Thinking of saving up for an Argo, any advice or suggestions?

[wuchikubo]

Hi All,

 

With my fishing time dwindling every year, ice fishing gear getting heavier with growing kids. I am starting to consider saving up some money for a second hand argo or another amphibious vehicle. It would satisfy my needs for a back road lake for fishing, duck hunting (when I get into it), and trail hunting grouse.

 

Typically, I fish with 1 or two other people (my kids being one of them) and hunt with one close friend.

 

I am interested in the Argo based on it's amphibious features and I don't have a boat to use normally. My question is if there are any concerns or things I need to take into consideration before taking the plunge for an Argo or similar type vehicle? I have been thinking of an older model 8x8 for more capacity, new is too expensive ($20K+), and 6x6 seems like it may not work out for capacity of 3 or 4 people with gear.

 

Any advice or suggestions? All are welcome to answer with their opinions.

 

Thanks

[aplumma]

Expensive to repair with few dealers for parts. Slow moving on land worst on the water. Test drive one before you buy it, you will find it actually does nothing well mostly mediocre. A boat is a good boat and a fourwheeler is a good land vehicle. Buy both and be happy. The parts and dealership are for the USA it might be better up North though.

 

 

Art

[grimsbylander]

I toured the ARGO facility. What Al said is bang on. They do a lot of things but none of them very well. And oh the price!! Even used!!

[Fisherman]

I've had my hands on 2, an older 8x8 that was a royal pita, it had the older style axles with roll pins to secure the sprockets to the drive line. If one goes, the rest are on the way out. You need 3 left hands and an extreme amount of patience to fix those. Then I had a 2001(used but low hours) 6x6 Bigfoot. It came with most of the accessories, tracks, extra wheels and tires, top, bilge pump, windshield and OB motor bracket. The original owner hadn't done the carb maintenance and until that was rectified it ran horrible. Once that was corrected it was ok. The only weird thing about them, the carb/govenor setup seems off and every time you made a left turn or accelerated, it wanted to die out. It didn't have an accelerator pump in the system. You had to learn to feather the throttle a bit. You won't set any speed records, 30km/h on land, if you have an electric ob, a little better than rowing speed. Lake fishing isn't advisable unless it's flat calm. It doesn't have any suspension other than the tires. Now for the good, even without tracks, it's pretty good in the swamp, put the tracks on and you can tackle just about anything except for speed. Maintenance is a fair bit easier on the newer ones, axles are splined with set screws. The alternators are bigger for accessory power like the winch. I had my fun with it, sold it and went with a 550 Yamaha ATV. One thing to note is they're heavy and if I'm not mistaken, they're still not allowed on ATV trails due to width and weight. You really have to do your homework before you take the plunge. Here's a site you get can get a lot of answers. http://www.route6x6.com/discus/messages/5/249.html?0

[gaspumper]

They also will sink to the bottom ,a buddy had one sit on bottom of Bay Of Quinte for a week,before he was able to retrieve it.

[Terry]

i was this close to buying one

but at the last minute a couple of guys who owned argos talked me out of it

slow rough ride, lots of preventative maintenance and high cost of repair

not legal to run on roads yet

 

im thinking an air boat might be better

[tbaltovski]

Shameless work promoting:

 

The gearbox, brakes and motors seemed solid but this was electric.

[manitoubass2]

Jesus. Buy a ATV and boat

 

Nothing but problems if you go the other route

[wuchikubo]

Thanks everyone for the info, definitely very useful insight and has me reconsidering. Obviously, their site is all for them, thus the reason for me asking for real life experiences here.

 

I have no need to break any speed record land or on water, but ongoing maintenance is definitely a concern.

 

Again, this board has some of the best people on it and the reason why I ask/look for advice here.