Well so far I have had nothing but good things to say about the gator. Although so far, I've only drilled a few holes with it and it has been in the + 20's to 30's here, it has performed flawlessly. I cut through about a foot of ice on the Chena river in only 4 seconds. It took me 10 seconds today to drill through 24"s on a pond off the Chena. The 4.4 hp with my Eskimo Quantum is like cutting through butter with a hot knife. When they say hold on and plant your feet, they really mean it. It has so much power, there is no doubt in my mind that this thing would turn a 10" just as well as the 8". You may get a few less holes but in theory the power is there to make it happen.
The reverse works well for almost slushing out the hole completely.
I will agree that there is a small weight issue but no more than a regular auger.
I do have a few suggestions for improvement since I have been ablle to handle it first hand:
Add a toggle or flip cover over the buttons to prevent accidental activationA cover for the charging portA cover for transporting to prevent anything from damaging or puncturing the batteries while in transportSo far I have cut about 1o holes and it has not even shown a sign of even slugging down at all, even with a third rated auger bit.
I already have other's like the MWR outdoor rec on Wainwright take interest in them and loking to buy them for rental use.
I want to get it out and show people how it works and let them handle it as this was the whole purpose of getting it sent up here. We just need to decide where to do it on Saturday.
Any suggestions
Try to keep it somewhere we will get a lot of people close by or where there will be a lot of fisherman if the weather holds like it is supposed to.
Speak up