JDK

Stumbled across a company building shocks for the Defender the other day. For what you’re getting the prices don’t look too bad, if they are as good as they claim. 

Elka Defender shocks

if anyone has done the upgrade I would love to hear your thoughts. 

For the money it’s fine. Doesn’t rattle too much but it does leak a little water at the top corners when it is raining. I added weather stripping to the top of the roll bar where the windshield touches. That helped the leaks and rattle some.

Really surprised at the scratch resistance. Much better than expected. 

I got almost an inch of lift with the springs cranked up to max. Mine seemed to sit higher in the front and didn’t like the look. I run middle front and max back. Looks level and gives a little more height all around. Still ride and handles well. 

Went with the can am doors and am happy. The super atv doors don’t look like they seal to the cab. The can am doors really cut down on the dust that rolls in at your feet. 

Two tips for rattle. Add duct tape around the striker post. Also add nylon washers between each joint on each hinge. They act as bushings and stop the metal on metal squeak that will make you insane. A few dollars and now no noise from the doors. Need to do a write up on that one but haven’t had the time. 

I have the exact same machine as you Bsevans5.  When I loaded and unloaded it the first time at the dealer and then at home the belly dragged a touch on my trailer too.  I cranked the preload on all the shocks to the highest setting and that solved my problem.  I got about 3/4” of lift from that.  I also spent the $99 for the battle armor and that gave about 1 1/2” of lift so I let my preloads down a click to soften the ride on the trails.  Still no belly rub.  

No need for wheel spacers on the battle armor lift in my opinion if you are running stock tires and wheels.  I also have a thread in the builds section you can look at.  Honestly, I’ve been stealing ideas from Andystoy19 so if you’ve seen his there might not be a whole lot of extra info there.

The boards on the deck thing is a pretty simple fix too, great idea btw.

Have a buddy who did this setup for his Polaris general 4. He loves it. Didn’t notice a big mpg difference with his power stroke. Says it stable and appreciated not having to buy a toy hauler. 

Sorry aggiecat, I couldn’t track it down either. Maybe it was on YouTube. I’m sure I saw it somewhere. 

Like that khaki color. Looks sweet. 

How do you like those vent wind deflector things? I was considering them. 

Are you in 4x4 while on hard packed surface? If so probably the front diff trying to do its limited slip thing. 

Welcome to the community huntschool! The safety Sam part of me says “don’t do this” but...There’s a $10 part you can buy on amazon or eBay that plugs into the wires for the seatbelt sensor to override the limiter. Or you can cut and connect the wires yourself for almost nothing. 

Don't try this at home, no liability and all that stuff goes along with that tip  😉

I saw a thread on this somewhere already.  If you search around a little in here you should find your answer.

My 19 is quite a bit different than the 20’s.  I have a simple bus bar in the middle of the dash, underneath.  It has a constant hot and a keyed hot, you just add a ring terminal and run a fused wire to your accessory, relay, or switch.  Depending on how many amps your accessory uses.

I also got pics of my budget divider and storage.  

Pretty simple, I took a 1”x12” and angled the ends to match the taper of the bed slots.  Then I customized it with some sweet aerodynamic holes and rounded the edges with a router.  Once I put my knock-off yeti in the back I was having touble with the latches so I took a little off the middle of the board.  

Next my wife found these little tubs for $9 at one of the essential stores that didn’t close due to Armageddon.  They were leaking some dust so a $10 roll of standard weather stripping around the inside of the lid pretty much sealed them up.  There is a little dust that gets in where the yellow latches attach to the black tub, but it is minor.  My cooler fits just to the other side of the tubs, all pretty cozy.  They move around a little but everything stays in the back even at speed.  A strap across the top would keep it all secure but seems fine so far.

Well, the tires didn’t make it before the trip which was a bummer.  But I just got them on and what a difference!  These should be factory if you ask me.  

