing, insurance, all that BS. Technically anything with a motor is supposed to be licensed in NE including a boat with a little trolling motor. Nowadays with the electric wheelchairs, scooters, skateboards, segways, and now bicycles I think the Law has give up on trying to enforce it. Maybe some states/cities have legalized the electric transportation.

We have untold numbers of people here who own a half acre or less "many live in subdivisions" who buy an ATV and expect to tresspass and ride on other peoples private property.

That plan usually doesn't work out real well for them.

Oh yeah, golf carts too. The uppity-ups like to cruise the streets in the evenings in their golf carts.

We own both ATV and UTV. Bought the ATV new in 2008 Honda foreman 500, $5000.00. Still great machine will last forever. Honda is hard to beat.
UTV wife broke her back so I started looking, she cant really ride ATV anymore with me. Usually takes me 3 years to find and buy anything, I hate spending money. Found a 2016 Honda 1000-5 with 400 miles on it, and nice trailer for 12,500. Couldn't pass it up, my wife who is my hunting partner as well can still go anywhere we want to. We have roads all open around us, and our family owns a nice sized piece of land.

I do not own much land but have an ATV and a side by side. Trapped using ATV but hauling capacity was lacking. Upgraded to side by side and solved that problem. And most of the property I trap, I could not trap out of a truck so the s x s is the ticket because walking is not feasible. I have one property that I drive 7 miles of farm lanes/logging trails at one stop. I just trailer up and go. Without the ATV or S x S I would be sitting at home.

Lived most of my life without an ATV of any kind but intend to have one the rest of my days. Sort of like a 4 wheel drive truck, gonna have one of them also. The way I see it, I can not afford to NOT have them.

I justify things by the use and enjoyment I get out of them. Some things cost now but save you money long term by taking time and making things easier.
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I use my side by side daily for farm chores. Feeding, milking,hauling water to animals, getting fire wood in(heat with outdoor wood stove).
I bought it used for a song and used it every day for 4 years now. Have replaced tires 2 times breaks, starter, caliper, and it uses a little oil. It's about time to shop for another one.

Also my kids learned how to operate motor vehicles on it at a very young age

I have a Polaris UTV I much enjoy to trap off of. No way I can justify it financially but if I get ten more good years trapping it’s worth it to me. My neighbor has a 50,000 truck and 40,000 dollar boat and he’s never sold a fish.

Claim your fur income along with other job income and write off the 4x4 on taxes. Let uncle buy it for you. They make the rules, use them to best advantage.

If all you have is your own ground, well you can drive a truck or whatever you want. Out here it is mostly all public ground. A lot of the roads in this area on public ground are open to ATV's and snowmobiles but closed to trucks and anything over 48" wide (only randomly enforced on sidexsides, almost all are overwidth but only one in ten LEOs will bother to enforce it). Plus there are the dedicated ATV trails. I'm on my third ATV, for the mileage you get out of one they are really pretty expensive, 20,000 on an atv and they are pretty much completely worn out.

Because they are popular and legal there are lots of trails that are physically too narrow for anything bigger.

You only live once.
And you won't be taking any money when you leave. Live it up

I bought a Honda 300 TRX in 1990. Still running like new. Use it to haul or drag deer back to the clubhouse skinning shed and to carry hundreds of pounds of bait corn to shooting lanes. I am now 74 and looking at my third knee replacement. I could not hunt by myself without my little ATV.

You do not need a large engine for hunting. Rarely ever go full speed.

The biggest advantage I see in a eBike is getting around on gated lands not opened to motorized vehicles. That’s the itch they scratch for me just need to find enough info on what one fits my needs.

4 wheelers for me are a utility item getting me and gear where it needs to go.

I bought a rad bike 4 years ago. I hunt 220 acres of cropland along a river bottom. So checking trail cams in 95 degree heat had me looking into one. PLUS the ebike you can put all your clothes on before you go to the stand and not be wet with sweat before getting there. Farmers will frown on riding a 4 wheeler thru the crops. But the e-bike fits nicely around the edge or in the treads of a boom spray after they spray the beans.
Also they are 1400 vs the 3-4 grand for quiet cat.

