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From my perspective, I wanted to add one item and subtract one from Herb's comments.
ADDITION: This may be more an amplification than an addition: the gear is NOT a problem on 337s. As long as you perform routine maintenance (like a thorough inspection yearly, during the annual) it's not less reliable or more troublesome than any other retractable gear. I'm on my second 337 over a 12 year period and have never had a lick of trouble. In fact, I've never had any problems in flight or found any problems during inspections. Ever. It just keeps working flawlessly. The only maintenance I have ever performed is one time I changed the hydraulic hoses, even though there were no leaks or frayed exteriors. Wait, I HAVE had gear problems, but it was always the battery; on my current 337G with an electric power-pack (my prior '69D had an engine-driven hydraulic pump), when the battery is near the end of life, if the aircraft has sat for a while (so the battery has discharged some), you can start seeing problems with the gear, but they are easily resolved in flight. With a good battery, never a problem.
SUBTRACTION: Unless you're going into very short fields, I don't think a STOL kit is necessary. Neither of my two 337s had it and I've gone into pretty short fields from the islands of the Bahamas to the Idaho backcountry. Without it you can take-off and land pretty much per the manual. Of course, on fields that are close to the minimum, you have to be on your A game, but that's part of what makes flying great.
Again, all of this is my opinion.
Ernie
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