A few weeks back, Kawasaki teased its upcoming four-door Ridge UTV and we got excited. Well, I got excited.
After listening to RideApart's own Robbie Bacon retell his experience with the two-door Ridge, and how it combined the ruggedness of a standard UTV with the creature comforts of a truck or SUV, I was really a bit jealous of his experience. Especially since, though I love my Can-Am X3, it does get a bit hot, dusty, cold, or muddy in its confines depending on the weather and season. That's fun, for sure, but sometimes I want to be pampered, even in the backcountry.
And though the two-door would suit many of my needs, a four-door that's capable of hauling my kids, wife, dog, and maybe a deer or elk, is likely the best for me. Enter the Ridge Crew, a four-door UTV that's ready for just about anything, as well as offering Rolls-Royce-adjacent comforts.
Who wants to go hunting with me in this?
Kawasaki's new Ridge Crew is centered around a 6-person layout, and yes, you read that right. Unlike the original Ridge, you'll be able to bring five of your closest friends, family, or hunting hounds with you on all your backwoods adventures. And that's good, since I actually had to add a seat for all five of my family to fit.
The Ridge Crew is powered by a 999cc four-cylinder engine coupled to a CVT, giving people all the torque pretty instantly. Though it's naturally aspirated, it produces 94 horsepower and 78 pound-feet of torque, which is more than enough to get through sand, mud, or along dirt trails on your farm, in the woods, or to your treestand this season. I'd like to see a turbocharged version at some point with a little more horsepower, but hey, this isn't a dune-busting monster. It's made for the Midwest, East Coast, and Texas woods.
That power, however, is good enough for a cargo payload rating of 1,000 pounds (that's five whitetail deer) and can tow up to 2,500 pounds, or a Kawasaki Jet Ski. Just saying. There are also integrated tie-downs in the bed, and the whole thing can pivot to drop whatever load you have in it wherever you want. There's also a built-in cup holder in the bed.
The cab is fully enclosed and comes with HVAC, giving the passengers more room to do things in the summer heat, the winter cold, or in the fall and spring elements. Long travel suspension is at all four corners, giving the Ridge Crew 13.8 inches of ground clearance, which is perfect for even the most rutted of trails. Likewise, instead of making the wheel wells of plastic, like most other UTVs on the market, the Ridge Crew has steel plates, giving it far more protection than most from rocks and debris.
There are also LED headlights for returning to camp or your house in the dead of night, a quiet mode for sneaking up to your treestand in the morning, plenty of internal and external space for your gear, electric power steering, a TFT display, smartphone connectivity (hopefully, it supports onX), and a ton of Kawasaki direct accessories like a snowplow, storage cover, a stage 2 audio upgrade, and more. Honestly, I'm ready to head to Texas right this instant to see how dirty I can get this baby while keeping my hunting clothes as clean as I can.
As for price, the Ridge Crew starts at $30,999 which isn't the worst side-by-side price tag I've seen, especially for what you get. And with more and more folks who need truck-like capabilities, but can't afford new truck prices, it's not terrible. I mean, even a Ranger or Colorado cost $55,000 to $65,000—starting—these days. And neither of those are as capable as this Kawasaki Ridge Crew, nor as fully loaded. So yeah, I'm excited about this one.
