Great review, more people should do this about there changes and be candid about it. I can second all said on the Cardo headsets to a T.

Anyone wanting to do more technical stuff, gotta get on 32s, disconnect sway bars and limit straps are worth the cost and effort to do it!
Also, wider is better in that environment! More stable, and more travel!
This is why I love spacers. You don’t have to be stuck with the width.

 

Sway bars, what sway bars? I lost mine in the trash a long time ago. Factory tires are fair. Depending if I get a limo deal worked out, they'll go to the trash for 32s on a RMAX4 if I keep it .

 

I’ll add some better pictures of how my rear spacers affect the width.

When I laid it over in Hell’s Gate, the tires held me off the wall. The only damage I took was a minor scuff on the end of my mirror.

Here’s a photo of the front with the new springs adjusted to 13.75” ride height.

Something I forgot to mention in my first post was adding SuperATV HD Tie Rods. They’re much heavier than the factory tie rods.

 

Looks awesome thank you for the review

 

Going to go ahead and add tires to this post. Came in today, and are being mounted now. I’ll update as I can.

 

 

Machine looks so good, the black wheels on white really pops. Good call on the limit straps! Our 4 liked to pull the cv’s after pulling the sway off. Those gold beach disconnects gummed up a lot on me after a year or two, I would hit it with some spray lube every once in a while.

 

I have a couple trail rides done at Sand Hollow, and think I have enough of a feel for the Obor tires to start a review. I put about 18 miles of asphalt under them before I hit the trails. They are extremely quiet and smooth on asphalt, unlike my Sedonas.
First day was 70° and sunny. Rocks were dry. Conditions were basically ideal. We rode Faultline to the playground (lunchroom) area, then played on the different obstacles. Unfortunately, it was me and my wife, who never got out of the car, so I have no video. The tires worked flawlessly. We went up everything we tried, and we definitely tried stuff that was outside my comfort zone. The only named obstacle we did was Menio’s Choice.

We crawled it pretty easily.

Second day I decided to try Milt’s Mile. 57° and overcast. Conditions were okay. We bypassed the 3 Monkeys, but did all the other obstacles. We also tried a few side obstacles. There are some buggy lines on that trail, that I had no chance on, and didn’t attempt, but just took the easier line. The tires went up everything I attempted except one side obstacle, that they climbed, but I couldn’t get the angle right. I was going to flip, so I decided to try another day. The only other spot I had trouble was on Hard Left Turn. I came in at too sharp of an angle, and as I was trying to make my driver side front climb, the steering wheel got yanked out of my hand. The sidewall folded over on me as it happened. I assumed I had to have damaged it, but can’t find anything. I was running 7 pounds hot. I don’t know what the pressure would be cold, because I’m airing down for the trail, and up for the road. I’m guessing it’s probably 5.5-6 pounds cold. I watched a couple videos of that obstacle last night and figured out that I was too far left to start. Anyway, the car climbed it, and I did it cowboy style with my front end 5 or 6 feet in the air.
Here’s a picture from outside the woman’s restroom just before the entrance to No Left Turn.

Here’s a picture of the little climb up just before that.

I really can’t recommend these tires enough, so far. They have exceeded my expectations.

 

Not sure if you saw this one. It’s a challenge in a school bus but it shows what happens if you can’t get wide enough. If the driver front is in the air you can flop.

 

What is the cost of those tires per each?
Are they sticky or just considered regular?
I looked into the Obor RocMonster I thought but the Scraper is new to me.

It sounds like you did Hard left turn perfectly. Most people without help hit it in a fashion that will flop them unexpectedly right on the passenger side. If it pulls the passenger front 4’ off the ground then that’s the correct way of it!

 

What is the cost of those tires per each?
Are they sticky or just considered regular?
I looked into the Obor RocMonster I thought but the Scraper is new to me.

It sounds like you did Hard left turn perfectly. Most people without help hit it in a fashion that will flop them unexpectedly right on the passenger side. If it pulls the passenger front 4’ off the ground then that’s the correct way of it!