I just bought my first ATV, a new Honda Rancher the end of June. My brothers have had quads and side X sides for years. I never needed one, figured my legs can take me where a P U can't. Used to put miles and miles behind me. They farmed after I got out of actively farming. Now I see things a little differently. My back is shot due to spinal stenosis, a slipped vertebrae, and arthritis in my lower back and now they tell me I am getting cervical stenosis, along with a worn out knee and a bad hip. Don't cover the miles I used to due to pain and numbness and burning and tingling. I ain't quite ready to become a couch fatso. I bought the Rancher to get me around where I want to be hunting sheds, mushrooms, trapping, bowhunting etc. The quad is a little hard to sit on comfortably so I am still in the market for a side X side before I retire. Maybe an E bike or with my ability I'm blessed with I'll build an off road electric trike or scooter or something. Being outdoors and active in many activities that take place outdoors is what fills my soul. A great view, the smell of fresh cut hay or turned dirt, a small fawn or giant buck looking at me from the field edge, or the mystery of what is in my trap around the next bend in the field is what keeps me going. Time to pass it on to the next generation. Can't do that from a recliner, so I'll spend my hard earned money on what ever it takes to keep me outdoors. And in the end it's my wishes in my will to be put in a furnace and then have my remains sprinkled on the family farms and in a couple areas I loved the most. Forever blowing in the wind.

I think a lot of it depends on how far back in the boonies you willing to walk. I have one area that is 4 miles from the house on a two track, (you couldn't get a vehicle down it) and then another 1/2 mile from where I park. But, I like that kinda of trapping never have met anyone back that far. So the ATV comes in real handy to get from point A to point B. I can also carry a lot of gear, that I don't have to pack, and I can take just for what I need than come back and go to the next spot. Being that I live close to Lake Superior, we can get some real freakish weather, and the ATV with 4 wheel drive has got me out of some real bad spots.

I had the extra $ laying around .

Outside of the Canada post it sounds like if you don’t own your own land there is really no way to use them trapping or hunting in the USA. Couple places out in salt lake desert maybe a couple other places were there is trail riding for just something to do and they charge a daily fee of $25.00 to $50.00 a day. I went to a Honda ATV dealer yesterday and kind of played dumb looking at ATV’s in their show room. The VERY first thing the salesman ask me if I was a farmer. Salesman clammed right up when I asked him if there was any place he knew of in Iowa or any other state were I could use this ATV on public land to hunt or trap with. Salesman kept asking me if I was a farmer. Salesman Tried to match my situation with the need of owning one. I guess that is what a salesman is suppose to do. That kind of says it all for me. You folks that have your own land are very very lucky. MD

BECAUSE I CAN!

Ice fishing alone justifies buying one for me. These aging broken beat up handicapped legs need help

I put over 18,000 miles on a Honda Foreman trapping and hunting in ND. Mostly trapping miles. I can assure you they that was not all on my 20 acres. I needed it to trap. It was used as a tax right off, so it was easy to justify.

I'm not from Canada. From this post it looks like it depends vastly on the area you hunt or trap. Of course if you don't have an ATV it is unlikely you are hunting or trapping in an area where an ATV is needed for access. I put 45,000 on my first two and am up to 12,000 on my current one. Only a couple hundred of those miles on three ATV's were not hunting and/or trapping miles (including scouting). I'm in fairly decent shape and can do twenty miles a day on foot pretty easily, but I can do a hundred miles on an ATV while carrying a heck of a lot more gear. That is five times the ground covered, and for those who are physically impaired, they may not be able to hike with me, but they can do the same mileage I can on an ATV and still have access to all that ground they would not without one.

I have four Suzuki’s…400, two 500s, and a 700. The (2006) 700 King Quad stays at camp. I use it in the camp yard, trips over to my aunts place, stocking trout and plowing my driveway. I have a (2004) 400 Eiger that I leave locked up in building every season on 2000 acres of private ground, it’s my hunting and trapping machine. It gets run a lot from late Sept, through Feb. I usually average 600-700 miles a season on it. I have a ( 2001 ) 500 Quadmaster at the house. It gets used in the yard, plowing snow, hauling down garbage can to the highway, moving honey supers at the bee yard, and when I hunt here at the house. I have another ( 1998 ) 500, an old Quadrunner, that is my back up/ spare machine in case I have something break down. I have a plow for it also.

I bought all these machines used, $1850, $1900, $2200, and $3000. Two had less than a thousand miles, the other two, less than two thousand. Three came with plows, all had winches. Good used quads have really went up in price, particularly after all the stimulus monies. The trick is to find one that was a yard machine for elderly folks….not trail ridden by youngsters. I’m always on the lookout for a good used machine.

in all the surrounding towns and the one I live in you can now drive on all the streets other than the state highway or ones specifically marked as not ATV in my town it is just the state highway and you can cross it , just not run down it.

this has given a LOT more people a reason for a side by side , they drive around their 1/4 acre yard pick up brush and grass clippings and take them to the compost site , they run to the hardware store or grocery store.

old guys drive UTV around town now stop and chat , run errands , and you can drive out to the farm

it has become the Redneck convertible

I didn't manage to justify one yet myself , I have a little S-10 I drive around the yard and pick up brush and run to the compost or move firewood around. my son calls it his truck but I paid the registration on it and most of the gas that has gone in it I paid for so whenever I want to use it I just do.

