Zep, like John, I have the ranger 900. The ride with power steering is so smooth I don't think you will find a smoother ride. But I guess I am one of those ruff riders John talks about. I take mine everywhere and my bottom land can get pretty wet and muddy this time of the year. And that most likely why I am replacing axels, bearings and such. I have a real problem keeping the axel boots from being ragged. lol I would be the first one to tell you I use mine for everything including disking food plots where I can't get my tractor to.
You might check after market parts. Seems like I saw some better bolt on boot protectors to help with the rubber boots getting torn.
That is something I am very cognizant of when traveling in freshly harvested corn fields with the stalks sticking up. I try to run where a wheel track is because that constant poking of stalks I could envision ripping the rubber boots open. Once the boots are torn, water could easily damage internal parts if the machine was driven through water.
