[StormcrowAz]

Maverick Sport X RC – Stuff



Just wanted to chronicle my adventures with this rig. I’m new to side-by-sides but have had some off-roading experience. I dabble in metalworking, so looking forward to doing a couple modifications and add-ons to this rig.



Received my Sport X RC one week ago today. Ordered 4 point harnesses, helmets, and a spare tire to go with it. Still waiting on the helmets and tire (“will be here any day now”).

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First thing I did was take the wife on a quick 10 minute ride (we live by the White Tank Mountains and the desert is about a quarter mile away from us) to make sure everything works and nothing fell off. Pulled it into the shop and got to work on the harnesses. A little unnerving to start tearing into a brand new car.

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While pulling the belts off I noticed that these two nuts were loose on either side of the car. I just downloaded the manual about a half hour ago and haven’t figured out what they are for yet. Guessing (hoping) an add-on or something not related to this model.

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Removal of the bottom bolt was a pain but not insurmountable. Used regular open/box wrench, and one long-handled ratcheting wrench for removal/install. I did sacrifice one bolt to the black hole of the skid pan, dropped it and didn’t recover it. The funny part of this story for me was the two upper attachments at the roll cage. The harnesses came with these little bolt-on brackets and I got target fixation trying to make them work with the little tabs welded to the cage.

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Not only did the seats not fit due to clearance issues, but it didn’t seem right to have the strap twisted before it goes through the seats. In my defense it was getting late and I was pretty tired. So I made a couple little bolt-on brackets to alter the approach angle.

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So it seemed to be just fine, with the exception of there being only one attachment point at the cage allowing the bracket to maybe rotate during heavy deceleration. Figured even if that did happen it would only move so far before hitting the seat. Still didn’t sit well with me, so I went to bed. The next morning the wife came out and said: “why don’t you just wrap it around the roll bar?”. Doh, so yeah, I’m an idiot. Maybe I should have been a German engineer as I tend to over-complicate things. Plus I did read the directions when I first got the harness and there were neat little pictures showing how to do exactly that. Long story short – harnesses installed.

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]



Bonus – didn’t have to add a pile of hardware and now have some extra strap brackets I’ll throw in the bone yard for future use.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kj5de4]20201220_055253



Now that the harnesses were in and some minor amount of safety features were involved, I figured we’d take it for a little bit longer of a test drive. Those little brackets I made came in handy for the gear bag. Considering we didn’t have a spare yet I threw in a plug kit and the mini-air compressor for “just in case”.

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Did a couple little trails in the mountains with a little bit of crawling.

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First impressions were awesome! This is a nimble little machine! Can’t wait to gear it up and take it out for some longer excursions.

 

[Roadjunkie]

Thanks for the great write up. The new cars look funny before all the personal touches. By the way, I used seat belt clips to fix the belt to the rear bar. It makes it much easier to remove the back seat panel for maintenance.

 

[Sportcan60]

Nice work. I swear everyone needs to do a PDI when they take possession of a machine. Mine had loose cage hardware also. Kinda ridiculous.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

 

[DirtDawg]

Good progress - it takes time (and $$ too)!

Suggestion: you can upload pics directly from your laptop/device rather than using an image hosting source (such as Flikr), which also allows viewing images larger for closeup details.

 

[1080Rider]

Nice write-up, my brother and sister-in-law have the same car, they love it!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Thanks for the comments, folks!

Roadjunkie – Yep, I anticipate that this rig will look a little different here shortly. Part of the fun is in making it the way you want it to be. That’s a good idea on the harness, might have to check it out. Thanks!

Sportcan60 – Funny you should mention that…I was crawling around and checking out beneath the dash, evaluating future comms options and noted three unplugged wires. I recall reading that there were a couple “extra” wires/plugs under there for options not installed by the factory, but these three were right in front of a little square box with what looked to be matching leads. Checked wiring diagrams in the service manual and turned out it’s the leads to the winch relay. Glad I found this out now and not when I needed the winch on the trail.

