Need help on a Trooper youtube video.

[brostar]

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.

[rocmoc]

I think the sideXside of the year thing is just like RZR saying they have the top speed. Just sales speak.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[brostar]

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

Cheers Mike.

[rocmoc]

brostar, Sorry! Have not seen or heard otherwise. IMHO, Joyner has to go another mile before they can pull that kind of press. A better warranty or no parts failures or something. KIA got a better rating / press than Land Rover even tho Land Rover is a better vechile and KIA has more breakdowns. KIA has an incredible warranty, easier to work with and cheaper. Maybe that needs to be Joyner's future to break thu into the big boys' play yard.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Guest Lenny]

Maybe the guy and his buddies while drunk declared the Trooper side by side of 2008. Maybe the guys wife said that. That's a lot different then saying UTV magazine came up with that valuation. I saw a Trooper add by a dealer some time back that said it came with 12" - 14" of suspension. Maybe if you came off full extension and landed on something sharp and blew the tire while sinking 1-1/2" into the seat. Lets see, 9" stock on the rear, 5" of tire compression and 1-1/2" of seat, wow I come up with 15 1/2" of travel. I know what it is, It's the side by side of the year when it comes to weight.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

With the little tweaking we have done, It Is a Beast! The only place place another SideXSide could compete was in the sand and with the new wheels & tires this may have changed. BUT, with the new shoes it does not seem like a SideXSide. It is more like a small Jeep or Suzuki Samurai.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Paiute3]

With the little tweaking we have done, It Is a Beast! The only place place another SideXSide could compete was in the sand and with the new wheels & tires this may have changed. BUT, with the new shoes it does not seem like a SideXSide. It is more like a small Jeep or Suzuki Samurai.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

But much more stable than a Samurai, our oldest son had one until George drove it and he went down and traded it in on a Jeep to keep G3 safe.

Cinda

[Guest Lenny]

With the little tweaking we have done, It Is a Beast! The only place place another SideXSide could compete was in the sand and with the new wheels & tires this may have changed. BUT, with the new shoes it does not seem like a SideXSide. It is more like a small Jeep or Suzuki Samurai.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

A friend of mine has a modified Rhino that is quite fast running at about 55-60mph. At Coral Pink sand dunes in southwestern Utah which has a fairly powdery sand, I can keep up with him ok pretty much everywhere. There are a couple of hills that he gets over that I almost make. There are a couple of things that are causing me problems. First is my weight, whick is not gererally a problem because he runs quite fast and I can stay on top of the sand even gaining on him quite easily when were going more then about 25mph even on about 10-15 degree upgrades. Any steeper, I can keep up but no longer gain as my weight starts to show and I start digging in more. I'm running four 25" paddles and he is running four 27" paddles. Looking at weight vs tire size, he has me out tired by a lot, out tiring me on the bigger climbs. Even then I'm close but the transition going from the flat to the immediate slope, as sand dunes usually are, causes the heavy weight to drive the front tires into the sand hard before going up substantially breaking my speed. I did take off my top rack and the rear rollbar/spare assembly to reduce weight. I'm pretty confident that if I were to have maybe 13.00 x 15" paddles, I would easily outclimb him. So I'm running a basicly stock Trooper with paddles that are too small for it against a modified and fairly fast Rhino and doing pretty good.

Give me your thoughts, I'm sort of thinking that I don't have the raw power to churn paddles enough to ever be a sand dune screamer. I'm kinda entertaining the idea that with really big paddle tires 13.00 or 13.50 x 15, same as flatbet was considering, that I could just get ahold of the sand without sinking in and sort of a fast crawl and probably climb much better, eating up the Rhino probably now all the way around. At present, I have the power to climb ok but I start so sink in quickly on the steeper climbs. Once sunk in, I'm now continously climbing out of a hole which eventually leaves me just spinning. With big tires, I won't drive into the sand at the transition point. I'll stay on top easily and I'll get a much bigger grip on the sand. I kinda think that this combination in the sand could be pretty impressive. rocmoc has pretty well shown that bigger tires make a huge difference. What do you think.

Don't miss understand me the Rhino is a pretty neat machine and it does quite well. It's compaired to a lot because it does quite well for what it is. It's just not for me.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Flatbed can commit better on this than I can, but I feel the 13 or 13.5 are the way to go. With the 31's I am running the powerband became much more usable. Instead of running in 2nd or 3rd, you would be running in 1st or 2nd. I really feel my Trooper is faster thu the gears now & pulls better with the bigger tires. I plan to run the bigger paddle should I start playing in more blow sand. A side note is most of the time I am running at a lower RPM so less heat to the engine at speed.

What gear are you in when you were playing with the Rhino?

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Guest Lenny]

What gear are you in when you were playing with the Rhino?

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

For the steeper climbing, I'm in second. Other then that, I can run in third on most other upgrades. Once I get going and it's only 10 degrees or so up I can run in forth, and in fifth on the flats pretty well. I have the power to pull third on most hills but as I sink in, I start to bog down. I sink in because I'm still spinning until I bog then the motor can't pull it anymore. If I then downshift, it's too late. First gear just isn't used much. My feeling is that once I get better flotation I won't sink and thus won't bog. This should allow me to stay in the higher gears longer. I'll use one gear lower if I wan to spin the tires harder for example if I'm in a sand hole and I need to hole shot to climb out. Right now if I try to hole shot in 1st, I just sink in because there isn't enough flotation. With bigger tires, I should be able to hole shot in 1st and stay on top. I'm real curious about just how steep our Troopers will climb in 1st with big paddle tires with quite deep paddles and a 4 or 5 lb pressure. I got a feeling that we will go most anywhere we want except the steepest stuff in low just crawling and yet be able to scoot around real good. Once we get everything tuned in on our Troopers, we should be considered a threat to any of the UTV's and beat most easily. The comperition is gitting bigger and faster. Right now, the Prowler with it's 1000cc engine is getting pretty strong, I've read.

Lenny

[flatbed]

Hi everyone, been busy, my son and his wife just had there first baby. a nice healthy boy, watch out meg!!!!!!!

The paddles on 15" wheels is the way to go, but what surprised me even more was changing the front tires, they are like trying to push rocks! You need a large foot print on the front also because of the weight. I think with low tire preasure and the bigger front tires you could probably go any where you wanted to. You really do need the bigger front tires like romoc has, he has noticed a big difference in the sand i am sure. I am able to dig holes in 2nd gear pretty easy when i want to with the paddles so the power is there on the hills. I still think getting the air clearner closer to the throttle body would give us more low end.

[rocmoc]

Congrats Flatbed!

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Paiute3]

Congratulations Flatbed! Our newest grandchild is set to make her appearance in late April.

Grandchildren are wonderful!

Cinda

[brostar]

Congrats flatbed. I wonder if you Cinda and Megz will take the next generation of off-roaders out in your Troopers within the next year, strapped in their car seats of course. I think so & why wouldn't you. I've got a sneaky suspicion these 3 little ones will meet each other in the near future regardless.

Cheers Mike.

[Guest Lenny]

Congratulations Flatbed, Hope daughter in law and grandson are doing well. Grandchildren are always a real joy.

Lenny

[Kinarfi]

You can sure tell who the grandparents are, WE just want to share the joy of grand kids with all.

Congratulations.

Kinarfi