M-Gator joins the family

Funny how some things just fall into place...I'm on a business trip in Portland and while surfing the net, I stumble across an ad selling this gator. No pics, just description. Price seemed right so I called the person, drove over to the Gator, jump started it and bought it on the spot. Now I just need to get her back down to Nor. Cal. I have a request posted in the transportation forum. Here are a couple pics.

Congrats on scoring the M-Gator.

Neat! Looks complete...not common in my area.

Very Nice Score. Do you know what year it is?

BIG question. does the bed operate? That's going to be a big issue if it doesn't.

Bobcat, keep your eyes on GL. DRMO out of Ft. Sam has had 2 batches of them go recently. Some of them were pretty dogged out, but there were some decent ones in the mix as well.

It's a 2001. Bed is manual dump. Why is this a big issue?

As we unfortunately found out when doing the restoration of our "USMC" gator, John Deere is veddddy particular about parts. We needed a single yellow LED for the light bar. Nope, won't sell it to ya. Buuuutttt we'll sell you the ENTIRE light KIT, including wiring harnesses etc, etc. for $500.00.

Well,,,,, now we're working on the 2000 "ARMY" gator, and the Actuator?? (not sure of exact name of device) The doohickey that attaches to the bed and frame of Gator, and makes bed go up and down. That thingie, is broken. We bounce on down to the dealership. (we're dealing strictly with the owner now, no more skippy) and find out that John Deere won't sell JUST that part. Ohhh no. Got to buy the whole kit once again, and it's $1,000.00.

As we unfortunately found out when doing the restoration of our "USMC" gator, John Deere is veddddy particular about parts. We needed a single yellow LED for the light bar. Nope, won't sell it to ya. Buuuutttt we'll sell you the ENTIRE light KIT, including wiring harnesses etc, etc. for $500.00.

Well,,,,, now we're working on the 2000 "ARMY" gator, and the Actuator?? (not sure of exact name of device) The doohickey that attaches to the bed and frame of Gator, and makes bed go up and down. That thingie, is broken. We bounce on down to the dealership. (we're dealing strictly with the owner now, no more skippy) and find out that John Deere won't sell JUST that part. Ohhh no. Got to buy the whole kit once again, and it's $1,000.00.

Nice machine! Haven't seen too many in the tri-color paint scheme.

You even scored the "Mil-Only" Goodyear Run-flat tires!

jacobsk said:

Nice machine! Haven't seen too many in the tri-color paint scheme.

You even scored the "Mil-Only" Goodyear Run-flat tires!

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The paint job is very interesting. You can also see on the underside of the front fender well, that when it was 1st delivered to US MIL it was the standard John Deere Green, not the Darker John Deere Green, they come as now.

On second glance, the passenger's side fender well, seems to be the stock mil color on the underside. So mebbe they got hosed by the John Deere Parts system too??? and they were given the wrong color of fender, as a replacement for a damaged one at some point.

Madmedic said:

On second glance, the passenger's side fender well, seems to be the stock mil color on the underside. So mebbe they got hosed by the John Deere Parts system too??? and they were given the wrong color of fender, as a replacement for a damaged one at some point.

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It's likely someone went with a JD Green replacement fender on the drivers side at some point. The price for JD Green and Trail Olive fenders should have been the same so who knows why they chose the color they did. Maybe they needed it "now" or like you said someone could have been lost in a dealer death spiral at one point. I know few .mil folks who have the patience to fight their way through dealer parts networks.

Heck maybe that's why the Gator was painted tri-color in the first place!

According to the previous owner, it had a recent replacement fender when he got it from the DRMO. He painted the exterior to match the rest of the Gator.

Ahhhh, that explains it then.

Somewhere recently (I think in that U-Tube video posted on another thread) there was a quick shot, showing an M-Gator, with a standard Gator tire, with the yellow paint job on it. It's very common for the military to use Hangar Queens, or a Bone Yard for parts. These are vehicles, or aircraft that are deemed un-repairable, and they strip them for parts for other vehicles and aircraft.

Another motto in the military is FUNCTION beats FASHION. So they don't care how it looks, as long as it ​WORKS.