brostar

4x4x454. Congrats mate. I like the photo because it shows just how steep the Trooper can go while proving the camera hasn't exaggerating the angle by the background looking how it should. Howz the weather up your way now. I'm suffering big time with a low of 22 degree heat @ 100% humidity. We call that a sheet shredder over here. 22 degrees Celsius = 72 degrees Fahrenheit & 100% humidity means the air can't handle any more moisture & that makes the air feel like about 40 degrees (104 degree Fahrenheit). It's fair to say "I'm not sleeping at all & I'm grumpy as hell".

Send me some snow, Cheers Mike.

Thanks rocmoc, all I can say is "if that is the case is it's both disappointing and plastic".

Cheers Mike.

In this clip the dealer from Texas said that the Trooper was the Side X Side of the year for 2008. That's all news to me as I have not heard that before. I don't want to turn this in to a debate at all but would simply like to know where that title came from. Yes, I have e-mailed the company concerned, however it came back as a failed address. Can anybody elaborate please? The link is:

Cheers Mike.

Thanks admin, it's most definitely faster & that's way over here. Two weeks ago I gave windows internet explorer the flick in favour of Mozilla Firefox and it turboed my uploads straight away and have noticed UTV Boards today is faster again with your new server. Has anybody got an pros or cons on Mozilla Firefox apart from how quick it is? The only bummer so far is I have lost all my favourite sites that I had saved.

Cheers Mike.

Lenny, what you say is true concerning the tongue weight and I have seen the result of not getting it right. About 20 years ago I did a bit of competition rally driving with a mate of mine who had a very fast Mk1 Escort (English Ford Escort) but was a hopeless driver. He was always crashing and on this occasion we rolled about four times and landed on our feet again. Anyway to cut the drama short we winched the car on the trailer and started tying it down when I noticed the thing was to much on one side and not far enough forward. My mate was that p***** off he wouldn't listen to me and said he would leave it like that and just go the 90k/m (50 miles) trip back slowly. As I had my wife with me I refused to go back with him and told him he would roll it going down the Bombay Hill heading in to Auckland and that's just what happened. He destroyed the towing vehicle, the rally car and the trailer but my mate and his wife were uninjured with just his pride dented. We saw the whole thing unfold from a car right behind him and in the 10 seconds or so it took from when he lost control he had several near misses that would of ended badly for sure.

Always make sure you get the balance right and with just the right amount of weight on the toe-ball it should behave just how Lenny described above.

Cheers Mike.

Nice rig Lenny but it would be illegal over here. You can only tow one trailer including 5th wheelers. Is your Trooper trailer purpose built? Just asking because you seem to have the sweet spot between the weight of the T2 & the axle of the trailer. Also, I can't see how you drive on, does it tilt or you have fold away ramps?

Cheers Mike.

I did a bit of research on electric steering units a year ago after somebody wanted one fitted to their UTV & found that Unisteer Performance Products with their universal electric steering kit was the one to go for. The enquiry I made was for a Commando 4 seater so you will have to send in a few measurements. The direct link is:

http://www.unisteer.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?S...e_Code=UNISTEER

Pretty pricey though, but just like electric fans they don't steel power from the engine.

Cheers Mike.

An anti roll bar can still be attached to independent suspension with the lower control arm being the connection point. The bar can't be to stiff and regardless you will still loose some independence and on top of that, it would have to be a new design for the Trooper. That pretty much makes it a dead duck but I still like the steering stabilizer set-up even with electric steering. It just makes sense really. I wonder if you can have two independent sway bars . Don't race cars with independent suspension have a drop bar on each side coming down from the main cross sway bar? Or at least, I think they do.

Cheers Mike

flatbed & rocmoc, have you guys or any body else considered an anti-roll bar and or a steering stabilizer set-up at all to help complement both the tender springs and fox shocks? The anti-roll bar should help with roll and the steering stabilizers are commonly used on 4x4s using oversize tires & helps wear and tear with both the tires, ball joints and takes all the jarring out of the steering wheel. One problem though, both these items are normally tailor made for a certain make or model.

Cheers Mike

Good idea Lenny, you might be able to do some of these as an exchange unit on ebay. Get them to send the existing hardware together with a pre-paid return address.

Cheers Mike.

Here are some pics of the incredible amount of snow we have this year. The Jimmy in one of the pics has 8" of lift and 36" tires if I stand next to it I cant look in the windows and I am 6' tall. Another pic is of a Dodge Daytona and all you can see is the antenna.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/24012...104282158qeLSox

She's fair to say that we are having a rip snorter of a summer over here and the grass is a light shade of brown. Didn't really want to tell you how nice it is over this side of the ditch but couldn't contain myself any more. 4x4x454 I do feel for you mate and at times jealous of all that snow but I do understand the extra effort you must have to put into every day just to get though your daily routine. In a short six months you will be as happy as a bull amongst cows while I'll have all the mud and cold to contend with & I don't like thick cold mud that much. I hope that gives you a lift a bit.

Cheers Mike.

flatbed pointed out to me once before about the extra pressure a turbo will put on the engine and running gear. I agree with him too however it's human instinct to look at aftermarket power boosters and most people will always at least consider it. With turbos, if you want to pump it up to the max it's going to cost max dollars keeping it running but if your not so hungry for power a little bit of boost will satisfy without stressing out your machine to much.

Cheers Mike

Lenny my local 4wd spare parts shop sell a brand called F-O-A and he rates them very highly. I told flatbed about them. One of the x-designers for King Shocks started the company and held back some of his good ideas for F-O-A apparently. If you can't find info over there the NZ website is:

http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/default.aspx?Cate...amp;selection=0 & click on Shocks...

