Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > ATV Product Reviews > ATV Reviews > ATV Product Reviews > Rubberdown lift kit for outlander |
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| Rubberdown lift kit for outlander - ATV Product Reviews - ATV Product Reviews - Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum | ||||||||||||||||
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mattinthehat Member 
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here are my thoughts after the first ride. on the can-am lift kit. I have the original proto-type lift kit with the smaller rear spacer. so your results might be slightly different with the new rear spacer. 3.5 engine hours on the quad with the lift kit. ride. Pros: Looks: the front looks awesome. the added height, and the increased angle of the front A-arms make the bike look much better, and much more aggressive. firends immediatly noticed and commented on how nice it looked. Mud holes: I could not believe the difference the 2" in the front made in the mud holes. it was night and day. holes that I know I would have got hung up in and stuck, were NO problem with the lift. the bike did not even hesitate, it just plowed right through. Pulling out of Holes onto ridges: part of going through mud holes is your bikes ability to not get hung up, the other part, is pulling out of the hole when you get to the ridge at the end. The increased clearance on the front seems to push the wheels down more into a ridge. I found this greatly increases the traction on the front wheels when pulling out of a hole. ridges where before I would have to back up repeatedly to get a good line on to get out were no prolem with the lift kit. it was like night and day. Cons: Immediatly I noticed the bike was tippier side to side as a result of the increased center of gravity. especially in a hard fast turn. the outlanders are known for their poor body roll in a turn with the stock suspension, but this roll was really noticbly increased with the lift kit on. Speed: after passing about 45km/hr (30mph) there is a significant shimmy or speed wobble in the handlebars. I do not mean a slight vibration. the handle bars rock back and forth left to right with about 6" of throw in either direction. so high speed travel with the lift kit is pretty much a no go. When you look at the quad from the front with the lift kit on, you will notice that the wheels have a slight "wheel slant" or " toe in" where the bottom of the wheel is closer to the quad then the top of the wheel. I suspect this "slant" is what is causing the speed wobble, as the quad is mainly traveling on the inside portion of the tire. I pointed this out to a friend of mine on the trail who has the "high lifter" kit for his honda, and he said his wheels have the same toe-in, and that he also experiences a speed wobble. so I suspect this type of wobble is typical of this type of modification, and is not an isolated issue to the rubberdown kit. stiffness: the outlander did seem to ride stiffer on the suspension than I was used to. at first I found this concerning, but by the end of the ride I was used to it. Overall impressions: I was amazingly impressed at the difference that the 2" kit in the front, made in my outlanders abilty to get through mud and tough terrain. ground clearance really is king when on muddy/rough terrain. the kit makes the bike go places that it simply could not go without it, and makes it look more aggressive than a stock bike. However I am not completly sold on it for my riding style. Many mud holes on the trails that we normally go on have go arounds, and the ones that don't you can always use a winch to get out of. The riding that I enjoy the most is trail riding, and opening her up on long hard packed straight aways. I also ride a lot with my wife (2up) and I doubt she will be happy with the increased body roll in the turns, and the siffer ride/suspension of the lift kit. she was not with me today, so I will wait and get her impressions of it while riding 2up as well. now that I truly understand the benifits of increased ground clearance, I feel that a set of oversized tires,would probably be a better fit to my personal riding style than a lift kit. it would give me some of the ground clearance that the lift has, and would not cause any "wheel slant" or "toe in" on the front wheels, which should eliminate the speed wobble. then at that point once I have added tires, if the increased ground clearance is still effecting my body roll, I can always upgrade the suspension to compensate for it. For now it is my intention to leave the lift kit in the outlander and continue to test it under different conditions and trails. and as well riding 2up. also dispite the cons, I do not think I am ready to give up the increased ground clearance and mudding abilities that the quad now has in its current state. I will likely test the bike again once I have the money to buy a set of oversized tires. and see if the oversized tires have wheel slant with the lift kit, and if they also experience the speed wobble. if not, then I will likely leave the kit in permanantly. If so, then I will remove it and then re-test. I am relativly new to the atv hobby, and went into this project knowing absolutly nothing about lift kits. (i didn;t really know why you would want one or what the benifits are) I now know, If you are a mudder and spend most of yer time on the slow thick muddy trails then this lift kit is most definatly a must have for the outlander. You will immediatly notice the difference on the machine. If you avoid the mud, and typically stay to the hard pack, or faster trails, then a lift kit may not be the mod choice for you. I am interested to test the kit under extreme rocky conditions and see how it performs there as well. you can check out the kits availible from rubberdown at http://www.rubberdowncustoms.ca
____________________ ------------------------------------------------- Outlander 650 H.O. Max XT BRP Skid Plates - BRP A-Arm Guards - BRP Rear Box BRP Fender Flares - SYMTEC Heated Grips Rubberdown Customs Lift Kit Aftermarket Lighting. |
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mac102004 Member 
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Paul makes some great kits, I had one of his first lift kits for the Rincon on mine and it was great.