DirtDawg – Time and money…both things I always seem to have a short supply of! 😉 I tried the direct upload on other forums in the past without much luck, could be I’m just technically challenged. So I’ve gone to using the hosting sites and am vested in the process and comfortable in its use. If there’s something I can do to make it more viewer-friendly let me know. I re-size the images to hopefully reduce some of the bandwidth and I’ve noticed (on other sites) those that don’t the pics come out super-huge and not easily viewable when scrolling past. If anyone would like to see the full-sized details I can post ‘em up.

1080Rider – Thanks and glad to hear others are enjoying this rig, too! Seems like it’s not nearly as popular as the X3’s are, but think for what I want to do it will suit me perfectly.


A belated Merry Christmas to all! With the extended family staying at home for Covid precautions…it was just the wife and I for the day, so we relaxed, watched Die Hard (the best Christmas movie, in my opinion) and went for a nice little ride.
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Also threw that CamelBak hydration pack in between the seats for some water and extra storage. Couple short pieces of paracord ties it off the roll bar.

Finally got the spare tire and threw it on the carrier.
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Doesn’t take up as much room in the bed as I thought, but still going to go with the trunk lid. As soon as I get that installed the Dragonfire rack will be up for sale.

Greased all the fittings, checked lug nuts and other assorted fasteners, and took it out again yesterday. Brought a buddy with and did some more challenging trails. Still very happy and impressed with the capabilities.
20201226_124313

Oh, one last minor thing…I pulled the bolt out of the receiver hitch and replaced it with a standard trailer pin. Zip tied to keep it from rattling. Figure it might come in handy for possible recovery issues. The nuts and bolts on this rig are somewhat odd. Doesn’t seem to like my 12 point sockets much.
20201227_151106

 

[Robertcladner]

Thanks for the comments, folks!

Roadjunkie – Yep, I anticipate that this rig will look a little different here shortly. Part of the fun is in making it the way you want it to be. That’s a good idea on the harness, might have to check it out. Thanks!

Sportcan60 – Funny you should mention that…I was crawling around and checking out beneath the dash, evaluating future comms options and noted three unplugged wires. I recall reading that there were a couple “extra” wires/plugs under there for options not installed by the factory, but these three were right in front of a little square box with what looked to be matching leads. Checked wiring diagrams in the service manual and turned out it’s the leads to the winch relay. Glad I found this out now and not when I needed the winch on the trail.

DirtDawg – Time and money…both things I always seem to have a short supply of! 😉 I tried the direct upload on other forums in the past without much luck, could be I’m just technically challenged. So I’ve gone to using the hosting sites and am vested in the process and comfortable in its use. If there’s something I can do to make it more viewer-friendly let me know. I re-size the images to hopefully reduce some of the bandwidth and I’ve noticed (on other sites) those that don’t the pics come out super-huge and not easily viewable when scrolling past. If anyone would like to see the full-sized details I can post ‘em up.

1080Rider – Thanks and glad to hear others are enjoying this rig, too! Seems like it’s not nearly as popular as the X3’s are, but think for what I want to do it will suit me perfectly.


A belated Merry Christmas to all! With the extended family staying at home for Covid precautions…it was just the wife and I for the day, so we relaxed, watched Die Hard (the best Christmas movie, in my opinion) and went for a nice little ride.
For more information about Offroad equipment guide please visit the website here https://jeepequipment.com
20201225_121043

Also threw that CamelBak hydration pack in between the seats for some water and extra storage. Couple short pieces of paracord ties it off the roll bar.

Finally got the spare tire and threw it on the carrier.
20201227_145501

Doesn’t take up as much room in the bed as I thought, but still going to go with the trunk lid. As soon as I get that installed the Dragonfire rack will be up for sale.

Greased all the fittings, checked lug nuts and other assorted fasteners, and took it out again yesterday. Brought a buddy with and did some more challenging trails. Still very happy and impressed with the capabilities.
20201226_124313

Oh, one last minor thing…I pulled the bolt out of the receiver hitch and replaced it with a standard trailer pin. Zip tied to keep it from rattling. Figure it might come in handy for possible recovery issues. The nuts and bolts on this rig are somewhat odd. Doesn’t seem to like my 12 point sockets much.
20201227_151106

The RC is tuned to keep the ground clearance high up so you can rock crawl, so the ride quality does suffer on the trail.