Cheers Mike

http://www.f-o-a.com/calculator.html

http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/ProductsList.aspx...mp;selection=18

Good info, thanks Mike, Jeff

Conrats Megz that's awesome news. My wife Jane said Jaylen looks really cute. Have you had that 1st ride yet?

Cheers Mike.

One product that has really gone down hill is shoes. Tens years or more ago I'd buy branded American shoes that would last up to three years no worries, now those same shoes made in Asia are only good for 1 year. The cheap Chinese imported shoes are even worse, maybe 3 to 6 months. Come to mention it, what about socks? Man those things fall apart on yar after six months. Even with my smelly feet that's not good. I have still got NZ made tramping socks in my draw that are wearable after 10 years. So there does have to be some quality control somewhere along the line otherwise more products like these will slip into the disposable category too. NZ has to trade with other countries because of out small size whereas America could manufacture, grow or mine most products themselves, however competition from developing countries will always undercut you. The NZ Rag trade (clothes) used to be huge in the 80s, now you can't even buy a NZ made Tee-Shirt without paying though your nose.

Cheers Mike.

New Zealand has in place a "Buy NZ Made" programme for many years now with incentives and a logo sticker on NZ made goods. It's pretty much died a natural death now but is still out there. There were many obstacles to overcome and in the end it was just to hard to compete with imported goods. Some issues that got in the way were the fact that the NZ Government (who set up the programme) all ready had in place trade agreements with other countries that can not be broken. Now we have an agreement with China it's a case of getting in behind this closer economic agreement between us and them. The pay off for NZ is we have secured meat and dairy products amongst others to boost our exports to China. The farmers income from this helps build the countries growth, so we all get something out of it. If you don't import products from other counties they won't import from you, however if the USA did find a nation that would except your one way traffic, the increase freight costs with shipping back empty contains would offset its profits. The world is getting smaller and smaller though trade agreements and it's a snow ball that can't be stopped, right or wrong.

Jimmy your going to hate me but it looks like NZ beef will solely be used by MacDonald's and NZ is on the verge of signing a Closer Economic agreement with your country.

The other thing is, your happy or not with your RZR with China made parts, either way if it was 100% American made the retail price on a new one would shoot up, making new buyers look at alternatives anyway.

Cheers Mike.

Hey everyone. New here but figured I'd see how many Honda Big Red owners are out there. Post your pics of your HBR mods or HBR in action. Here's mine.

Red Rider, when I 1st saw a photo of these, I thought they were fugly, but with the extras you have instilled it looks great. Congats and happy driving with your new Honda.

Cheers Mike

I have got some video footage of my Trooper going up a very steep heavily rutted track that would make anyone a bit nervous attempting to go up for the 1st time and it was just a walk in the park so went back the next week when it was raining to give it a decent test in the mud. Again I got a video of it and although this was more of a test, the Trooper got up no worries. A couple of Jap 4x4s didn't get very far up and had to back down. Having said that, all vehicles have their limits EVR JR it's just you will have to go a long way to find yours.

Cheers Mike.

Thanks Flatbed, I was worried about him.

Cinda

Here I am, sorry about the no contact for a while and I don't wont to bore you all but it was down to a number of things including since Xmas, holidaying, my teens misbehaving, my computer deciding it had enough and packed up as well as getting in some time on the Trooper. Before Xmas I was just good old flat out doing this that and the other. I have been watching from time to time what's been said with great interest especially the shock mods with Kinarfi, Lenny and flatbed. Brilliant stuff. I have had a couple of really good trips out on the T2 however I reckon she would be so much sweeter with these mods.

Cheers Mike.

This full canvas enclosure was made by Joyner and is new to the market. There is a hard enclosure available too. With my canvas enclosure, I was not happy with the design so I've had a zip added to the front windscreen, marine hardware fittings to the firewall and eyelets to the sill by a marine upholsterer. The video was an attempt to show the difference between the plastic screen and open air by flashing the camera in & out of the cab. If your worried about a plastic windscreen not having good vision don't be because it's no worse than glass however I would recommend making these changes because of heat build up on a hot day and more importantly for mud bogging because mud these plastic windscreens equals poor vision at best. She's a rip snorter of a day over here and it's forecasted to get up to 26c(which is about 80f) so I'm going back up to Moirs Hill see how much better it is like this and I'll take the camera.

Cheers Mike.

I tried posting a video of the Trooper with a new canvas enclosure here to show what the vision was like looking through the plastic windscreen, but I could not so I opened a youtube account and posted it there. The link is

and it will give you a fair idea what the vision is like & a NZ bush track. This one was a closed forestry rd that wouldn't of seen a truck in years. We did find a truck but that was the end of that track. The vision through the windscreen is surprisingly very good but I still decided to add a zip and now you get the best of both worlds. The photos of the zip are here: http://community.webshots.com/album/568944807yrkoaG

Cheers Mike.

I'm in NZ so no good for me but there are several Trooper owners on this site that would be interested. If you need a vehicle for fitting out purposes, I'm sure one of them would let you use their Joyner.

Cheers Mike.

G'day Dylan Motor Sports and welcome top UTV Boards,

I just had a look at your website and I'm impressed. Have you got any plans for making aftermarket Joyner products? A lot of Commandos, Renegades and Troopers have been sold now, but there are not to many aftermarket goodies out there for them.

Cheers Mike.

This one cracks me up!!

Funny Video

Longtrack Lady that was funny for sure. Here is a triple decker from NZ

Photos of the Modified Trooper canvas enclosure with a Zip down front screen, Velcro straps and Marine fasteners have been added to Webshots.... http://community.webshots.com/album/568944807yrkoaG . Make sure you read the description under each photo. I tried here but on this occasion, I could not do it for some reason.

Cheers Mike.