Can you LIVE with The Kawasaki Ridge?

UTV Driver
UTV Driver
  • 3 months ago
We spend 48 hours with the 2024 Kawasaki Ridge! Is the all-new side-by-side up to two days of camping and fishing at Portsmouth Island, North Carolina? Let's find out!

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Transcript
00:00We're not at Windrock. We are not at Windrock. We're out here at Portsmouth Island, North Carolina.
00:05It is a little island way off the coast of the Outer Banks, and we are going to spend 48 hours with the Kawasaki Ridge
00:12to tell you what this thing is like to live with day in, day out, night in, night out, and maybe do a little bit of fishing.
00:18We're going to do a little bit of camping, but mostly we are going to spend as much time as possible in the Kawasaki Ridge,
00:23learn as much as we can about it, find out its ins, its outs, its highs, its lows, so we can tell you what it's like to live with.
00:29So just a reminder on the Ridge, there are three basic trims. The Ranch Edition is the bare bones.
00:34This limited guy is super Gucci. It's got power windows, HVAC, all the niceties you'd possibly want.
00:40XR trim is more for the off-road weekend hustler.
00:43Remember, this thing has a 999cc inline 4-cylinder engine, a traditional CVT, 4-wheel drive with turf mode,
00:51all controllable by really nice switches and touchscreens inside the cab.
00:55This rig gets along with 92 horsepower. It's not the, you know, most potent version you can get,
01:00but in our experience, we really haven't missed that extra grunt.
01:03We're going to find out if that's true wheeling around here in this sand where horsepower is your friend.
01:07The rig behind us, as it sits without all the camping and fishing gear, $33,499.
01:13Let's, uh, let's go have some fun.
01:15We have officially been on this island for 24 hours, and it has been unreal.
01:22Fishing has been not great, but even when you're fishing and the fishing's not great,
01:26you're having a good time because you're sitting there looking at the water.
01:28I've been coming to the North Carolina coast since I was a kid, and I have never seen it like this.
01:33Last night, we were the only people around for miles. We had this entire place to ourselves.
01:39It's excellent, and the Ridge has been part of that party.
01:43I've got to say, this little sucker has surprised me quite a bit.
01:47This is a deep market. You've got long-established vehicles like the Can-Am Defender,
01:52and the Polaris Ranger that are just waiting to take Kawasaki's lunch money
01:56when it comes to playing around in the upscale utility market.
01:59So far, the Ridge is proving to hold its own.
02:02That little four-cylinder has plenty of grunt for slogging through the sand.
02:05It'll maintain 25, 30 miles an hour, just bopping along comfortable as can be.
02:10HVAC is keeping us super cozy. Yesterday was up into the 90s, and we were totally fine.
02:16Usability-wise, the bed is excellent. It's at a good height.
02:20There are slots in the bed that make it excellent for throwing a rod in the back,
02:23which, hey, out here, that's pretty great.
02:26Not everybody's going to have that use case, but right now we do, so we're loving it.
02:29I've got to say, I've been really impressed with the interior visibility and space.
02:34You can see everything out of this thing. It's easy to see where the corners are.
02:37There's no problem backing this thing up, which is a good thing
02:41because using the backup camera is kind of a pain.
02:43You've got to thumb through a bunch of menus to get the thing to come on
02:47instead of just throwing it into reverse and having the camera come on automatically
02:50like happens in other vehicles.
02:52Staying inside, there's also a lot of space.
02:55You know, I'm kind of guilty of taking a million pairs of shoes with me on trips like this.
02:59I got hiking boots. I got cowboy boots. I got sandals the whole nine yards.
03:02All of that stuff is crammed in here, and there's still plenty of room for three dudes.
03:07That's pretty impressive. The bed's also a really good size.
03:11You know, it's got plenty of room for camping gear, coolers, chairs,
03:15all of our fishing stuff is in the back of this rig,
03:18and this has kind of become our default fish-out-of-machine.
03:21You know, we'll park other rigs at camp, bust this thing out to the water at night after dinner,
03:25throw a line in the water. It's pretty great.
03:27There are some things that I'm not loving though.
03:29These tires are kind of small,
03:31and it's not really helping with how much this thing tramlines in the sand.