____________________ 2005 Honda Rincon 4x4, every mod in the book and then some. |
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QUADAHOLIC "BLUE CREW" 
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Good review mattinthehat Balancing the tires and maybe some wheel spacers can help with some of the issues that come with a lift kit.  I do wish there was a way to adjust the "toe" on our quads, I have a bit of "in" myself.
____________________ 07-650 Outy Max XT Ricochete ~ Crutchfield 2+1 PRP Stabilizer ~ 25" Bighorn's Kewltek brakes ~ Alumatech Guards Fasst bars ~ Rox risers ~ TC Duel Gasser plus a whole lot of little extra "custom touches" This site is worth a million Please Donate!! |
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outlandish AWF Admin 
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mac102004 wrote: Paul makes some great kits, I had one of his first lift kits for the Rincon on mine and it was great. I have to agree. I did a lot of research when looking at lifts. Why I needed one, why I shouldn't have one, benefits, drawbacks etc. Rubberdown comes highly recommended....High quality and a company that will back their products is important to me. I recently purchased a 2" lift for my RZR. Haven't installed it yet. I am waiting until after my first service but I will post a review here when I do.
____________________  ***AWF Now Makes Custom Decals *** |
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mattinthehat Member
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Quadaholic, does your toe-in come from the crutchfield shocks? id that why crutchfield sells a "stock length" and a standard longer set? for those that don;t want the toe in?
____________________ ------------------------------------------------- Outlander 650 H.O. Max XT BRP Skid Plates - BRP A-Arm Guards - BRP Rear Box BRP Fender Flares - SYMTEC Heated Grips Rubberdown Customs Lift Kit Aftermarket Lighting. |
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QUADAHOLIC "BLUE CREW"
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mattinthehat wrote: Quadaholic, does your toe-in come from the crutchfield shocks? id that why crutchfield sells a "stock length" and a standard longer set? for those that don;t want the toe in? Yep! but once it's all loaded up with gear and people, it's probaly not even noticable.
____________________ 07-650 Outy Max XT Ricochete ~ Crutchfield 2+1 PRP Stabilizer ~ 25" Bighorn's Kewltek brakes ~ Alumatech Guards Fasst bars ~ Rox risers ~ TC Duel Gasser plus a whole lot of little extra "custom touches" This site is worth a million Please Donate!! |
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mattinthehat Member
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Lift kit update: Concerned about the speed wobble, I went out on the country roads not too far from my house to see exactly where the wobble started, at what speed, and maybe see if I could do anything about it. I unloaded from the trailer, warmed up the bike, and off down the road I went. It's a very flat surface road, with a lot of hills, so couldn;t open it up for too long, I was able to get the bike comfortably up to 70km/hr without experiening any wobble whatsoever. I did 3-4 runs accellerating on the road and could not reproduce the issue. so I am assuming 1 of 2 things. 1- The wobble is only happening when in 4WD. I did not want to run at high speed on the road in 4WD because thats just bad for the differential. I will have to wait until I can get onto a logging road or similar where I can open it up in 4 and see if the wobble returns. 2- Maybe the wobble was caused by the tires being out of balance as a resuly of all the mud I was going through on the last run. we were in some really thick black stuff.. and as well some really harkmd sticky clay. its possible the sticky mud put the tires out of balance. I will continue to test this weekend when I get out.. but that is a positive note I wanted to update on. In 2WD high, you can easily do 70km/hr (about 45mph) no problem.
____________________ ------------------------------------------------- Outlander 650 H.O. Max XT BRP Skid Plates - BRP A-Arm Guards - BRP Rear Box BRP Fender Flares - SYMTEC Heated Grips Rubberdown Customs Lift Kit Aftermarket Lighting. |
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TorkMonster Member 
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QUADAHOLIC wrote: Good review mattinthehat Not sure about the 07 or earlier, but the 08 outty has adjustments on it to do toe in toe out.... Less I'm mistaking you adjust it on the tie rod???
____________________ 08 800 Outty Yellow #435 Team Outty 25" BigHorns Optional 27" 589's-stock rims 2" RubberDown Customs Lift(Bracket front-Spacers Rear) HMF Power Commander Snorked to the POD Custom Stereo  What Else Do You Need???04.5 PoPo SP700 too many mods to list |
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outlandish AWF Admin
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Yeah you can adjust toe but not castor/camber
____________________ ***AWF Now Makes Custom Decals *** |
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| Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > ATV Product Reviews > ATV Reviews > ATV Product Reviews > Rubberdown lift kit for outlander | |
