ARGO celebrates 50 years of business this year with the launch of a full line of ATVs and a new lineup of XTV amphibious vehicles. While we knew about ARGO’s focus on XTV amphibious vehicles and their work with NASA on vehicles in space, we had no idea about their efforts to introduce an ATV line. That said, the launch was a pretty big surprise to us and the team of writers that were at ARGO’s new product introduction event last month. We were sequestered and under embargo until this week but the great news was that we had the opportunity to drive these vehicles for hours across ponds, along trails, up hills, over dunes, through streams and everything in between.
We woke up early and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading out for the motor park to get our hands on these great vehicles. Our morning was spent with a focus on the XTV vehicles and we were pretty darn excited to get these out and running.
I had the opportunity to ride in one of these on a hunt in Manitoba many years ago on a hunt that took us deep into the bush in pursuit of whitetail deer. We crossed a small stream on that trip and through a flooded road but it was short and we never really floated off the ground. Our first test in Minnesota was to drive the ARGOs across an open field and then straight into a pond. It is pretty darn cool that very first time when you drive an ARGO XTVs across water. We took the Avenger out first and graduated to the Outfitter with and without tracks. It was an absolute blast.
Marjorie and I took these out and ran the heck out of them right up until lunch time. We took them across ponds and even chased a muskrat in the water. We ran these round and round on the sand, through mud and up and down creeks and through weeds, and fields. Did I mention the mud? It was raining and we made the most of it. Nothing slowed us down because things go absolutely everywhere. While we hit top speeds of around 28 mph in an ARGO XTV, these vehicles are fun at any speed whether it is 3 mph across a pond or 10 mph up a hill. It’s not the speed that is the XTV’s attraction. As we heard several times, it’s the most fun you’ll have under 30 mph.
One of the standouts was the small 6X6 ARGO XTV. This unit comes out at a price point that makes it incredibly reasonable and comparable to the current market of side-by-side vehicles, yet with the added benefit of being amphibious. These are well worth checking out for hunters looking for a vehicle that can go anywhere.
After a quick lunch, we headed back out to the testing area do some test runs on the new ARGO line up of ATVs. These vehicles are a blast! While many of the writers in attendance were well-versed in motor sports, Marjorie and I were more like novices. That didn’t stop us from learning and enjoying all there is to know about ARGO’s latest venture in motorized vehicles.
We appreciated the efforts by ARGO to create a working set of ATVs built for 2-up riding; we spent most of the afternoon on the 500 XPS 2-up model. If I was in the market for an ATV, this is definitely the model we would buy. It was light, easy to maneuver and fun on the trails. With a 2-inch receiver built in, we could add a universal hitch and haul just about anything. When I buy an ATV, I want to use it to haul wood, haul carts around my yard and on the farms. I want to hunt with friends and most importantly my wife and kids so having a 2-up model is important to me. The ARGO ATVs are just what we are looking for in a hunting ATV.
We had an amazing day driving these vehicles and we encourage you to hit up your ARGO dealers to perform your own test drive because all of these vehicles are worth testing out. Check these out at www.ARGOXTV.com.
