Update March 2008

I continue to be thrilled with my purchase. I do not get to ride it as often as I would like but I'm pretty sure we can all say that.

When I ride, I ride hard. I don't play "dare devil" and rarely catch air but I'm either crawling through a creek bed with it or running down a lane at full throttle.

Bought some used mud tires for it for a couple of reasons. My OEM tires were wearing down and I figured the mud tires would do a little better in the snow and mud so it made sense to me.

I researched it as much as possible and discovered/came to the conclusion that no matter what I bought, I should stay close on size and weight. Was able to do that with ITP Mud Lites. So I lost nothing on torque or blast off if you will.

Haven't had anymore wrecks but have had a couple of close calls.

Found a couple of buddies to ride with and we have had a blast. Nobody has gotten hurt which is great. We've played in the mud and in the water and only 1 broken axle on a buddies Artic Cat.

I still do not regret that I only have 2 wheel drive. Most of the people I ride with have 4 wheel drive but I can go where they go with no problems. In fact the size of the Ozark is a bonus a lot of the time like squeezing between trees in the woods or running down a ditch.

I sank mine in a creekbed one day when I was by myself. I had walk back to the truck and get a come-along. Took quite a while to get it pulled up out of the creek bottom. Then wedged it in a dry ditch a couple of times and was winched out by a buddy. Figured it was time to buy a winch. I put on a MileMarker 2000 lb if memory serves me. Tucks up in the front end real well and has been used for a little bit of everything like pulling deer up into a tree to hang for a while.

Summer of 2007 we were playing in a rock quarry. Ran across the scales one at a time. I was right at 600 pounds and one of the Artic Cats was right at 1200 pounds. I would much rather be mashed by mine if it rolls over on me.

Much to my pleasure, I still have broken nothing on the Ozark. I keep the oil and gear oil changed. Keep the spark plug changed and that's pretty much it. Still on the original battery. Yes, I am knocking on wood as I type.

My wife had said on several occasions that she would go with us if she had a 4 wheeler. So we started watching for a nice used Ozark.

In February of 2008, we found a red 2006 model in great condition. Of course then I had to go buy a trailer so I could haul both Ozarks' at the same time. I found a 5x10 trailer and can get both of the Ozarks' on it. I turn one sideways at the front and leave 2 tires up on the rail. Then just load the other on the back straight in. The best part is that I can leave them loaded and the trailer fits in my 3 car garage with all 3 cars in it. I don't have to leave anything outside in the weather.

Really looking forward to warmer weather so we can get out and ride. We went once already but it was a little cold. It was a nice "trial run" and the wife did just fine with it. She got scared a couple of times in water and mud but survived. It will take some getting used to but I think she'll be fine.