 

[StormcrowAz]

So after going out a couple times it quickly became apparent that I’ve grown accustomed to having side mirrors and missed having them during each ride. I ordered a pair of the EMP side mirrors, being relatively cheap (read – not $500 like everything else seems to be) and I like how they attach with the factory bolts versus the wrap-around roll cage clamp mounts. I really liked the look and concept of the aluminum Tusk mirrors, but was unable to locate any available at that time. Maybe I should have waited, oh well. We’ll see how these pan out.



Everything received well, but with no instructions. Bolts seem a bit long and it came with 4 extra nylock nuts, not sure why. Oh, they also threw in some EMP stickers and a beverage koozie. Free stuff is always nice!





Other than a post here from a year and a half ago, I wasn’t able to find anything install related (granted, I didn’t spend more than 2 minutes looking) so dove right in. I did recall reading where someone had difficulties putting the two factory cage bolts back in due to slight misalignment once removed.





So I loosened them up just enough to provide clearance for the bracket, but the spring-out tension on the cage wouldn’t allow it to slip under the bolt heads.





A soft clamp squished it back together, loosening up the bolts.





The bottom bolt going through the mirror to the bracket, but there wasn’t enough clearance to run the top one through. I had to unbolt the swivel mechanism on the mirror to get it to work.





Quick work with the cutting wheel to cut down the excess bolt length. Quick note – use more than one layer of a cloth rag to protect your plastics. Sparks are hot…





Other side is rinse and repeat.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kug88b]



We’ll see how well they hold up.

 

[Sportcan60]

Nice.

I fine the mirror options are slim for sport/ trail models. How well do you see the RH mirror. I have cage clamp style mounting and the right mirror is half cover by the cage. Better than no mirrors I guess

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

 

[DirtDawg]

My buddy (forum member Yattr) initially bought EMP side mirrors for his own now former MavT but was unhappy with them and ultimately replaced those with same Can-Am side mirrors I installed on mine. We both now use the Can-Am mirrors on our MavS Xrc cars and like them a lot. Some members complained of mirror glass breakage after being left out in freezing temps. Maybe due to mirrors being wet, however we never had that issue on ours (5K miles on MavT and 2.2K so far on MavS).

Can-Am Racing Side Mirrors from RMATV

 

[StormcrowAz]

Sportcan60 - Well, sitting in my driveway visibility seems pretty good. The roll cage doesn't appear to be an issue. We'll see how well they actually work on the trail.

DirtDawg - Thanks for the info and recommendation. If these don't work out I'll take those into consideration!

 

[StormcrowAz]

LED License Plate Light


Went down to a 3rd party DMV site this past Saturday and took care of the registration. Paid for it to be “mainly off road but occasional highway use” or however they word it. Not sure if it was from the original vehicle purchase or this recent transaction (weird “No Tab” sticker) but the plate was received in the mail yesterday. I had already purchased the license plate lights and went with those bolts with the built-in LED.

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Crazy how little there is to those wires, surprised they have a gauge size that goes that small. Anyways, popped the rear passenger quarter panel (or whatever they call it) off and disconnected the weather pack connector there.

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Instead of buying a weather pack crimper I took the lazy man’s way out and bought the splice kit. It’s marketed for the X3’s, but it’s just a couple connectors with extra wires added. Maybe I’ll pony up for the crimper kit next time I need a waterproof connector and DIY.

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]


Connected and tested the wiring. Routed it as inconspicuously as possible and tightened down the bolts.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kyjZF9]20210202_171649



Quick and easy mod, plus one step closer to being street legal.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Bent Metal Windshield


Updates two days in a row…crazy talk.


The magical Big Brown Truck showed up late yesterday afternoon with a present.



They did a great job of packaging it, but I guess you gotta if you want to stay in the business of shipping glass things.