03:35You know, you get out there in a couple of ruts,
03:36and you just sort of ping-pong your way through it,
03:38and it's kind of hard to climb your way up out of the ruts because the tires are so small.
03:42You know, these are 27s.
03:44At this point, we're used to seeing 30s, 31s, even 33s come factory on machines.
03:50This looks a little bit on the golf cart side,
03:52and Kawasaki's sort of showing its workhorse roots.
03:54The only other thing that really bums me out is this windshield is not a tilt-out windshield.
03:59You know, Aaron's bopping around in the Polaris Expedition right now.
04:02That thing opens up wide, and on a day like this, where it's nice and cool,
04:06you got a good sea breeze, that's pretty great.
04:08The windshield is really high quality though.
04:10It's nice glass. It seals really well.
04:13Last night, we had a surprise thunderstorm.
04:15Everybody was beating the bushes to get to a rig to stay dry.
04:19This thing kept us nice and dry through that whole thing.
04:21All right, so that's the first 24 hours.
04:23We've got another 24 hours to go.
04:24We're gonna find out if there's anything else that bugs us
04:26or that we particularly like about this machine.
04:29We'll catch you here in a little bit.
04:3248 hours are almost up.
04:33We're gonna hit the ferry in a couple hours, and that will be 48 on the button.
04:36So, our time, 48 hours at the ridge, is coming to an end.
04:39How'd it go? What did you think?
04:40Well, you know, it's funny.
04:42I was reading some of the comments right before we left
04:44about the last video that we had out on this thing,
04:46and one of the commenters specifically said
04:48that there's a lot of heat and noise in this machine.
04:50So, part of the reason I wanted to come out here and spend a little bit more time with it
04:53was just to find out if maybe I just sort of glossed over that
04:56in some of our shorter experiences with the thing.
04:58And in reality, no.
04:59I mean, any enclosed cab side-by-side is going to be inherently louder
05:04than one with just an open cab,
05:06because the sound can get out.
05:07It can go literally anywhere.
05:09I thought this thing was relatively quiet for a closed cab utility rig.
05:13I didn't really have any heat issues with it.
05:15HVAC works great.
05:17I mean, it's a pretty good little machine.
05:20You know, it certainly wasn't the fastest rig we have ever experienced.
05:23The way I wound up thinking about it, it's like a plucky little donkey, you know?
05:27Like, it wants to have a little bit of fun.
05:29It will do all the work that you want to do.
05:31No, it's not a thoroughbred.
05:33No, it's not a racehorse.
05:34But, you know, it'll be there when you want it to be there,
05:38which is kind of what you want out of a machine like this.
05:40So, when we had this thing in Virginia,
05:42I put it head-to-head with a Polaris Ranger,
05:44and I thought it came out on top.
05:46Where do you stand on that?
05:47Yeah, I watched that video.
05:48And then, you know, again, that's why I was excited to come down here.
05:50You know, I can see it.
05:51I can totally see it.
05:52I get how this thing can 100% keep its head above water
05:56with things like the Ranger and the Defender.
05:58Both of those things have been around for a really long time.
06:00Canon and Polaris both have really sharpened those machines.
06:03This thing is right there in the running.
06:05Yeah, it's a little bit more expensive when you, you know, spec them out identically.
06:09But, on some level, you're paying for the Kawasaki badge.
06:12Yeah.
06:12This thing comes with a three-year warranty.
06:14Which is wild.
06:15That's wild.
06:16Even Polaris, when they trotted out the 2025 Ranger,
06:19that just comes with a two-year warranty.
06:20And they were stoked to be like,
06:22we've doubled the warranty.
06:23Well, here's another year.
06:24And that's kind of what you buy when you come for a Kawasaki.
06:28Well, it's also impressive, and I think it's worth noting that,
06:31like you said, those two other rigs have been around forever.
06:34This is an all-new platform,
06:35and Kawasaki pretty much nailed it right off the rip.
06:38You know, usually there's teething problems here and there.
06:40And, man, if the Ridge does have any teething problems,
06:43they're kind of hard to see.
06:44So, I can't wait to see where they end up with this platform.
06:46Yeah, same.
06:47All right, bud, we better hit the ferry.
06:48Yeah, let's do it.
06:49All right, let's go.
06:50Thank you so much for watching.
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