Normally the tires are $275 each. I bought them on sale for $187 each.
Believe it or not, Monster Energy Drinks went after Obor, and forced them to change the RocMonster name. It’s the same tire, different name. They do not come in 14”. I believe the 32, 35, and 37”s are all only 15” wheels.
Obor has now released a stickier version of the 35” and 37” tires. I think that was announced at trail hero here, last month. I wonder if they’re about to do the same on the 32s, and maybe that has something to do with the sale. The old compound is considered sticky.

Same tire.

Obor RocScraper (8ply) Radial UTV Tire [32x10-15]

www.kjmotorsports.com

 

Great choice for your application!

 

Swing out wide, aim for that little notch with the driver front. Doesn’t matter how high you pull a passenger front because the rear is flat and stable.

 

Ha ha! I was posting your video at the same time you were!

You did it slow and methodically. I rock bounced it.

 

I hadn’t seen that. Those guys are legends. I’m surprised they had that much trouble with it. They should take a lesson from this guy…

Absolute Clinic!

I think I was too low to the left. I didn’t flop, but both tires came up, and when I came down on top, my skid hit pretty hard on the rock on the right.

I mapped a short cut back to it. I’m going to do some refining.

 

Getting all western, is funner in the seat and better on video. Yea Hah

 

How it started…

How it’s going…

 

Drastic changes today. My shocks are now charged to 200 pounds of nitrogen. Stock is 100. I’m told these will be much better. I had Weller install a clutch kit, and service the secondary with TinkSeal. They also preemptively replaced my belt.
My plan was to switch to 23gm weights, add the spring, new sheave, and keep the 1mm shim. I discussed going to 1.5mm of shim, but was told it would cause faster belt wear. When I picked it up, it had a spring, 23gm weights, new sheave, and no shim. I was skeptical. Kyle, who obviously knows a hell of a lot more than I do about clutches, said that’s how he’s running his Rmax. I said he rides fast desert stuff, which is different from what I ride, but he says he rock crawls, and doesn’t really do the high speed stuff in his Rmax. He says it’s going to do what I want, and I’m going to like it. So far I’ve driven it onto the trailer. I’ll head back to Utah tomorrow morning, and it’ll be at sand hollow Saturday morning. I hope they’re right!

 

There is very little difference of ratio between a stock sheave, 1mm shim, partially worn belt and a Weller sheave, no shim and new belt. Seat of the pants I’d expect you to not feel any difference in crawling or take off ratio. Good news is it will improve through the belts life and eventually be better than the previous combo.
The weights and spring will be a difference in performance and sound that you’ll notice for sure, being different than before as well as the improved cruising RPMs for your road miles.

I got 2700 miles out of my first belt. Worn slightly past spec. Stock sheave all of those miles. 1mm shim added at 1100 miles. 2/3 of those miles on 30” tires.
I ve got 3400 miles on my second belt. It was just shy of spec limit at 2500 miles. All of those miles were Weller sheave and 1mm shim and almost all on 32s. I then put in another .5mm shim same belt and 700 miles later I went in to have a look see. Belt still measures about the same as at the last sheave service. Still not quite at spec limit, and I’ve added another 200 miles since then. My belts so low, its not far from touching the collar.
I can only speak from my personal experience but I measure things and write them down. Faster belt wear isn’t my experience, but much better crawling and control is!

 

Hope it performs how you want

 

If it doesn’t, I’ll take it back to them in February.

 

Ground clearance change much?
Anxious to hear if you think it's too choppy on trails with embedded rock or baby heads at 200psi?

 

It’s cold this morning, so getting a late start. On the trailer I gained 3/4” in back, and 1/2” in front. The front tires are squished down pretty good with the bonnets, so it may go up when I loosen them up. I’m trailering to Sand Hollow, so I won’t have the long washboard road to try out, but I should get a pretty good picture of ride quality on everything else today. It’s just me and the wife, so only going to do Double Sammy.

 

Ground clearance change much?
Anxious to hear if you think it's too choppy on trails with embedded rock or baby heads at 200psi?

I’ll measure ground clearance asap. I’m curious too. I probably won’t get to it until Saturday. It seems a little higher… maybe. Honestly, I kind of thought the front was pretty perfect, but the back felt a little mushy. They said it was down from stock, but “not that much.” I’m hoping for the best.

