[OR Traveling Rmax]

How it started…

How it’s going…

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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!

 

[Eztrail]

Hope it performs how you want

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

Hope it performs how you want

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

 

[noload]

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

 

[Larry Meadors]

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.

some awesome driving skills....

 

[Budro2]

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!

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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.

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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!

You’ve pretty much echoed what I was told earlier today. That’s good, because I trust your judgment, and know you aren’t trying to tell me what I need to hear in order to sell me something.

I’ll report back with my thoughts when I get a chance to test things a bit.

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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.

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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.

 

[Budro2]

Did you feel out the rock face any?

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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.

 

[Budro2]

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.

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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?

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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.

 

[Carpenter Ken]

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.

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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.

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

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.

 

[OR Traveling Rmax]

I’m trying to dial in tire pressure. I was running 6 or 7 pounds, same as my old tires, when crawling. The sidewall deflection seemed excessive, so I ran 8 pounds front and 7.5 pounds rear last time I was out. I’m not sure this is even enough, looking at the sidewall on a couple spots where I was pointing down at extreme angles. Is anyone running RocScrapers/Rocmonsters on their Rmax? Roxxzillas seem to have a similar sidewall too, so if anyone is running those I’d be interested to know what pressure you’re running.