So I put a 1.5” space on the rear and kept the factory wheels.  The tires are Kenati Mongeral 30”x10”x 14R and line up perfect front to back with the rear spacer.  If you look close you can see a bit of a difference with the tires on the narrow front vs. wider rear wheels, but it is negligible.  The wheel width doesn’t seem to have really made a difference on the overall circumference of the wheel which is good.  

I am measuring about a 4” difference in ground clearance between these tires and the 27” factory bighorns.  Overall clearance is sitting a little over 16” now.  That is with a battle armor bracket lift, rear preloads on full and front preloads at half.  If I crank the front to full it sits higher in the front than the rear.  I want to do the S2 HD springs at some point in the future for sure.  Some pics:

I have the battle armor spacer kit. Like A2HR it gave me about 1.5” not 2”. Fir the price and ease of install still happy with it. I think there will be plenty of space for 30” tires. I run my preload on the shocks max at the rear and halfway at the front so it sits level front to back. That gives about 2.5” total lift. Eventually I want to upgrade to the S2 HD springs. 

As for the clutch we will see how it goes. I know the weight and size will make a difference but I’m willing to live with the drop in acceleration if I can get my quarter panels al little further away from the obstacles. The max likes to drag it’s belly on things. I am more worried about axel shafts. That’s why 30”s instead of 32”s. 

I will be updating my build section with a few things once I get the tires on. Hopefully they are in today. Taking it camping and making a few runs on a long weekend and I’d love to have the new meats on. Fingers crossed they arrive. 

Good info share Toolboy.  I decided to order up some 30" Kenati Mongrels.  My hope is that since they are DOT rated they will be fairly true on round and weight. Keeping the stock wheels though, I like the looks and want to spend that money elsewhere on the machine.

We will see how mine work out.

I've been skulking around the forum without adding much content lately but it's time to up my game.  Pics coming soon but I found some good and cheap storage options to share, built a homemade bed divider, and the 30" Kenati Mongrels are on order.  I am hoping they arrive this week since we have a trip with friends planned with several days of trail rides.

Stay tuned.

I was thinking a winch mounted the way you did it would mount up in that area. Great execution on that, turned out nice. I’ll be copying your idea for that at some point in the future for sure. 

Only suggestion I would make would be to add a gusset or two under the winch mounting plate to the backer plate mounted to the machine. Just to add a little rigidity for when there is angle on the pull. 

Really cool though AH2R. 

I went with the OEM half doors and have not been disappointed. Partzilla was the cheapest I could find and they shipped free and we’re at my door in less than a week. Install was easy. They really help keep the dust out of the cab. I would have loved full doors but the cost was too much for me, and those super atv full poly doors seem like they will end up all scratched to shizz, IMO. The other half doors don’t look like thy seal up to the cab as well as the brp ones do.

I too have been thinking I could add a removable upper to the doors for the cooler months. A light removable frame could attach to the brp half door I think. The dust isn’t my favorite thing but it’s a UTV so I deal with it. I wouldn’t expect a homemade door to be real dust proof but it would probably help  

Off-road Armor is selling soft upper doors that you can add to the brp lower doors that might be ok but I’m skeptical.

https://offroadarmor.com/product/can-am-defender-max-upper-soft-doors-fit-oem-can-am-hard-half-doors/

And there is the convertible door being made by puddlebuster. Reviews seem mixed and they couldn’t give me an idea when they would have doors for the max. https://www.puddlebuster.com/product-page/puddle-busterconvertible-door I probably would have bought these had they been available.

So many door options  and they all cost some serious coin.

So what holds it in place? It looks like 3 snaps on each side. Do you have to drill or rivet the other half of the snap to the machine?

I think you can buy body panels on partzilla.com. Prices looked reasonable but you would be limited to stock colors. 

That side box is a great idea. I like that mount you built. Does it just lift up and out when you want to use your full bed?

On 5/14/2020 at 6:01 AM, Rudy said:

I’m running 30’s and have plenty of room. 

Looks great.  Plenty of room for sure. 

That looks pretty good. Does it tilt with the bed? Any interference hitting the tires?

Have you checked the belt?

Looks good. I like the inexpensive rock light as a cab light idea.