Derek’s Trail Riding and Arizona Adventure Thread
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OP
Also added some improvements. 2in light pods which I have angled out a bit and down to light up my peripheral and a Dirt Road Fabrication tire/fuel carrier. @chrishf12 if you ever decide to add a carrier to yours, this is the way to go. They’re a little spendy and have a bit of a lead time, but this thing is very solid and well built.
Looking good! That is the swingout I would go with if I do decide to use one!!
I am wiring up a custom PDU and wiring harness for all my accessories right now. I have been chasing some RFI gremlins and decided to use relay circuits for all of my switches. Next, I am up for a clutch service with heavier weights and tinkseal.
I am wiring up a custom PDU and wiring harness for all my accessories right now. I have been chasing some RFI gremlins and decided to use relay circuits for all of my switches. Next, I am up for a clutch service with heavier weights and tinkseal.
OP
Last weekend we did a big ride from my place up to Martinez Lake and camped out then returned the next day. Was about a 150mi round trip and while it was a ton of fun the trip was costly… my buddy in the Honda Talon blew a tire that we had to repair, my buddy in the black/red RZR had his transmission completely blow up about 1mi from his house on the return and my Yahmaha is gonna be down for a while getting some repairs in the shop. About 20mins from our campsite I let my buddy take the drivers seat and he managed about 5mins before he smacked a large rock with my back rear tire. Destroyed the wheel/tire and bent my A-Arm attachments…..
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He definitely got that wheel good... And before you got a spare put on the carrier!
Am I seeing this correct? All but one spoke sheared through, and the one left holding is cracked on one side. Crazy....
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OP
Haha, yup all the spokes were completely broke but the one and I didn’t have a spare yet, I’ve been putting it off and figured I could fix anything on the trail with a plug/patch kit and my compressor…..that didn’t turn out too well. Luckily my buddy has the same size tire on his RZR and the bolt pattern is the same, but it turned out neither of us had the lug nut key so we had to dispatch another machine to ride 20mi back to the parking lot area at the trail head and acquire one.
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Had another buddy at work buy a RZR so he can start riding with us. Dude has never driven one before so the day he got it dropped off I took him for a quick ride around some of the desert and showed him same basics. Well this week he took a couple days off from work so he and the wife could go and and play around. I told him be very careful, since he’d be out by himself and all of us are stuck at work and would be able to rescue him quickly if he got in a bad spot.
So yesterday I get a phone call from him and knew it was either he was lost, broke down or wrecked it…..turns out he managed to get quite a bit of air off a jump and came down front first and ended up flipping it. Usually not a big deal, we get them rolled back upright and on you go. Not the case for him, he did some pretty good damage. Trashed his lower control arms, broke the shock and a bunch of other suspension damage. We had to get a trailer down to him, swap his tires out and pull it to shop.
This is what happens when you have too much machine and not enough driver…..
So yesterday I get a phone call from him and knew it was either he was lost, broke down or wrecked it…..turns out he managed to get quite a bit of air off a jump and came down front first and ended up flipping it. Usually not a big deal, we get them rolled back upright and on you go. Not the case for him, he did some pretty good damage. Trashed his lower control arms, broke the shock and a bunch of other suspension damage. We had to get a trailer down to him, swap his tires out and pull it to shop.
This is what happens when you have too much machine and not enough driver…..
I bet his pocket book will keep him from jumping much after this.
I’ll be honest, I expected the typical first day story…
“I tried to do donuts and flopped it!”
I’ll be honest, I expected the typical first day story…
“I tried to do donuts and flopped it!”
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OP
Yeah that would have been much better for him than sending it as fast as he did over a hill.
Side note about my machine. The shop called me and said the adjuster came out and looked it over and then told them to go ahead and put a whole new frame on it. So looks like I’m gonna be riding passenger with my buddy for a while..
OP
Still waiting on my ride to be finished, just over a month now. On a positive note the wheels I had on mine are on National backorder and this turned out to be a good thing as they did a supplemental claim and now insurance will pay for a new matching set of 4. So I went ahead and got new tires to go on the wheels as well so I’ll have have a brand new set and 3 spares once this is all done with.
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Had some friends fly out from TX. We did Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon the first 2 days then today we are in Sedona. Did a long hike and about to hit yo the downtown area. Flagstaff had recently got a ton of snow, so it was interesting to drive from sunny and 80 to 2ft of snow.
