bad boy buggies

[ROADKILL04]

does anyone on here have or know anyone that has 1 of these boys i am seriously thinking about investing in 1 but was looking for some feedback let me know thanks

[Guest Finn]

does anyone on here have or know anyone that has 1 of these boys i am seriously thinking about investing in 1 but was looking for some feedback let me know thanks

welcome to Realtree. Recommend you do a search in the hunting equipment forum...there was a thread about Bad Boys a while back.

are you in a cold climate? those batteries may not be the best up north.

[wtnhunt]

Welcome to the forums. There have been mixed reviews on them here. Here is a link to a search here http://www.realtree.com/forums/search.php?searchid=196768.

[WHISKEYSWAMP]

They seem like they are pretty sweet machines but i don't like the idea of depending on a battery... not a very long battery life based on what i've read.

[Guest gunny97]

Bad Boy Buggie

Roadkill

I have one and love it , i live in the south and hunt a 4000 acre swamp/club. for the average guy on a days hunt that wants to creep around quit and see critters this is the toy. if you have alot of land and your going to run around like you would on a 4 wheeler basically fast all the time dont do it . i have driven mine above the floor boards in mud , plowed through cut over, pulled out 4x4 post and ran over small trees never a problem. i ahve hunted two days in a row driving in 4000 yards to my stands cruised around scouting and driven out on a charge too

i studied all the utv types and each has a limitation and every once in a while a problem. but one problem i dont have is Noise. i have creeped up on coyotes,hogs, deer, bobcats. and on two instances the passenger with me shot hogs from the front seat at less than 20 yards.

i would suggest though not to get the floor mount rifle rack . it gets int he way. there is one on the market by asnother company that mounts on the front window that is awesome.

im going to my favorite swamp this weekend and get muddy in my buggie and pt bacon in the fridge.

email me if you have any other questions

[Rhino]

2 guys in our club have Bad Boys, 3 of us have Ruff&Tuff's and about 10 more guys have modified Club carts. Like gunny said all of them have their advantages and disadvantages. My preference after checking out the pros and cons on all of them was for the Ruff&Tuff. It has a frame that's a lot more solid than the Bad Boy, has more speed when you want it and still has the power to drag a deer with a rope out of a deep bottom from the top of the ridge. Of course I can drive down into bottoms and come out with no problem provided I have traction and clearance for the roof. Although my Ruff&Tuff is 2wd I have a winch on it but I've never had to use it yet. Yep I've been in some pretty sloppy stuff with it too.

Carts are being modified every year so the carts that are available this year may be different than than the carts sold even 2 years ago. I haven't checked the Bad Boys but I know Ruff&Tuff has a completely new suspension system coming out this year in their new carts. It is basically the same suspension as a 4 wheeler so it will provide for a smoother ride. The new Ruff&Tuff's will also have 4wd capability using one motor as opposed to 2 motors in the Bad Boys.

Batteries have also come a long way too. I'm not sure what the rating is on the ones that come with the Bad Boys but you should ask. They are rated now by milage but the rating is based on a cart traveling on a flat, smooth surface. Obviously you use more power going uphill, through mud or loaded down with extra weight like a deer. The batteries that come standard in the Ruff&Tuff this year are rated for 50 miles. Batteries rated for 70 miles are available but they are expensive. Of course cheaper replacement batteries rated for an even shorter distance are out there but I won't buy those.

Stealth is the big advange with all electric carts. Obviously that is an advatange for deer hunting but it's a huge advantage if you're a turkey hunter. How? They simply allow you to cover a lot more ground quickly than you can on foot without spooking a load mouth gobbler. You can't do that with a gas powered ATV.

[Hardwood_HD]

i dont have one.. the only problem that seems to come up is the battery not holding up and it not having much power going uphill

[Adjam5]

On these electric vehicles...is it a consideration to install solar panels on the roof, or panels with a cord to charge while in/out use?

Solar charging might make the miles endless depending on terrain.

[BowtechTurkeyHunter]

On these electric vehicles...is it a consideration to install solar panels on the roof, or panels with a cord to charge while in/out use?

Solar charging might make the miles endless depending on terrain.

I haven't seen a 48v solar pannel and for you to wire up enough solar panels for a bad boy just wouldnt make much sense ... they are working on an onboard charging system something that works off of the brakes much like the ruff and tuff ... one thing you have to consider is that when you press the gas pedal on the bad boy you instantly have 170ft lbs of torque where on a gas vehicle or the ruff and tuff you have to either build up to it or you dont have near that torque.

