HCR longtravel kit review Can Am Maverick XRS

[megadesertdiesel]

First off i was not paid to do this or given a discount. i will give honest info, unlike alot of other people i used my personal hard earned money to buy this kit and will pull no punches.

i have an eaerly 2013 maverick XRS and beat the chit out of it since day 1. Went to dual rate springs and Shock Therapyst tuning last dune season. The shocks did great but i would G-out at fast dune transitions, come to find out it was my 26.5" tires at 8lbs ballooning out. Trying 12psi this season.

Anyways, i was working in Boston this summer and was searching on CL and found a HCR kit for a great deal. I met the guy and had my office ship it to Phx for me(im cheap and they were sending stuff anyways).

http://www.hcrracing.com/rzrlongtravel8pcset-2-1.aspx

i finally got the kit installed a couple weeks ago. First impressions are its a very heavy duty kit. The arms weigh 12-14#'s each with stock arms weighing 6-13#'s.

the HCR kit comes with everything but bolts, it has new bushings and sleeves. It also re-routes the stock brake lines( i plan on replacing the passenger fron because its a little to snug for my liking).

the kit has chromolly tie rod tubes, not sure i like this as there is no weak link now.

The rear link bars do not have a sleeve to make alignment easy, so taking them on and off was a PITA. Mostly due to the Racer Tech double sheer mounts. great product and good price. I noticed my stock bolts were bent when i disassembled them.

http://racertech.com/shop-by-model/maverick/maverick-radius-rod-double-shear-mount.html

IInstalling the arms was as easy of remove and replace. They all ligned up great with no beating them inside the tabs, NO BULLSHIT.

the kit come with Summers Bros axles. wow i really hate dissasembling and reassembling cv's. First two of the stock cv would not come apart until i beat the chit out of them and broke the metal retainning rings insde the stars. I do wish long travel kits would come with new clips and cv boot clamps. i had a heck of a time finding the rigt clips at 4 different Napa stores. Also the small Napa cv boot clamps for the axle sides of the boots didnt fit great and i ended up using hose clamps.

The kit came with King 2.5" shocks with 7/8" shafts, 2.0 resivoirs, compression adjusters and Viton seals. i was told by King that the resi's and viton seals are an upgrade. I was also told by HCR that they have not heard back from ANY Maverick XRS owneres that they had to do any shock tuning. This suprises me because i have never heard of anyone totally content with their stock valving from any manufacturer.

Off to Glamis soon to test it out and tell you guys the truth.

 

[JoeyD23]

Thanks for posting Mike!!

 

[Rynomx785]

Looks good. What does it cycle now front and rear with the kit?

Curious to hear how feel about the valving. I'd guess that it would need to some work as well.

 

[tatum]

Looks good Mike.

 

[megadesertdiesel]

first run from wash 2 to olds and then the long way back. Its stiff for sure, no bottoming out at all. And daymn this thing is wide!!, gotta becareful where your front tires are. i hit a couple ridges and the front tire went too far over and sucked me to the other side of the dune. But i can throw it in a downhill slide to reight without fear of tipping, drifting is fun! Hit the woops in to Olds hill at the narrow part at 50mph, soaked them up with a couple of bucking issues untill i hammered through it and it smoothed out at 60mph. Running through the woops at the bottom of olds from a stop going up hill the rear popped up a couple times and i lost my momentum. Comming down at 60+ ate up the woops and caught a little air at the lip.

in short stiff ride slow speed, it bucks below 50mph in the woops and 60+ it works.

going to try and remove 1/4-1/2" preload inthe rear to soften up slow speed and not sure what else to do. compression is set to 5 clicks from soft setting. shock pressure is at 200psi. I have my nitrogen gauge and filler i can run them down to 150 and see if that makes any difference.

 

[HellBound]

Looks Great,..
and great info. Thx

What psi are are you running on the front shocks?

I had issues with my front running out of travel when I was out at the dunes.
(on the smaller dunes, with the tight transitions/ g-outs)

Mine is a 4 seater, but I have the front 4 clicks form the stiffest setting. (24 settings)
Running the rear @ 12 clicks (middle of the settings)

BTW, what springs are you running in the rear?
I was sent 200 originally and had to preload it down past 50% of the shock body.
HCR sent out 250 rate springs and its much better now. (free of charge)



BTW, no affiliation or monetary interest in HRC either. (only long travle kit I could find when I bought last yr)

 

[SGM4Life]

Mike I had the same problem with my commander and a fellow friend Zane turned me onto purchasing piano wire (spring back wire) from McMaster Carr and you can make them yourself. The wire is cheap and you will have plenty to perfect the clips! Thanks for the great info on your purchase of the hcr kit!

