Anyone worked on a John Deere "Gator" ?

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nmfire10
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Anyone worked on a John Deere "Gator" ?

Post by nmfire10 »

We are going to be getting a John Deere Gator in a week or two for off-road S&R, brush fires, etc etc. I've never touched one of these things before so if anyone has worked on them before, PLEASE share your experiences with it. It will be the HPX 4x4 Diesel model and we are getting the Med-Bed attachment for the rear (pretty slick!)
Also going to have the front & rear receivers hitches, winch, brush guards, and all that jazz

Med-Bed!
Image

What I need to do with this beast is a radio and some form of lighting. The radio would have to survive rain, snow, sleet, volcanic eruptions, locust swarms, etc. I think I a UHF 1/4 wave would probably do.

It's not like this thing will be responding down the road, hell it only goes 25mph. It just has no tail lights so I was thinking TIR3's.
"I'll eat you like a plate of bacon and eggs in the morning. "
- Some loser on rr.com

eBay at it's finest:
Me: "What exactly is a 900Mhz UHF CB?"
Them: "A very nice CB at 900Mhz speed!"
:-?
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WhelenTech
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TIR

Post by WhelenTech »

TIR3's will work well - Hopefully it is stepped down to 12v - if not you will have to....

My buddy has one with TIR's thou I do not think its a gator... but very similiar..
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KitN1MCC
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What radios do you own?: ht1550 XLS,6 MT-1000,

Post by KitN1MCC »

i know for a fact thet 1/4 on UHF would work good

hell even low band cause all the gators over there in chester at the Whelen factory all have Low band radios mounted on them
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spareparts
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Gator Power??

Post by spareparts »

M or HTX model? The Gator I worked on had a 12 volt, 40 Amp alternator, but it was the civilian model. Best bet is to download the manual from the JD website & go from there.

Just keep the boys from going out mud bogging with it. <grin>

Martin
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nmfire10
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Post by nmfire10 »

Sorry. 4x4 HPX Diesel with the 40 amp alternator.
"I'll eat you like a plate of bacon and eggs in the morning. "
- Some loser on rr.com

eBay at it's finest:
Me: "What exactly is a 900Mhz UHF CB?"
Them: "A very nice CB at 900Mhz speed!"
:-?
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thebigphish
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Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2003 10:10 pm
What radios do you own?: AM/FM

Post by thebigphish »

CCSU has one with an Edge on the roof (and a dinky orange beacon in the back), and jumpseats in the rear. The engine holds its own at RPM, but battery won't keep that edge going for very long. no radios on it tho.
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jayres
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Post by jayres »

Working on one here... have the canopy being put on it this week, and we are going with a custom bed built buy a manufacturer in house... using a VHF 1/2 wave no ground plane mount, and a CDM1250 remote mount... Also will be using a Code 3 2 rotator mini bar... Will post pics when we get it done... Jon
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fire-medic8104
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Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2002 8:06 pm

Post by fire-medic8104 »

We did one where on one side of the bed we bolted an army surplus plastic ammo box to one side of the bed facing the front and put a outdoor motorola amplified speaker on the other side facing the front. We then ran the coax down the side of the bed underneath the lip to a 1/4 wave spring base vhf antenna.

We ran everything back to the hinge so everything would stay in place when we tilted the bed. Put it to the battery and good to go. We ended up putting molex plugs and through power connectors. The only thing that didn't get a bulkhead style mount was the antenna connector, cause we didn't want the connector in the weather or struck by brush.

We have had ours in some think stuff for the past 2 years and the box is scratched up, but the radio is fine. We also put a small cut in the top so we could bring the microphone out and hang it on a grounded microphone clip, but still shut the box to protect it from water and brush.
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libuff
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Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 5:21 pm

Post by libuff »

my co. had a TON of problems with these... currently have 2 6x4 Gas, 1 with med-bed, and other without... altenators are a MUST and probably standard on the diesel... we installed Sho-me LED panels on the side, rear bumper, and front grille, and a Whelen Strobe light on a 4' pipe... i'll try to get a pic of the finished product... looks pretty good...

we chose to just keep portable radios on the persons instead of dealing with the current draw and waterproofing problems associated with external use. our gators get SOAKED and pretty messy...
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bellersley
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Post by bellersley »

We installed 2 of these for Toronto EMS. They have MCS2000 800MHz radios in them. We found noise to be a HUGE problem, so investing in a noise filter now will help elimiate problems down the road.

Also, the stock battery pretty much sucks, keeping some Talon LED lights and the MCS on for 2 hours pretty much killed it.
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