How To

-- How to install them yourself & save -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels  “All brakes do is slow you down!” is a common hilarity that some of us share with riding buddies who couldn’t keep up with us on the track or trails. In truth, good brakes help you go a lot faster. If you change out those stock rotors and pads with better parts from a company like Galfer USA, you can brake harder with less fade from heat. You can carry your speed longer into a turn, and that cuts precious seconds on the track, and it gives you…

-- What you need to know -- By Rick Sosobee and the staff of Dirt Wheels When it comes to performing maintenance on your ATV or SXS, one particular selection of parts will need close attention. That would be the brake system. Your brakes are very important, and they could be your salvation when your talent runs low while showing the trail just how inexperienced you are. Performing regular maintenance like changing brake pads or a brake disc is simple and typically does not require brakes to be bled. However, when you…

-- Installing a better skid plate & testing it out --  By the staff of Dirt Wheels Polaris has not left the underside of its UTVs unprotected. Each has a factory plastic skid plate installed, but the plastic isn’t heavy or thick. It balances weight with maximum protection, but some people drive terrain that is a bit challenging. Ricochet Off-Road has been providing protection for off-road machinery for over 35 years. The reason? Ricochet is located right at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and there is ample…

-- Testing a smart wiring solution for your RZR --  By the staff of Dirt Wheels One of our editors has been building a project Polaris RZR XP Turbo that will be featured in Dirt Wheels soon. Installing everything has required many hours. We’ve had to collect parts and persuade things to fit correctly. Modifications have been made, while blood, sweat and tears have been shed, but none of those problems were from XTC Power Products. Wiring can be relentlessly tedious if you are not an aficionado or have the…

-- What to look for when shopping for a good deal -- As the UTV market expands, there are a lot of enthusiasts purchasing new machines and putting their old ones on the market. Those used machines can be where a smart buyer stakes their claim on a handsome deal for a (new to them) UTV. With sites like Craigslist and atvtrader, there are many options to view the available herd of UTVs, and begin the process of narrowing down the quality values and weeding out the not-so-promising SxSs. Research is key when it comes to…

-- Keep your machine’s suspension working like new --  By the staff of Dirt Wheels : Keeping the suspension working well on a quad or UTV requires a variety of parts to function as they should. Adjusting the spring preload and fine-tuning the adjusters are the fun part. There are less glamorous duties, like making sure that the suspension arms are operating as they should. Most quad and UTV suspension arms pivot on simple plastic bushings with a sleeve for the bolt to go through. For the most part, these…

-- How to have tons of fun going sideways -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels with Josh Underwood, Photos by Stephen Tripp/www.stephentripp.com There is nothing Dirt Wheels loves more than a letter or an e-mail with a radical, high-quality photo included. Some relevant info is just a gilded frame on the shot. And then there are exceptional days like when we hear from photographer Stephen Tripp. We heard from Stephen out of the blue after the 2018 Daytona SX quad race. He was wondering if we wanted to use any of his…

-- Step by step photos on a UTV -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels In the December 2018 issue, we showed how to install new brake rotors on a Polaris RZR. In this issue we install new brake lines and brake pads. You change brake pads routinely for wear, or less frequently because you are looking for different brake performance. Brake lines are a different story. They do get damaged and need to be replaced, but most often you change brake lines to change to a different brake feel. Or, like us, you have changed to wider…

-- Taking a look at how some Dirt Wheels readers do it -- Farmers get to ride their quads or UTVs right from the barn. The rest of us have to haul our prized off-road vehicles to a riding area. The quick way is to put your quad in the back of your pick up truck. Maybe even put two or three back there. In some cases it's even possible to put your UTV in the back of the truck too. For most though, they use a trailer. Depending on the size of the trailer you can haul a variety of quads and UTVs. We're going to take a random…

-- UTV racing dos & don'ts -- By Ron Lawson UTV racing is a melting pot of immigrants. The whole sport consists of drivers who came from Somewhere Else. Some are ATV riders, some are buggy drivers and some come from the motorcycle world. A sport that’s scarcely a decade old is unlikely to have its own natives. Even those who have been in it since the start have seen such a tidal wave of change that it’s essentially a new sport today. The interesting part is that there’s no guaranteed path to success. Each…

-- Adding skis & a trax system to a Banshee is not a new idea -- Ever since our very first issue back in 1980 the Dirt Wheels crew has been into hopping up machines for more power and better suspension. When it comes to ATVs we've also been known to try some wild and crazy things. We liked riding in snow and we wanted to improve our quads for that. Back in 2001 we found a company that specialized in setting up quads with skis and a trax system. They put their conversion kit on a Yamaha Banshee and a Yamaha Warrior, so…

Changing a 2019 Can-Am Renegade X xc 1000R CVT belt.