 

Double Sammy is a tough trail when you’re alone. I guess I’ve followed people through it twice before, but never was in the lead. The wife had to get out and spot me through 2 areas.

there was a good amount of sand on the rocks too.
Suspension was great, clutch was great, driver needs improvement.

 

Did you feel out the rock face any?

 

Yeah. I got on it, but didn’t really hit it. I’d say I have a 50/50 chance, but I need someone around to flip me back over if things go south. It’s steeper than I remembered, and you’re pretty high up the wall before your front tires are on top. I think it’s commit, or crash.
As we came up to one obstacle, my wife said, We can’t do that. I said, You mean now, or we can’t make it up? She said, both.
It was this one…

She didn’t believe me until I showed her the video. It’s a lot more intimidating when you’re out there alone. She seemed okay with the Chute until I put tires on it. Then she changed her mind. I’d pretty much had enough excitement anyway.

Thinking about that climb. I think I’d want to try it the first time with a rope. That’s probably all you need.

 

Good choice, I wouldn’t commit any of those without another machine around.
I have tried doing that wall multiple attempts without weight mods and got my tires on top but it was always hopping so much that I feared for an axle. If everything went just right I think it can happen. Mainly I was just curious if you ever could due to the extra 3.5” of wheelbase over the 2 seater.

 

That place was empty yesterday. We didn’t see one other person on the trail. The weather was perfect too. I don’t know what the hell was going on. There were 10 or 12 trailers at the water tank parking lot, and 3 of them were tour companies. Are you coming out this month?

 

Suspension

My original plan was Weller Racing springs and valving. I then saw some information that made me think I’d rather have Shock Therapy tune my shocks. I added the springs, and was hoping to get ST to commit to finishing my shocks by noon Friday, but they weren’t able to make any promises, so I thought I’d wait until February when I’ll be closer to them. I saw a video on YouTube that said just getting your nitrogen pressure up to factory spec would help a lot. I asked Weller to add gas while they were doing my clutch. Factory spec is 100 pounds. When I asked them to add nitrogen, I didn’t know what spec was, so when they asked how much I wanted, I said I don’t know, probably factory spec. When I got back to pick the machine up, they told me they added 200 pounds, and that they didn’t think 100 was enough. I figured it was worth a try, and that if I didn’t like it I could just let Shock Therapy fix it in February.
After riding yesterday, I don’t think I’ll bother taking it to Shock Therapy. It’s far better than it’s ever been, and I doubt there’s much room for improvement. I was running it through sand whoops at 25 mph, and it was fine. I don’t think a 90” wheelbase and double wishbone suspension with 13” of rear travel is ever going to be great in whoops. It is a lot better though. Everywhere else it felt planted, stable, and controlled. Between the springs and the nitrogen I think I’m happy, and I’m going to keep it like this.

 

Valving by someone who knows what they are doing is always the answer. Kyle had mentioned to me that when they valved their Rmax it was like riding on a cloud. I do agree on the correct nitrogen pressure as these shocks are massed produced and may vary from shock to shock. I need to at least do that for mine but so far the springs are a good improvement.

 

I noticed more improvement from the gas than the springs. The combination of the two made the machine really ride great. I wonder if I’d have done the gas first, if I’d have even bothered with the springs. Right now, after only one ride of less than 2 miles, I feel like my suspension is doing exactly what I hoped it would do. Those 2 miles were a hard 2 miles though, and took over an hour and a half. I really didn’t like my suspension before, now I think it’s great.

 

I found this video really interesting and educational. It is the one that convinced me that I should have my nitrogen pressure adjusted. There are a lot of other pieces of information about spring rates too. I think it’s worth watching, if you’re not happy with your suspension, before you go and spend a bunch of money on it.

Here’s the one that convinced me to have ST do my shock tuning, when I still thought I needed it.

There’s something about that guy that irritates me, but it’s convincing.
I’ll get into my clutch after I spend a little more time with it. So far it is noticeably quieter, which surprises me. Other than that, I didn’t notice it much, which is exactly what I want.