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Educate me: Leaving the jeep & truck world

89Breaker

89Breaker

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May 20, 2020
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Leaving the jeep & truck world for side by sides.

Want to have space for three kids (including headrests) and dog.

I don't need ultra-lux of HVAC but a little comfort and fun in the back country is nice.

What are the best websites to buy used?
Better quality manufactures?
Common accessories?

Thanks!
 
Best comfortable family hauler is a Polaris General XP 4 seat but you'll struggle to find used. If buying used, look for low hours and miles. Japanese brands (Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha) tend to be the toughest and longest lasting, but also don't have the performance or features of the other main brands (Polaris, Can-Am). Polaris and Can-ams perform great but will wear out suspension and driveline parts quicker. Any of them will break if you beat on them wrong, once again Japanese brands usually taking a little more beating before shelling major conponents.

Stay religious with your maintenance and be prepared to drop money pretty regularly on keeping the thing right, no matter what you end up with.
 
redneckK20s said:
Best comfortable family hauler is a Polaris General XP 4 seat but you'll struggle to find used. If buying used, look for low hours and miles. Japanese brands (Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha) tend to be the toughest and longest lasting, but also don't have the performance or features of the other main brands (Polaris, Can-Am). Polaris and Can-ams perform great but will wear out suspension and driveline parts quicker. Any of them will break if you beat on them wrong, once again Japanese brands usually taking a little more beating before shelling major conponents.

Stay religious with your maintenance and be prepared to drop money pretty regularly on keeping the thing right, no matter what you end up with.
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Boy, amen on the maintenance comment. With smaller tires an lower ground clearances I go through a lot of water and mud. I do full fluid changes after every WV trip.

Other thing is cleaning out brakes with full tear downs after mud running.
 
If you are looking for a good cruiser with strong aftermarket support the CanAm Defender is hard to beat. The Polaris General is a little more sporty if that's what you want. Those two are hands down the most popular in my area. None of us are doing hard wheeling though, just easy trail riding.
The Defender will seat 6, that is nice. It also has fold down armrest/cupholders in the middle of both the front and rear seats. There seems to be more onboard storage on the Defender also.

I'm at 3k miles on my 2018 Defender that I bought new. All I've had to do is oil/filter changes. It's had a fairly easy life, but it's been pushed pretty hard on some of the timber ground trail rides we go on. I also use it as a utility vehicle on my acreage and have loaded up the dump box pretty heavy. I'd definitely buy another one.
 
Terrain is the basic back country that an unlifted wrangler can traverse like firebreaks

I'd like something with a little ass but with a family of 5, I understand the power to weight limits of the platform.
 
I left the fool size game for SXS. I loved it but after around 9 months with a fantastic RZR I opted to sell it and return to the Jeep/truck game. Couldn't justify it when the only thing others wanted to do was drive back country roads or hit mud holes. Could do that in a stock Cherokee and still have heat/air/talk to your passenger in a normal voice. Everything was expensive for it.

The few times I did actually take it out out on trails/light rockcrawling I really enjoyed it for that purpose. Mine was a 2 seater, the 4seater felt like you were driving a school bus.
 
I rented machines at KOH 2019. Had an absolute blast with them but opted to stay “street legal“ and build a willys. Sure it won’t hit the whoops are fast or hard but is has way more style and fun factor imho.

I guess the point of my post is... don’t be afraid of Polaris. We drove the shit out of these things and when we got back the guy (Ben @ Happy Trails) was like, you didn’t even scratch em 😆

I ended up on the race course at one point on some rock staircase after the trucks had ran for the day... extremely capable and again FAST. But the fact they aren’t street legal back home killed the idea for me. Already have an ATV I don’t ride because my friends don’t have them
 
SXS tend to roll like a basketball. What would be laying on your side in a truck/jeep ends with at least a 360.
 
89Breaker said:
Terrain is the basic back country that an unlifted wrangler can traverse like firebreaks

I'd like something with a little ass but with a family of 5, I understand the power to weight limits of the platform.
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Seating 5 you're limited to a crew cab variant of a utility machine. So either a Can Am Defender or Ranger XP1000 crew. Both around 80hp, both run 65ish mph. Seats are meh compared to sport stuff so don't plan on any multiple hour rides without some stopping and stretching.