Really nice product. I was going to DIY the frame and take it to a glass shop, but the wife wanted a “factory” windshield and this one is probably a lot nicer than the one I would have made. It certainly comes with a hefty price tag…



I was a little nervous on the install, not seeing a whole lot on the web about it. For the Sport machines, at least. Turns out that was a needless worry, as it’s about as simple as things get. It utilizes the bottom two pillar bolts (and here I thought I was clever with not having to remove those for the mirror install) for the lower attachment.



And a small torx-head nut/bolt combo for the upper attachment. There’s also a little rubber bushing in between the windshield and roll bar gusset for a cushion.



The wife helped set it in place and it was very straight-forward putting it in. Fit and finish is fantastic. I ordered it with the “RC Orange” vents, thinking that would match this RC, but I was very wrong. They are a lot lighter orange and less the “lava” color, or whatever the factory calls it. Not sure if the “red” or “Can Am Red” color BM offers would match, or if I should just rattle-can the existing ones black and not worry about it? It’s too noticeable to ignore completely. First world problems.



Didn’t really want to add another electronic accessory, so picked up a cheap manual wiper kit from Amazon. Was happy to see BM included the half-inch hole (shipped with a plug cap) in the frame for it. One less thing for me to screw up. Install was again super easy. Questionable on how effective this wiper will be, hopefully it’s better than nothing or a dirty rag on the end of my arm.



So with this done, and I will call it a success, I am hoping it will have a cascade affect in completing the other projects and outfitting the rest of the stuff I’ve already bought for it. Probably wishful thinking on my part. However, I do think attaching a roof at this point is fairly do-able. The wife asked about just buying one already made, but I just can’t do it. Not with the cost and having a shop full of metalworking equipment on hand. Plus making this stuff myself is fun and rewarding. And, I already have a 4’ x 4’ sheet of 1/8” aluminum waiting to be turned into a roof. Here it is up top, for visualization and planning purposes.



Not sure what to do about the light bar. I have a 32” one waiting to go up there, but not sure where to put it. Seems like most people bolt it to the top and carry on. I was thinking of extending the roof several inches forward, like a visor, and mounting it underneath the overhang. It’s neither in the way of the wiper, nor visible from inside the cab. Might provide a bit more protection from low-hanging branches and give the roof a more streamlined look to it. Wondering if putting it underneath might cause some glare issues?

 

[DirtDawg]

"... I ordered it with the “RC Orange” vents, thinking that would match this RC, but I was very wrong. They are a lot lighter orange and less the “lava” color, or whatever the factory calls it. Not sure if the “red” or “Can Am Red” color BM offers would match, or if I should just rattle-can the existing ones black and not worry about it? It’s too noticeable to ignore completely..."

B-M should correct color names for their vents to match that as Can-Am refers on parts fiches, i.e., "Orange Crush" vs "RC Orange". As ordered on my windshield, vent color is a great match for the cage and related orange parts. For your 2021, I'd have chosen black since "Can-Am Red" is likely better match to former 2018 MavT which was more like Chinese red than "Lava". B-M might do an exchange on those for black vs rattle can solution since they haven't been used at this point.

 

[Roadjunkie]

"... I ordered it with the “RC Orange” vents, thinking that would match this RC, but I was very wrong. They are a lot lighter orange and less the “lava” color, or whatever the factory calls it. Not sure if the “red” or “Can Am Red” color BM offers would match, or if I should just rattle-can the existing ones black and not worry about it? It’s too noticeable to ignore completely..."

B-M should correct color names for their vents to match that as Can-Am refers on parts fiches, i.e., "Orange Crush" vs "RC Orange". As ordered on my windshield, vent color is a great match for the cage and related orange parts. For your 2021, I'd have chosen black since "Can-Am Red" is likely better match to former 2018 MavT which was more like Chinese red than "Lava". B-M might do an exchange on those for black vs rattle can solution since they haven't been used at this point.

I just tell folks it's the Cheeto orange for my 2020!