Added some new RCOR tender springs on my ride last week. Added about 2” of lift.
I haven’t had a chance to take them on a long ride yet. They should definitely help smooth out the fast pace riding more!
I haven’t had a chance to take them on a long ride yet. They should definitely help smooth out the fast pace riding more!
OP
Looks great. I may have to look in to that for my rig as well. If I ever get it back…
What tires/wheels are you running?
Tusk beadlock wheels, and 32x10r14 Sedona Rockabillies. Awesome tire but they are soft and wear fast. I have 1k miles on them and will probably need a set this fall if I keep road riding it.
OP
I went with Tusk beadlocks and their terrabite tires. Im hoping they aren’t too soft, I need a really tough tire for all the rock I ride through.
The terrabite's are definitely a good tire for your terrain, they wear very slowly. I plan to try the KM3's after the Rockabillies.
OP
Some buddies have the KM3s and they seem to be holding up well. I was running EFX Motoclaws and they have been excellent, but they are very pricey and the shop doing my repairs recommended me to try the Terrabites and save some money
OP
No, I didn’t take it to a dealership. Local shop here who specializes in Side by Sides and are an authorized warranty/insurance shop. I wouldn’t let the local dealership change my oil.
My warranty is long up anyway, but I don’t think I’d hear any issues about the tires. I bought it in TX with dealer installed 32” tires.
What were the issues?
OP
A popping/clicking sound when turning left and the wheel that took the impact still had a slight bit of camber to it.
OP
Figured I’d change the name of the thread since I’m posting a lot of non trail riding stuff.
Made a stop at the Hoover Dam on the way up to Vegas.
Made a stop at the Hoover Dam on the way up to Vegas.
OP
Some tiki bars that are out randomly in the desert. It’s a big meet up site for people and you can have 30-40 people there on weekend nights. Saw a couple cool dune buggies 
OP
Went out to start up my smoker this week and heard a loud humming sound. Turned out I had some unwanted gusts decide to move in, and they are the Africanized variety…
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Apparently. Just went to go check on it and looks like they started a new hive so the exterminator will likely have to come back out.
OP
Had an adventure Saturday night through yesterday afternoon. We all went to a buddies house for a BBQ after the river. My buddy gets there and forgot some shit at his house so left his kids there and ran back to get whatever he left.
After like a couple hrs go by and he’s not back we all head out in the rigs and split up to search for this guy. While another group drove in a truck to check his house and the paved roads.
After no luck finding this dude. We call the Jail and ER to check and nothing. Even got a border patrol helicopter to start looking for him.
After several Hrs he shows up to our other buddies house on foot carrying his dog and that guy’s girlfriend called us to let us know. He had zero recollection of how he got there or where the his RZR was just just new it was stuck.. the ring camera video of that conversation is hilarious. Not so much for him but we sure got a good laugh out of that super weird awkward conversation.
So once we had him we proceeded to search all night for this thing and never found it. Got up Sunday and started searching with me and a buddie on his dirt bike and flying his drone. We randomly came across it at about 1500 in a spot we definitely didn’t think it would be in. And definitely stuck… took my buddies Ram 3500 to pull it off
He’d had a few beers but turns out he’s also recently prescribed Cymbalta and and went from about to zero to blackout real quick.
After like a couple hrs go by and he’s not back we all head out in the rigs and split up to search for this guy. While another group drove in a truck to check his house and the paved roads.
After no luck finding this dude. We call the Jail and ER to check and nothing. Even got a border patrol helicopter to start looking for him.
After several Hrs he shows up to our other buddies house on foot carrying his dog and that guy’s girlfriend called us to let us know. He had zero recollection of how he got there or where the his RZR was just just new it was stuck.. the ring camera video of that conversation is hilarious. Not so much for him but we sure got a good laugh out of that super weird awkward conversation.
So once we had him we proceeded to search all night for this thing and never found it. Got up Sunday and started searching with me and a buddie on his dirt bike and flying his drone. We randomly came across it at about 1500 in a spot we definitely didn’t think it would be in. And definitely stuck… took my buddies Ram 3500 to pull it off
He’d had a few beers but turns out he’s also recently prescribed Cymbalta and and went from about to zero to blackout real quick.