The batteries are marine batteries which are deap cycle batteries as long as the fluids are up on them and you take care of them you should get 18 to 25 miles out of your buggie no problem ... depending on a lot of variables ... 4wd use, terrrain, ect.

Also one thing that gets overlooked is all the accessories that come with a bad boy ... windshield, folding rear seat, storage on top, seating for 4, cup holders, front basket, every single one of those is an option on a ranger, or prowler.

Plus the quiet gactor is huge we were driving down on the farm Friday with it and drove right up on our marsh and there were about 300 buffle heads on the water and we got close enough with the camera for some awesome pictures ... wouldnt have been able to do that with a ranger ... as soon as we started talking they all took flight ... it was pretty neat to see for sure.

Steve

[huntinguide]

i like them but a kubota deisel is the way to go hear, we use the for work way to much

[Guest G-Dawg]

The new Ruff & Tuff 4-wheel drive is awesome. There isn't anything out there like it. Dry cell batteries is just one of the many good things on it. Maintenance free! Plus it will run 22 mph for 30 miles. Plus it has 121 ft-lbs torque out of one 14 horsepower motor vs the bad boy which has 170 ft-lbs torque out of TWO 15.5 motors.

[Bow Hunter Derek]

I have one myself and I'm a small dealer here in N.E. Indiana.

I'll give you my account of personally owning a BBB and this is not the dealer in me talking because I owned one before I became a dealer. In a nut shell, they are a great tool for the job they were built to do. They are far from perfect, there are areas with room for improvement, but when it comes to a pure hunting vehicle for flat to moderately rough terrain, they do that job better than any other vehicle, IMO. I own a Honda Rancher ATV. I have access to a JD Gator and Kawasaki Mule. I've used a Polaris Ranger. All of them have their place. Every type and brand of utility type vehicle, quad, or electric buggie can cross over and do some of what the others can do and they all do things unique that the others can't. Therefore YOU have to decide what vehicle is the right one for YOUR usage needs. In the majority of cases that I have spoke to people who disliked a BBB based on actual experience, it has been because the BBB did not fit their actual usage needs (i.e. they wanted mainly a farm type vehicle, or they wanted to rip it up in the mud, or the hunt steep rocky areas out west, or they didn't have access to electric in their situation, etc.). YOU have to pick the vehicle that fits YOUR needs. That is my personal opinion. If it was a dealer talking, I'd have told you how perfect the BBB is in nearly all situations. I love ripping on my ATV and it will haul a deer out. I enjoy farm related work with the Gator and Mule I have access to and they will haul a deer out. But when it comes to hunting in the majority of my hunting situations a BBB is my choice vehicle. Mine performed flawless for 5 days of bow hog hunting in the brush country of Texas. But I would have never taken it on my northern Saskatchewan bear hunt (only a generator for power).

As to the power available, a BBB in fact will out pull any 4 wheeler at or under the 400cc range. It has more to do than HP and torque. It is the weight that gives it the advantage. My Honda Rancher 350 weighs in at about 550#, my BBB weighs in at about 1650#. That is a sizable weight advantage. Now couple that with 25 HP and 135 ft/lb torque that are both instantaneous and you can drag a 400cc sized 4 wheeler all over the place. Now, you get into the bigger quads and that won't happen. I will tell you that I have a very large and very steep hill on one of my properties. I've NEVER made it to the top with my Rancher. It wants to loop out ... I've tried and it has ended in some exciting results. When I got my BBB, I had to try it. It made it to the top the very first try. It was slinging dirt like you would not believe and my back side was puckering big time ... but it made it. The reason it made it was that it is much heavier than an ATV, it has a lower center of gravity than an ATV, and all of that torque.

That advertising is not bunk either when they say they will walk up a tree. I did it with my own. There is that much torque, that it will stand vertical until the back passenger foot area hits the ground.

Another thought on the BBB product. For a long time BBB has been the only player in the 4x4 electric hunting market. As many know, they now have competition in this market through a couple other electric vehicle manufacturers. Competition is GOOD! The BBB is not a perfect product. It is a dang good product, but there are areas for improvement. What we will see happen now that there is competition is that the product will improve further. As a company, they can't sit back and say "that is good enough", they will further refine and improve this product. So please do not be so quick to judge. Ask questions and I will try to answer them. Keep an open mind, especially if you do not have FIRST HAND experience with them. And watch how much better a little competition makes an already good product.

As to competitors, there were two at the Indy show that I was at in February. The first is Rough & Tuff with the Hunter 4x4 EV. The other one, I can not remember the name of, I apologize. Both only use one electric motor for less HP and torque than the BBB. Both use a drive shaft and gear box for front wheel power. Both are 48 volt systems and neither have the HP, torque, or speed of a BBB. Both were nice machines and like I said, the competition will only force BBB to improve an already good product.

