Staying out front here, this is one piece that I really, really like and it's just such a simple connection here. There's just plastic tabs. You can take this right off. You've got a nice solid gasket in here. I don't know if you can see that really well, but it's a nice gasket, which is going to keep this relatively water resistant. I can't say it's waterproof on anything, depends on the way you ride. But this is a deep, deep area. If you're taking a lunch out or taking your stuff, it's a kind of forgotten cargo storage area on this unit and it's really big, easily accessible. You can even reach it from the cab quite easily, which is nice. You don't have to get out, but you can keep a lot of stuff in here for going out on the trails, do whatever you got to do.

But if we're going to talk about capability, we really got to talk about the back over here. Now, first of all, you have a bed liner in here, that sort of plastic bed liner you would have in a typical drop in liner for a pickup truck. You do have the latch system here, which is pretty simple, a latch on each side and you can drop that tailgate down just like this. And it's got, of course, the tabs there. You can put a good amount of weight on here. I didn't look up the spec, but obviously it feels very solid as well. Closing this up, you also have give it a little shove there, you also have the same style latch as these right here on the front here on the passenger side. These ones are painted black.Over here, you have one which you can get to down here, and it is like I said, the same style latch, and then you can disconnect that and you have this handle here, which means this is a dump bed and it is counterbalanced to make sure that whatever's in there, you don't have to lift too hard to be able to tilt that back. A dump bed is super, super helpful, like I said, if you're moving things around. But it also allows you to do some work here or at least to access the important parts.With the dump bed lifted, you can see that this simple construction, just tubes and square tubing and square and round tubing, you can see all the components in there. 

This is a CVT driven machine so anyone can drive it. It's an automatic transmission. Just below right down here is your fuel filler off the side of the vehicle, and again, you can see this latch down here that I just pulled to use that dump bed. If you need to do any maintenance, it's all right there on the bed, very easily accessible.We talked about where your cargo goes, but what about where you go? This was the big surprise. I'll be honest, I haven't spent any time in these, although to be fair, I think I have spent time in these because I think these things are so ubiquitous, they're all over the place. I've been on a few farms where I've gone around in side-by-sides like this and I feel like I've been in this, but I haven't sat at one here at Jim Gilbert's.The first thing that impressed me was the seat. Of course, in something like the TeryX and the KRX, you have these full seats with full backs and that kind of thing, and I kind of thought that's what you want to be on a trail. But as you sit here, this is a well padded seat here. Now again, the suspension is not something like the KRX 1000 with 21 inches of rear suspension travel. It's going to be a little bit more firmer ride. It's got limited suspension travel. Having a seat that is both cushy, it gives you some shock absorption, but it also gives you some comfort, and even though this is a square back area, it's very comfortable. If you're wearing a helmet while you're on this, you don't really need a headrest anyways. It's not going to bang into anything. It's surprisingly comfortable here.

What's nice about it is you have enough space for a second person beside you. It's just like going on an ATV with someone behind you, but now you get to sit them beside you, which is a whole different experience when you're riding. They're not looking around your helmet and you can communicate with them. Speaking of communicate, this vehicle is not that loud. It's not designed to show off or anything, so you can have good conversation and both of you can see what's in front of you and you could point out maybe a deer crossing the trail or something coming up. You can really have a conversation while you're doing it and it makes it just kind of a great family vehicle, a great vehicle to share with someone you love and talk with them.What's also cool is the flat floor down here. It is a metal floor. It's got the diamond plate kind of pattern to it. The flat floor allows you to take, it first of all, it gives you more space for your feet, but it also kind of gives space if you take a pet along. They don't have to sit up here on the seat, they've got a flat floor there. You can hold them by the collar here if you get over a real bumpy spot. But if you've got a fairly obedient dog that wants to ride with you, I've seen that happen all the time here.You have a glove box here. We're going to take a look at the dash right now. When I talk about the dash, it's not a typical dash. You haven't got a speedometer or anything else like that. You don't really need it on something like this. Again, this is designed to be more basic on purpose, but you've got a lot of things that you really need. You've got a tilt reel that you can put anywhere you need to have it nice and comfortable. I'm going to put it a little higher so that I can see. A fuel gauge up here, which is just a bunch of red lines, a whole bunch of red lines. Then you have an hour meter there. That's really all you need when you're out on the go.