I use it daily on the farm, farm more efficient to put a bag of feed on a 4 wheeler than a pickup. Check cows, fix fence, spraying noxious weeds etc. Great for trapping.

One of the best uses for a 4 wheel bike is pushing snow.
We get a lot of snow here and since I put the blade on the bike I only use the snowblower maybe once or twice a winter after a huge storm that makes big drifts.
I keep my entire back yard clear of snow all winter and most of the front yard along with the double driveway.
Its fun pushing snow with the bike in winter.

We had an uncharacteristic 26” snowfall from a December storm here in Pa last year. I was able to clear my camp driveway ( about 100 yards ) with a plow on the 700 KIng Quad. It was like eating an elephant….one small bite at a time. It helped that the driveway was paved, and slightly downhill. I had to chain up the back wheels too. Plowed out across the yard to my woodpile, and down to my shed also.

Places I need to go that a truck just won’t get out of if it’s wet so the 4 wheeler fits the job they are streetable here but no interest in that for me. I put a 10 foot boom on mine for spraying weeds with it get the job done.

Here in Iowa it appears with no public land use for ATV’s just will not work for a old crippled up guy like me.
Going to have to do some research I guess state to state and maybe I can retire in a state that has some public land were I can use them. MD

You can't use them on the private land you trap? I don't have one acre of public land and don't one a single one either. If I didn't have a UTV, I wouldn't be trapping most of the land I'm on.

I do not own much land either and do not trap public at all. If I did not have a ATV or UTV, I would not be on the properties I trap. Not complicated at all but some can not seem to understand.

I use mine to run traps, Plow snow, cut fire wood and work ground for food plots.

I have two 4-wheeler vehicles. Both purchased as used machines. One is a 300 cc the other 450. They are housed at our sons small farm where they are used frequently for farm projects, fencing projects and hauling several cord of wood out of the two woodlots. I also use both for 6 weeks in the spring to haul sap buckets, tubs and sap out of several of the larger maple woodlots. I use them for trapping about 3 weeks per year, so can I justify buying a couple 4 wheelers for trapping, no but other uses do. Also there are some items in life one just does not need to justify based on cost effectiveness. I would not run a lot of my canine and dryland coon line if I did not have some mode of transportation to get through those fields and not do damage to the hay fields. My neighbor spends several thousand per year golfing and bowling so I don't feel that I am too out of line.

Bryce

Lol. We get a few of them every year hear in the snowbelts. Did I see another post about wildfire smoke where
youre claiming NWPA? Stop that. Snow shoe is central or do you need a map? Dont characterize all of PA with
your type, mr browneye. Claiming miner but posting about management or supervision positions. Yuppster.

If you want one,,and have the money for it,thats all the justification you should need.Life is short.

Guys around here buy them to drive to the tavern.

A snowmachine is more practical for me for ice fishing and trapping, but I'm sure that's not typical.

ATV/UTV aren't allowed to run on state land around here and most the trail systems I can drive w/ my F250, so it seems kind of pointless.

If I need to go to the grocery store, hardware store, etc., I'll just take my truck.

I just wish the guys that drive by my house to go drinking wouldn't put the after-market mufflers on them. They're so loud and obnoxious.

Around here I have access to millions of acres of public land, but there’s a lot of it that you can’t get to in a pickup, you’ll get stuck between two boulders or edged off a cliff, But a four wheeler can get through, or in some cases, around. It opens up hundreds of thousands of acres of land to hunt and trap that would otherwise only be accessible on foot or by horse. So pretty easy to justify one here.

I’m cheap though, I can’t imagine spending more than 2k on a used one. Blows my mind that people will spend $30k+ on those fancy sideXsides

Out here in the west there’s lots of opportunities to use atvs on public land. Most of the state is BLM, and a lot of that is open use for atvs. There’s a lot of national forest in some places and that’s a little more strict but an atv will still get you ten miles or more farther than a pickup will on those trails, farther during trapping season when there’s snow up top

Simple.

Can you afford it?
Do you want one?
Does it matter what anyone else thinks?

You are a grown man. You can do whatever you feel as long as it is legal and not foolish.

Yep. Some of us are disabled, If I had a four wheeler or a fancy bike, I could trap like I used too. I can't afford one so I do what's close. I don't get great results but I'm still digging and enjoy being out there. Do what you can and find solace in it...

82 model honda 200 big red still going, l have hunted, and just explored on it , use it to pull yard sweeper quite a bit.

Just do it

Heck yeah!