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It sounds like it's best to pend the extra $1500 and get a Polaris!! I'm still struggling with figuring out how to get the UTV from camp site to fun site!... this is a deal breaker and may terminate my plans if I can't figure it out! Considering that I will have a hitch in the back of my truck then just driving the 12' UTV into the bed and leaving the butt sticking out isn't an option. If I could just raise it above the hitch then I would be OK. Any ideas? I was looking at the diamond back truck cover, bit that simply makes the situation worse because its not as stable. The width of the truck bed is 62.5" where the width of the Polaris 800 crew is 60" so it will fit with 2.5" to spare. http://www.diamondbackcovers.com/atv-carrier/atv-carrier/packages.php What would work would be a couple of ramps flat on top that were 12' long and would fit in the bed of the truck. This would raise the UTV above the hitch gear. Low tech and probably a lot cheaper Of course towing would be best but we've discussed that this would damage the UTV. But how about getting a very small folding tow dolly for just the front wheels?.. would that work? has anyone done this or has ideas? Thanks again!

Thanks for the feedback.. this is VERY useful!.. the bummer that I'm finding is that all the e 5 or 6 seaters are 12.0xxxx ft long. A lot of the Toy hauler models have exactly 12' garages. I've talked to the helpful folks at heartland RV and they said that the fit would be to tight and when they say a 12' garage they mean 12 FEET!.. no wiggle room! However I'm seeing a 14' garage that would work and leaves the UTV selection open. Also can you or anyone tell me about towing the UTV without a trailer? is it possible to lock the steering and use a tow bar. Also can you connect the wiring from the tow vehicle to the UTV for brake lights and signals or would you have to make your own jig or maybe they sell them? As you mentioned.. putting it on the bed of the truck is a poor option! Thanks

Hi, My Family and I just returned from a vacation where we were frustrated by the fact that we were not able to access interesting places via off road tracks even in our 4WD SUV. However we saw folks happily going through in UTV's. So We decided that it maybe a nice idea to get a UTV especially as we are also in the market to replace our travel trailer with a 5th wheel Toy Hauler. We need to seat 5 people. Admittedly our 4 year old boy could possible squash in between his sisters on the back seat of a 4 seater, but 4 year old boys have a habit of growing into 6' teenagers rather quickly, so we want to plan for seating 5 full sized adults. We DO NOT want a high performance top of the market hot rod with all the features!!!!.. I want to be be very clear on that! The budget is sub $12K, just need something to get us to the top of the mountain and carry our picnic! If it does this at a snails pace then no problem! As I mentioned we're also buying a Toy hauler. I see that a lot of toy haulers have a 12' garage. I was looking at the Polaris 800 ranger and that is 12' long.. this is a tight squeeze!.. it would be nice if we could find a 5/6 seater that was 11' 11" LOL! If not then we'll need to start looking at Toy Haulers with 14' garage. Also.. We live in Kalifornia but most trips are out of state. I understand that in order to take this on public roads it would need plates. Unfortunately KA does not allow them on the road and DMV won't issue plates. Does anyone have work arounds that we can register somewhere else and get plates so when we are lets say camping in Utah we can go to the local convenience store in it rather than firing up the truck! Another question: talking about trucks.. is it possible to tow the UTV rather than put it on the bed? If we want to explore a place off road and that place is lets say 40 miles from our camp site then we need to get the UTV to the trailhead. We've seen trucks with the UTV in the bed but nobody towing? It seems to be taht towing one to the place of adventure would be preferable. Can someone advise? Sorry for all the dumb questions, but like I said, this is my first exploration into the world of UTV's :-) Thanks, Steve