UTV Tests

-- Built for battling the elements, By the staff of Dirt Wheels -- Ever since the Can-Am Maverick X3 Turbo was released, we have been greedily awaiting the most trick builds to appear, and without a doubt, Steve Bechard built an X3 masterpiece. This machine was designed and dubbed the “War Wagon X3” after his daughter, who is a military crew chief and medic of a Medevac Black Hawk helicopter overseas. Every part that was involved in this build was chosen for performance, strength or durability—from the heavy-duty roll…

-- A manual-shift Yamaha that works! By the staff of Dirt Wheels -- What do you do if you already have a high-powered Polaris RZR XP 1000 punched out to 1100cc? If you are Brian Carle, you buy a stick-shift Yamaha YXZ1000R to add to the stable. He is fortunate to live where he has plenty of room to drive. He stays with his trusty RZR for slow and technical outings and turns to the YXZ for faster, more open conditions. He lives in a rural desert area and has many opportunities to hit the trails, and he is often out on…

-- Family fun for the woods, By the staff of Dirt Wheels -- Have you ever heard of shooting skeet? Two fast-moving clay targets fly across from both the left and the right. The contestants have two shots to hit both targets before they hit the ground and break. With the all-new 2018 Wolverine X4, Yamaha has set a similar task for its design team. Yamaha shot for two targets with the same machine. The first target is rigidly defined. Yamaha wanted the X4 to have the most compact trail presence of any four-seat UTV.…

-- More seats made it better, By the staff of Dirt Wheels -- Even though we knew that a Polaris RZR XP 4 Turbo Dynamix Edition would not be far behind the two-seater, we were excited to see the new machine so soon after the release of the two-seater. More importantly, the four-seat platform reacted better to the space-age suspension wizardry that is Dynamix. The Dynamix ride is firmer overall than the Fox Edition, and that is before all of the sensors kick in and start adjusting the suspension on the fly. Jump, hit…

It's Here! The world has finally seen the RS1…sort of. Press release photos and information of the new Polaris single seat vehicle have spread like wildfire but very few people have actually seen this vehicle in person. At the 2018 King of the Hammers event, many UTV manufacturers had booths set up to give demo rides to spectators, and as we pulled in to Hammertown we couldn’t believe that we were seeing real life RS1 models pulling onto the road in front of us. We took the first chance we could to sign up for some seat…

-- Redefining the Ranger By the staff of Dirt Wheels -- The Polaris Ranger series has been the backbone of utility UTV life. Rangers are responsible for many innovations in the class. Even if you don’t have first-hand experience with Ranger performance, you need only look at the brands that have “borrowed” styling cues from this capable lineup of machines to see how respected they are. Polaris feels the Ranger has become a little less unique as other brands have copied the look of the machine. Despite that thinking,…

-- Setting the bar narrower By the staff of Dirt Wheels -- When the announcement came that Can-Am had a new, secret sport machine coming for 2018, we couldn’t imagine which direction the Canadian giant could be going. With the Maverick X3s, Can-Am had the widest, longest-travel and, for 2018, the most powerful production UTVs made. The plan wasn’t to top the X3, but to push the Maverick family in another direction with an X3-inspired, 50-inch, legal trail machine. Four total Maverick Trail vehicles make up the Trail…

Which is better for the money? By the staff of Dirt Wheels. There are as many reasons that buyers use to select a new UTV as there are grains of sand in a face full of dune roost. Sure, they differ from person to person and from family to family. Some, happily, are based in fact and logic and, frankly, salesmen hate those people. They would much rather deal with an impulse buyer that responds to a pitch like, “You would look great in this machine!” More so than any other OHV, a UTV may require…

Back with more power! By the staff of Dirt Wheels, Photos by Casey Kramer and Pat Carrigan When it comes to new models, we always hope for the unexpected. For Can-Am in 2018, the unexpected would be major changes for the Maverick X3 platform that was radically new in 2017. Considering the X3 was not even an early 2017 release, we expected—and were correct— only minor updates to the successful Maverick X3 line. The ink was barely dry on 2017 Can-Am X3 advertising when Polaris dropped the 2017 RZR XP…

-- Project UTV by Rugged Radios -- Imagine cruising down the coast in an old 1969 Manx dune buggy with the wind flowing through your hair and the sweet sound of waves crashing on the beach. Now, imagine that you are stepping hard on the skinny pedal and the roar of a Polaris RZR XP 1000 parallel twin-cylinder engine fills the air, made menacing by the whirring sound of a turbo skyrocketing the rpm as you boost towards a massive dune face. This isn’t your daddy’s Volkswagen-powered dune buggy.…

-- TESTING THE TOP UTV FROM POLARIS -- The “Big P” has been on top for too long to let the Can-Am Maverick X3 go unanswered, and every sport UTV enthusiast has been wondering what Polaris’ response would be. Polaris didn’t fight back with a wider machine or longer travel, but added the 2018 Polaris RZR XP Turbo Dynamix to their lineup. Dynamix is a level above the 2017 XP Turbo by combining nearly everything found on the Ride Command system combined with Fox/Polaris’ computerized smart suspension that adjusts…