You've got your transmission here, so you can go reverse, neutral, high, or low gear. You can go two wheel drive or four wheel drive. 

Then down here on my left side, is your rear differential lock so you can lock the rear together. I mentioned that glove box there. Again, more storage down there. It's a very deep glove box, so pretty impressive there, and you do have a little bit of a gasket around the outside. So again, they're aiming for some waterproofness. This has been sitting out in the rain overnight, so it's fine. You've got a 12 volt outlet right there. You've got lots of spaces for switches over here. So you can add things, accessories, all kinds of things. You've got lots of places to add things in a natural spot.Lighting wise, well first of all, lighting, we showed you the outside light, only one rear light. We're going to show you the rear in a second. But as far as information lights, you've got orange engine light or amber engine light, red parking brake light, and a red oil light, and that's all you need. 

The other thing I didn't mention is you do have cup holders up front here, which I think is a really logical spot. It still keeps this area free for extra space. Again, in a narrower vehicle, you don't want to start cluttering things up with cup holders in your knee space. But you can see, I'm six feet tall. I've got my pedals there, easily reachable. It's quite comfortable here, and I've got space to kind of move around. I can put my feet up here, I can just move around. It's very, very practical.Now, I already showed you the tailgate back here, but the other things I didn't show you are the departure angle here. You've got your wheels there right at the edges. You've got some lower hanging things that do have sort of skid plates below, so you're well protected. Again, not meant for rock crawling, but if you had to crawl over rougher terrain, you're not going to damage things too bad or anything in there because it's all protected. And again, departure angle's really high. You've got a single tail light. Why? Because you don't need two. This isn't about style, it's about practicality, so single tail light there. Just like I said, a really practical area.You can see along the side here with the short wheel base, you've still got pretty good ground clearance there, but the short wheel base also means that as you get a longer wheel base, your breakover angle becomes less. Having that short wheel base makes it really good, and the turning circle, let's see if we can turn this right now, you can sort of see with the wheel. The wheel doesn't look too sharp, but this thing turns super, super, super sharp. You can really maneuver this thing wherever you want to go.

Let's talk about who this is really for because there's so much options within the Kawasaki lineup. First of all, if you need a true heavy duty hardcore workhorse, there are other options than this. They're a little bit wider, they're still called Kawasaki MULEs. You can check out the website and stay tuned to this channel because we'll review a whole bunch of them. There's a lot of options. But if you want something compact, maybe you have a larger property and you've got some work that you want do, but you also want to take it off the property and use it for other things, this really appeals. If you want a more sport riding, trail riding thing, there are probably better options within the Kawasaki lineup. However, if you need a tool, something that can plow your snow, something that can go hunting with you, something that can move firewood around, something that you can take on the trails, there's not really a better value than something like this.It's simple to maintain. It's really practical. It keeps you safe with cargo. You've got all the kinds of things like this is built in to protect you. It's standard, it comes with it. You don't have to add that as an accessory. But if you do want to add accessories, if you want to add a windshield here, a roof, closing the sides, all those kinds of things, there's so many options. Because this starts at a fairly reasonable price, you can add all those accessories in and have a true multipurpose vehicle that does everything you want it to do for less money than some bare bones vehicles that are more singular focused. To me, this is a really good value. It's surprisingly fun to drive. It's not fast, but it puts you out in that airy kind of feeling. It can go just about anywhere that I would want to go.

I hope this review is helpful. If there's a question I didn't answer, let me know when the comments below, because like I said, we can have this and other vehicles back on this channel. We want to thank Jim Gilbert's PowerSports here at Kawasaki Way because they give  me full access to their vehicle line, and if you want to come see this thing in person, swing by Jim Gilbert's PowerSports and see it for yourself.