I bought my used 21 Grizzly XT-R last fall, and so far I love it. I plan to use it for basic trail riding in the mountains of Eastern WA and North Idaho (and a little in MT as well), but I also plan to use it for mulit-day backcountry outings. I'm fortunate to have one of the largest contiguous wilderness areas in the lower 48 nearby (not to mention almost endless national forest) and I'm planning a 400 mile loop around the Frank-Church River of No Return (hopefully I do return) and Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness areas.
Anyhow, I've been gearing up my Grizzly for these kind of multi-day backcountry rides and figured I post some of that here.
Although riding in remote national forest areas is the fun part, I needed the Grizz to be street legal since parts of my riding require road use when getting from one area to the next. Before I post what I've been up to, here's the Grizz in stock form (Elka Stage 4's came with it). Excuse the boxes, we recently moved:
I bought the tube brackets from Ballistic Fabrication if I remember, but if doing it again, I would just buy some prefabbed weld tabs and use those instead (assuming you have access to a welder or a friend that would do it for you). If you are not needing/wanting a quick detach solution, the box does have good tie down points that won't interfere with opening and closing. Just add some anti-slip padding to the bottom of the box that will contact the rack and it's a pretty stable solution that comes off fairly easy. I really like the box for a medium-sized storage solution.
Thanks, this is actually the first Yamaha I have owned. And honestly it was bought due to supply and demand. I have had Polaris’s prior to this. About to order the box so I’ll look into the pre-fabbed tabs. And I just happen to be taking a welding course right now. This may have to be my first project.
Managed to get out for a decent ride today. Still lots of snow on the trails. My storage setup worked great. I gave the quick detach mounts a good test and they held solid.
My new Bighorn OGs did ok in the snow, but I think my Zillas would have been the better choice for today’s conditions. Was planning to sell them, but I’m almost tempted to mount them on another set of wheels and keep them for winter use.
I did get a few miles in on some dirt roads that were clear of snow, and I could immediately tell that the Bighorns are a big improvement over the Zillas. Steering was much more precise, and very responsive.
Finally got around to building some mounts or my front Rotopax cans and some more storage. Rotopax makes mounts that attach to the rack, but I didn’t care much for them. These worked out pretty good and there are solid as a rock.
Got in about 60-70 miles of riding since installing the Quad Lock phone mount. Works great and the wireless charging is nice. Seems to hold up well to rough conditions, including some off the beaten path riding.
Got in about 60-70 miles of riding since installing the Quad Lock phone mount. Works great and the wireless charging is nice. Seems to hold up well to rough conditions, including some off the beaten path riding.
View attachment 105277
New truck to pull the Grizz. Hopefully the Tacoma is as reliable as the Yamaha (or should I have stated that the other way around?)! Was planning to sell the trailer, but it's just too convenient, and the Grizzly is a tight squeeze in the Tacoma.
First new vehicle I have ever bought in 25 plus years of buying. Resale values were so high, it seemed to make sense for what I was looking for. Planning to drive both into the ground!
Had a great higher altitude ride yesterday. Some of the trails had a lot of sharp, abrupt rock that had me thinking about two things: 1) adjusting my Elkas for less preload (i had already dialed down the dampening which helps), and 2) ditching the 14” wheels for some 12s. More tire would have been better. Can’t afford the latter, so I’ll see what I can further tune out with the Elkas.
This wasn’t the worst stretch by any means, but it was this type of trail:
Had a great higher altitude ride yesterday. Some of the trails had a lot of sharp, abrupt rock that had me thinking about two things: 1) adjusting my Elkas for less preload (i had already dialed down the dampening which helps), and 2) ditching the 14” wheels for some 12s. More tire would have been better. Can’t afford the latter, so I’ll see what I can further tune out with the Elkas.
This wasn’t the worst stretch by any means, but it was this type of trail:
I added some nice new scars to the 14” wheels as well. I actually like the 14s for a lot of the riding I do, but they aren’t ideal for these types of rock trails.
These 14s would probably do pretty good with a set of 28x10 Bighorns, but I didn’t want to upsize that much.
I might make the switch to 12s sometime in the future, but I’d rather put the money into some Camso tracks for winter riding.
@Xa32f634W You have the X4S tracks, right? Any thoughts on the T4S? I seem to find more of the T4S tacks on the used market (probably cause they've been around longer). Trying to decide if the savings of going used are worth it or not. If I do go used, chances are it will be the T4S.
The Camso X4S track system, in terms of performance and value, slots in between the T4S ATV track system and the 4S1 UTV track system. The X4S track kits feature the same ground pressure reduction as the T4S track kits. However, the X4S is a clear step up in terms of maintenance, reliability...
One of my favorites, too. Not a lot of updates. I do have some prototype modular fender mounts in the works that I really like so far. More to come on that in the future. I might manufacture them if I'm happy with how they test.
Thanks for taking the time to post all of this. Very inspirational. Are you happy with the way your box/rotopax mounts work, or is there anything you would change?
Thanks
The box and rotopax mounts turned out great and have stood up very well to many miles now. The only thing I would change is that I would use 3/8" aluminum for the upright portion of the mounts to add more rigidity. Wish I could manufacture it for other users (I'm probably going to bring some other products to market in the next 6 months or so), but tolerances on this setup are tight and the costs are high. Overall though, I absolutely love it. Being able to change up configurations in a matter of seconds is a real nice convenience.
I wish you’d sell some, I really don’t want to spend the time making them haha
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