 

[Simi Dude]

Mike, how wide is it now ?

 

[lt_prerunner]

very sweet maverick btw, what cage is that ??

 

[tatum]

very sweet maverick btw, what cage is that ??

UTV INC

 

[megadesertdiesel]

First trip report.

setup, 200psi all 4 shocks, 1" preload all shocks, 12 clicks in from soft on front, 20 clicks in from soft on rear, 12psi front, 14 psi rear tires(27" front, 26.5" rear).

SUSPENSION
With the above setup i could blast through any woops i wanted to with the rear bucking when i hit an out of sequence woop(not evenly spaced woops). The slow speed was terribly rough across the chop in the sand. I would G-out(case the rear frame) when at the bottom of sharp dune transitions. But following the other sxs's in the group i would see their cars dent in the sand too.

I did lower the tire pressure to 10psi on all 4 tires and try it out. The slow speed ride was improved but i bottomed out more.

STEERING
Steering will push if you are not on the throttle and only in 2wd. In 4wd it grabs and corners like it is supposed to. I can come in hot to a corner tap the brakes and throttle around a corner drifting and roosting the poor sucker behind me.

I did have to learn how wide the car is again. I hit two nasty witches eyes and stopped after the steering wheel ripped out of my hands after the first one to look and see what ripped off the frame. I found NOTHING wrong or loose, now thats some beefy suspension parts.

In summary the kit is just like the stock fox podium shocks with single rate coils but with more travel and ability to hit deeper woops. The slow speed is very rough and will rattle your teeth. Bottoming out is something i need to address immediately, casing the rear does not make for a fun ride in the dunes and i cringe when i see a tight transition i have to drive through.

Not exactly sure what my next tuning step is, but i am going to call King, HCR and a couple other shock tuning gurus to see what they think. Rear tires too short(27 1/8" tall at 14psi)? Ride heigth too low? Add hydrolic bumpstops to slow down the last 2" of travel? change to 30" tall tires?

 

[tatum]

First trip report.

setup, 200psi all 4 shocks, 1" preload all shocks, 12 clicks in from soft on front, 20 clicks in from soft on rear, 12psi front, 14 psi rear tires(27" front, 26.5" rear).

SUSPENSION
With the above setup i could blast through any woops i wanted to with the rear bucking when i hit an out of sequence woop(not evenly spaced woops). The slow speed was terribly rough across the chop in the sand. I would G-out(case the rear frame) when at the bottom of sharp dune transitions. But following the other sxs's in the group i would see their cars dent in the sand too.

I did lower the tire pressure to 10psi on all 4 tires and try it out. The slow speed ride was improved but i bottomed out more.

STEERING
Steering will push if you are not on the throttle and only in 2wd. In 4wd it grabs and corners like it is supposed to. I can come in hot to a corner tap the brakes and throttle around a corner drifting and roosting the poor sucker behind me.

I did have to learn how wide the car is again. I hit two nasty witches eyes and stopped after the steering wheel ripped out of my hands after the first one to look and see what ripped off the frame. I found NOTHING wrong or loose, now thats some beefy suspension parts.

In summary the kit is just like the stock fox podium shocks with single rate coils but with more travel and ability to hit deeper woops. The slow speed is very rough and will rattle your teeth. Bottoming out is something i need to address immediately, casing the rear does not make for a fun ride in the dunes and i cringe when i see a tight transition i have to drive through.

Not exactly sure what my next tuning step is, but i am going to call King, HCR and a couple other shock tuning gurus to see what they think. Rear tires too short(27 1/8" tall at 14psi)? Ride heigth too low? Add hydrolic bumpstops to slow down the last 2" of travel? change to 30" tall tires?

250 lb spring seems a little light to me. What is the actual shock travel and suspension travel.

 

[Glamisfan]

How much ground clearance without the springs on it? I'd say 3" is normal, but you probably need 5" in the dunes so the tires can squish 3".


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[the stripping shop]

30" paddles will help all the above. But I fought the same issue with our can am maverick and I would love to say I got it but never could, the geometry In the rear with that short shock just wont let you do it. It will always be to stiff or to soft and will always buck on the first whoop then settle.