Polaris stuff performs decent but is still a far cry from a sporty utility or full on sport machine as far as off road capability. Don't have much personal experience with Can Am. But for what you're doing, either would fit the bill. Both are available with heat, AC and full cabs if you're looking to shell out $30k. If you opt for the Polaris HVAC model with the Ultimate package it comes with 29" tires stock and pretty good ground clearance for a crew cab machine.
 
Firetwig said:
I left the fool size game for SXS. I loved it but after around 9 months with a fantastic RZR I opted to sell it and return to the Jeep/truck game. Couldn't justify it when the only thing others wanted to do was drive back country roads or hit mud holes. Could do that in a stock Cherokee and still have heat/air/talk to your passenger in a normal voice. Everything was expensive for it.

The few times I did actually take it out out on trails/light rockcrawling I really enjoyed it for that purpose. Mine was a 2 seater, the 4seater felt like you were driving a school bus.
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Locally, my SXS is pretty useless, except causing me ten times the work to clean it after a Saturday ride down the same tame trails.

I don’t even ride mine anymore up home. Work on it and get it ready for 3-4 trips where I tow the buggy somewhere else to ride. West Virginia, usually. Might tow it back out to South Dakota 2021, though.

After getting back into working on a full size toy, I would love to find an old solid axle Chevy to beat around on the local trails. More fun around here.
 
My challenge here in the midwest is the lack of full-size trails. Out west is no problem but mid-west has limited access but SxS seem to have more.
The relative scale of SxS with the terrain should make the day more fun for the family.

This is the some is more than none logic, am I missing something?
 
89Breaker said:
My challenge here in the midwest is the lack of full-size trails. Out west is no problem but mid-west has limited access but SxS seem to have more.
The relative scale of SxS with the terrain should make the day more fun for the family.

This is the some is more than none logic, am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Can’t fault the logic there. People make fun but a SXS is a fun day out. I’m almost to the point where I would rather go haul ass around all day and put the SXS away. Than keep up with the Jones’s on the hard stuff tearing the rig apart in between every trip to do repairs.
 
JR4X said:
Can’t fault the logic there. People make fun but a SXS is a fun day out. I’m almost to the point where I would rather go haul ass around all day and put the SXS away. Than keep up with the Jones’s on the hard stuff tearing the rig apart in between every trip to do repairs.
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Me as well. I just don't have the time to spend hours and hours wrenching these days. Here in BC, we have miles and miles of active and deactivated forestry roads to explore.. the sxs is perfect to get out and do so with my family.
 
89Breaker said:
My challenge here in the midwest is the lack of full-size trails. Out west is no problem but mid-west has limited access but SxS seem to have more.
The relative scale of SxS with the terrain should make the day more fun for the family.

This is the some is more than none logic, am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Where are you at in the midwest?

Whatever you go with find a volume dealer to buy from.
 
Problem right now is finding anything worth buying in stock. Anything half way decent needs to be ordered at this point. The local Can-Am dealer here has 1 or 2 units left in stock vs the few hundred they had about a year ago. Same with the other brands. They are selling fast and for retail plus pricing so getting a deal on one is pretty impossible right now.
 
Last I checked the Can Am orders are still 3-6 months out. I'm going to wash up my '18 defender tomorrow and list it while the used market is still hot. By the end of this year I bet there will be some good deals on less than 2 year old units that people need to get away from payments on.
 
I work at a Polaris dealer in MO, if you're wanting anything specific you pretty much have to put money down and get your name on the list, otherwise it's just luck of the draw. Polaris is only sending us basic models to fill the showroom.
 
I lucked out when I got mine. The guy that owned the dealership had been driving it and was ready to start using something else. It has a bunch of extras on it and I got 4k off MSRP. It had like 125 miles on it.
 
Well, glad I didn't pull the trigger yet as I might move to Hawaii which changes vehicle options a bit.
The job limits the number of vehicles they'll ship so no SxS, back to jeeps!
 
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