 

[GloverXRS]

"... I ordered it with the “RC Orange” vents, thinking that would match this RC, but I was very wrong. They are a lot lighter orange and less the “lava” color, or whatever the factory calls it. Not sure if the “red” or “Can Am Red” color BM offers would match, or if I should just rattle-can the existing ones black and not worry about it? It’s too noticeable to ignore completely..."

B-M should correct color names for their vents to match that as Can-Am refers on parts fiches, i.e., "Orange Crush" vs "RC Orange". As ordered on my windshield, vent color is a great match for the cage and related orange parts. For your 2021, I'd have chosen black since "Can-Am Red" is likely better match to former 2018 MavT which was more like Chinese red than "Lava". B-M might do an exchange on those for black vs rattle can solution since they haven't been used at this point.

RC orange is the 2020 rc orange color. I am pretty sure you need the CanAm red to match the 2021 RC color. Have you reached out to them yet?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DirtDawg]

^^^ Incorrect on "RC Orange", at least for 2020 MavS Xrc within this (not X3) platform. Pretty certain also incorrect on Can-Am Red matching 2021 "Lava Red".

 

[Darkfire]

Bent Metal Windshield


Updates two days in a row…crazy talk.


The magical Big Brown Truck showed up late yesterday afternoon with a present.



They did a great job of packaging it, but I guess you gotta if you want to stay in the business of shipping glass things.



Really nice product. I was going to DIY the frame and take it to a glass shop, but the wife wanted a “factory” windshield and this one is probably a lot nicer than the one I would have made. It certainly comes with a hefty price tag…



I was a little nervous on the install, not seeing a whole lot on the web about it. For the Sport machines, at least. Turns out that was a needless worry, as it’s about as simple as things get. It utilizes the bottom two pillar bolts (and here I thought I was clever with not having to remove those for the mirror install) for the lower attachment.



And a small torx-head nut/bolt combo for the upper attachment. There’s also a little rubber bushing in between the windshield and roll bar gusset for a cushion.



The wife helped set it in place and it was very straight-forward putting it in. Fit and finish is fantastic. I ordered it with the “RC Orange” vents, thinking that would match this RC, but I was very wrong. They are a lot lighter orange and less the “lava” color, or whatever the factory calls it. Not sure if the “red” or “Can Am Red” color BM offers would match, or if I should just rattle-can the existing ones black and not worry about it? It’s too noticeable to ignore completely. First world problems.



Didn’t really want to add another electronic accessory, so picked up a cheap manual wiper kit from Amazon. Was happy to see BM included the half-inch hole (shipped with a plug cap) in the frame for it. One less thing for me to screw up. Install was again super easy. Questionable on how effective this wiper will be, hopefully it’s better than nothing or a dirty rag on the end of my arm.



So with this done, and I will call it a success, I am hoping it will have a cascade affect in completing the other projects and outfitting the rest of the stuff I’ve already bought for it. Probably wishful thinking on my part. However, I do think attaching a roof at this point is fairly do-able. The wife asked about just buying one already made, but I just can’t do it. Not with the cost and having a shop full of metalworking equipment on hand. Plus making this stuff myself is fun and rewarding. And, I already have a 4’ x 4’ sheet of 1/8” aluminum waiting to be turned into a roof. Here it is up top, for visualization and planning purposes.



Not sure what to do about the light bar. I have a 32” one waiting to go up there, but not sure where to put it. Seems like most people bolt it to the top and carry on. I was thinking of extending the roof several inches forward, like a visor, and mounting it underneath the overhang. It’s neither in the way of the wiper, nor visible from inside the cab. Might provide a bit more protection from low-hanging branches and give the roof a more streamlined look to it. Wondering if putting it underneath might cause some glare issues?

How is the air flow in the cab with the vents?

 

[DirtDawg]

I'm not the OP, so could post my own impressions after 3 local trail runs from home garage (prox 150 miles total) if he is not yet ready to comment...

 

[Darkfire]

I'm not the OP, so could post my own impressions after 3 local trail runs from home garage (prox 150 miles total) if he is not yet ready to comment...

Yes that be great! Also how is the view out of the windshield like do you feel the frame limits the view any?