As to how far you can run a BBB, it is all dependent on terrain. Hills, mud, and snow will run it down faster. I wanted to do a fair test so, using my handheld GPS to track myself and on brand new batteries (not conditioned), I ran my personal BBB in hunting terrain (up, down, start, stop, shallow water, over stuff, fast, slow, etc.) one day last summer as a test. I went 23 miles on a charge before the batteries died. Now on conditioned batteries I have faith that it would be somewhere between 28 and 30 miles in a hunting situation.

I just spend a week on my BBB in the south Texas brush country. I would guess that I put close to 150 miles on the thing over 6 days. Absolutely incredible in how it held up, how it ran, and how reliable it was. It made the hunt. Everyone in camp was BEGGING to be a part of it's next adventure out.

If you have any BBB questions, please shoot me a PM or ask on here.

[Guest yoders_hideaway]

The new Ruff & Tuff 4-wheel drive is awesome. There isn't anything out there like it. Dry cell batteries is just one of the many good things on it. Maintenance free! Plus it will run 22 mph for 30 miles. Plus it has 121 ft-lbs torque out of one 14 horsepower motor vs the bad boy which has 170 ft-lbs torque out of TWO 15.5 motors.

Nice 1st post there G-Dawg! You wouldn't be trying to brag on one there would ya? Maintenance free?

[snapper]

Some great input in this thread...couple of questions that I didn't see touched on. BHDerek...you compare the BBB to (or around) a 400cc atv...whats the price difference in the two...How much does a BBB run?

Also, what do you do if your battery dies out on a trail in the middle of nowhere? Just curious...never had any experiences with one...don't really have a need for it.

[Bow Hunter Derek]

Price ... most dealers are selling BBB's around $9,400.00 set up and out the door. The MSRP on the BBB website is WRONG. There was a price increase across the board in Nov., the website has not been updated. OK ... so now we'll head off the price comments. Is it a lot of money? Yes. You can buy almost 2 400cc atv's for that price ... sure. But again, it goes back to ... what is it that YOU want out of your vehicle. What is YOUR primary purpose in buying one? If you want a vehicle who's main purpose is hunting, is quiet, can haul 4 people, haul at ton of gear, and go through most everything ... then that price isn't out of line. Heck, two four wheelers won't haul the people and gear that one BBB will haul. A four person gas/diesel utility vehicle will cost you another 50% over a BBB.

What happens when you run out of battery? Same as when your ATV or utility vehicle runs out of gas. Your dead in the water. The only benefit to an atv or utv is that you can dump a can of gas in it and go right away again ... ASSUMING you have a can of gas with you! I've put over 1,000 miles on my ATV and I've never once hauled around a can of gas, so if I run it dry, I'm SOL just like I would be if the batteries ran dead on my BBB. One thing similar to an ATV or UTV, the BBB has a reserve battery range. The buggy will indicate to you when you have run through approximately 80% of the battery power. You have to remember that in a hunting situation like I recently got back from in Texas, I was running 25 miles or so a day and I never once hit reserve. So the chances of getting stranded are not what people make it out to be. Heck on the typical mid-west deer hunting situation (what the majority of BBB's are purchased for), most guys won't put 25 miles on their BBB in a SEASON! Running out of juice is a possibility, but if you know your buggy and use common sense, the reality of running out of juice has simply been blown out of proportion by critics.

I will re-iterate what I typed earlier. Is the BBB perfect? No. But neither is any ATV, UTV, or SUV. They all have things they excel at, things they cross over and do reasonably well, and limitations. YOU and only YOU have to determine what it is that you want out of your utility type vehicle and then make the best purchase that fits your needs.

[snapper]

Oh...I wasn't putting the BBB down, I agree they all have their place. I was curious what one cost because I had no idea. You were comparing the motor (power) to a 400cc class atv...so I was curious on price. A bigger atv 600-800cc is a few g's less and a gas side by side is a few g's more. Guess they all have a place.

I don't haul 4 people and don't have that kind of gear that an atv couldn't haul if I used mine for hunting.

To be honest...the only real advatage I see with the BBB is the quiet motor. Other than that...I'd rather play on an atv...if I wanted to work...I'd rather have a side by side with a bigger gas motor ie: (Kaw. Trex 750 Vtwin). Just my thoughts and opinions.

Thanks Derek

[Guest Bowhuntnsteve]

I am leaning towards the stealth 4x4 model. I have heard from a few who have the BBB that they have had quite a few issues & wouldn't advise me to go that route.