2018 Mahindra Retriever 1000 Diesel Flexhauler Review

**That Guy** · July 20, 2020

So, maybe this isn't the place for this, but I figured there are quite a few people who have these trucks also have property that necessitates having some sort of utility vehicle. Its also difficult to find any reviews on these.

Currently it shows about 660 miles, and If I had to guess, about 250-300 hours. More on that further on.

Issues...

In general, I'm quite happy with it overall. I've only ever had one issue and three complaints. At about 150 miles, I started hearing a clunking. The clunking was from the bolts that hold the U-Joint flange to the Yoke flange on the rear diff coming loose. Two of the bolts came out, two were loose, fixed under warranty with no issues.

The complaints, the 3 cylinder kohler diesel vibrates a lot at idle, just off idle all the way to redline is fine.

The factory headlights leave a lot to be desired, I have a 1500 lumen Nebo flashlight that was far brighter ..... I added a lot of auxiliary lighting so I can light up 360* around it.

The bed being entirely metal and having sides that fold down means that is makes noise as it rattles. Combined with the rather rough idle of the engine, it can be quite noisy.

The Ride Quality.

A bit like a truck, it rides better with a bit of a load, 300 lbs seems to be the sweet spot. It does ride better than the cummins do off road, probably owing to the fully independent suspension all the way around. The seats are fairly comfortable as well and the material (naga hide?) being quite soft and yet very resistant to abrasion and puncture. I would put them as equals to my neighbors Polaris Ranger Crew. (That Ranger Crew rides like a Cadillac, but it is twice as long and has about half the payload and half the cargo space)

The Bed.

With the rattles in mind, the bed is rock solid and way overloaded with wet clay (~1 cu yard, like 2500 lbs), the electric dump worked flawlessly. It is also very very large for a UTV, about 23 cuft with a cubic yard being 27 cuft. Carelessly throwing t-posts and 1/4 mile spools of barb wire has done nothing to harm it. The paint is (powder coat maybe?) holding up very well with only superficial scratches and nothing actually getting to metal yet. The bed floor is very robust and appears to be 3/16ths diamond plate stainless. I have dropped things on it that would dent or gouge a hole in the bed of a truck that have done nothing to it.

The Engine.

The engine is a 1003cc Kohler 3 cylinder. Has plenty of grunt and has had absolutely no issues to speak of. Changing the oil is a bit interesting, the drain plug is situated in such a way that it will drain on the frame rail without some sort of funnel or deflector, I use a piece I cut from an old jug of oil. The oil filter is a remote mount that is vertically mounted, so no spills and easy access. I'm not keen on where the dipstick, air filter, and oil fill is. Most is underneath the bed with the oil fill being in a 3 inch gap between the front of the bed and the back of the drivers seat.

The Transmission and Driveline.

It has a traditional P-R-N-H-L arrangement. So far, the only thing I don't like is that the force required to get past the detents also means it is easy to go past the gear you want, but I have experienced the same issue with the neighbors multiple Polaris's. Going back to the miles on the machine, sometimes when I am sitting in gear idling at a complete stop, it will still indicate I am going between 3 and 5 MPH. If I idle up enough for the clutch to engage but not move, it will correctly indicate 0 even once returned to idle.

The rear diff has a locker which has come in handy multiple times, it goes without saying that it also has 4WD, what doesn't is that they are independently selectable. I have had no issues out of either of the differentials.

Stuff I've added.

The biggest thing here in Louisiana is heat. I installed two engine cooling fans above the driver and passenger seat. A necessity as far as I'm concerned.

As stated, the headlights leave much to be desired. I added a light bar and 4 cubes. One of the cubes puts out more light than the headlights. I'll get comparison pictures later.

A hitch extension on the rear. The receiver sets far enough back up under the bed that is can be difficult for someone to hitch up. Have to be careful when tilting the bed, the lip on the tailgate can catch on the extension, but the bed does clear it by about 1/2 an inch.

So, I got this thing STUCK the other day. Unfortunately no pictures. The rear tires were on dry ground and the front was about 3 feet in mud and the middle was high centered.The headlights aren't quite water tight when fully submerged for almost 45 minutes. Had about 1/4 inch of muck in the bottom of them.