My wife's GS 850 Side by Side keeps having issues..

[5030]

She purchased a GS850 side by side and there has been a number of recalls on it. I don't have a lot of hours or miles on it and it's been at the dealer's 3 times now for issues.

First time was the horrible gas pedal. Kubota mounts it in such a way that it's hard to keep your foot on it while moving over uneven terrain. Dealer had to change the angle of the fuel pedal so her foot wouldn't slip off. It's OK now but still clumsy to use.

Second and third time were at the same time. It went in for a steering issue (recall). I was told that the bracket that aligns the steering shaft was improperly made and had to be replaced or the steering could fail and while it was there being repaired, it refused to start and my dealer checked the TSB's and sure enough there is a recall for some relay or mechanism that fails and prevents starting so that got replaced as well.

It comes back to the farm and now the 4 way flasher (and turn signal) unit failed so I went to Autozone and bought a solid state flasher unit to replace the cheap one Kubota used.

Finally, because it has a CVT primary drive (belt), it's always been grabby and hard to modulate from a standing stop. It's never improved one bit. PITA.

She was going to buy a Kubota diesel powered side by side but didn't and now I believe she's sorry she didn't. The diesel powered ones are a bit slow but probably less issues than her gas powered one.

 

[Hunter1157]

My wife loves our X1140. We had a Kawasaki Mule Pro prior to that which was a good UTV just did not like the CVT belt drive for what we were using it for.

 

[Goose1776]

Have heard lots of people unhappy with the Sidekick.
I looked at them, but didn’t feel we needed to go 40mph across our property
And I didn’t want the cvt belt drive.
We are on our 4th kubota RTV
Had an 1140, sold it for the cab model 1100
Someone offered me $6k more than I paid for it during the Covid times. so we sold it.
Bought an older used 400, for cheap.
it was underpowered for what we needed
So ended up back with a new RTV x1140. LoL
It suits our needs the best, sips diesel fuel, and has the extra seats, for when kids come to visit to ride around in
It’s not a speed demon, but it’s fast enough for us, and does everything we need
They also make a 500 that is gas powered but still uses the hydrostatic transmission if you wanted to stay with a gas machine.
Of course those are limited on speed as well

 

[5030]

I will say it has an excellent engine if anything and ours will do almost 50 and it's comfortable to ride in.

 

[nbking]

Love my RTV-X900, 9 years old no problems.

 

[5030]

Hopefully, all the issues have been addressed now.

 

[mikester]

I find my gas peddle is twitchy trying to do fine control starts from a dead stop. For roll-ons it goes smoothly. The sidekick is really twitchy from a stop for the uninitiated. I'm a lot smoother with practice.

Towing is good - surprisingly has better tow ratings than any of the diesel engines.

Gas fuel economy on the subaru is dreadful.

I wish I could swap the gas to a diesel engine with CVT and use farm diesel as I hate using gerrie cans.

 

[5030]

Gas fuel economy on the subaru is dreadful.

I agree with that 100%, but then we don't use it that much anyway. I can pull my big Fuerst tine harrow with mine no issue and I can move our truck camper around (it's on a trailer), no issue as well but I use the front hitch with a ball mount in it.

I was told by my dealer that the 'twitchy' goes away after a while. Would be nice if it did.