JDK

Love the max for room and comfort. It’s like having a UTV party bus. The long wheelbase does lend itself to snagging the quarter panels on stuff though. Trees, stumps and in the whoops you may find yourself hitting the belly and quarters on things. You definitely have to pay attention in the rocks. I think 30” tires will help once I can afford them and you may want to do the rock sliders right off the bat. Wish I did. The bracket lift is inexpensive and added about 1.5” of ground clearance. Overall happy with the max.

Looks good Tooboy. I like it.

I bought the can am center mirror first. It’s fine but I don’t have a headache rack so I see out the back pretty good. Mostly I can keep an eye on the kids in the back seat easily. I then went with the plastic seizmek side mirrors. I really like those the best. They have a little fish eye to them but they pretty much feel like truck mirrors. They hold in place while driving but fold back really easy when they hit something. Mounts are formed for the cage so they fit great. I’ve heard good things about their warranty, even on the less expensive plastic housing mirrors. I haven’t had any issues with mine so far though. Overall I think having the center and side mirrors is best.

I’ve looked at that style too. They are quite a bit more expensive. I think if a person was going to go with both you might be better off going with a Trail Armor 1/2” thick belly plate. https://trailarmor.com/products/trail-armor-2019-can-am-defender-max-hd8-defender-max-hd10-defender-max-x-mr-defender-max-dps-defender-max-xt-full-skids Completely smooth on the bottom with a lip that acts as a rock slider fo the quarter panels. Problem is it’s $1k. But you’d be about that much with the can-am quarter panel rock sliders plus the tube rock sliders.

I’d say the sliders spared you some other damage but those aren’t new anymore.

My machine with stock 27” tires made it to 65mph. 5” bigger tires will definitely make your speedo read slow at higher speeds. I’ll bet your 52 mph gps’d will be close to 60mph. And everything is working harder to move that bigger tire so lower rpms make sense too.

Thanks Hunt2remember. Look forward to seeing the pics. I don’t abuse my machine but I bought it to use it. Stepping down in tire size from my blazer and jeep that I used to own has really made me have to adjust my driving style. With 37’s I rarely thought about my quarter panels. With 27’s you better always think about them. I’ll have 30” tires before too long so that will help too. Beefing up the OEM sliders might be easier than building from scratch, at least from the mounting point perspective anyways. But it might be a lot less expensive just to build my own. Has anyone built their own sliders from scratch?

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback.

Anyone out there have the tube style rock sliders? If so did you install them yourself? How happy are you with them? I ended up in the rocks in my max and really did a number on my quarter panel plastics. Ouch. Need some protection and think the tube style will work better on my long machine. Appreciate any feedback you all might have.

Thought I’d follow suit and start a build thread. Always a work in progress but so far: Kolpin under middle seat gun rack Clearly Tough front foldable windshield Extra cheap rear window, can’t even remember the brand name. But it came with a real good weather stripping AuxBeam 12” led and wiring harness can am rear view center mirror seizmek side mirrors Battle Armor bracket lift kit can am half doors Just finished the doors today. Wish I just would have bought them right off the bat. I really like them and they make a big difference with wind inside the cab. Hoping they help with dust too. Full doors cost way too much. Next mods are 30” tires and some rock sliders. Need to upgrade to LED headlight bulbs. Then a decent sound system. A few pics:

I was really considering the puddle buster doors. After contacting them they said they were many months out on having Defender Max 4 doors for sale. They estimated it would be about double the cost of the two doors. Not bad for a full door that converts to half but longer than I wanted to wait. I ended up doing the can-am half doors. Just finished the install and they definitely make a difference with wind in the cab. Think it will help with dust too. I’m pretty sure I can fab a bolt on frame that I can put a plexiglass window into. If I get crazy enough to try it I’ll it it up. A few pics with the new doors. Last pic shows the weatherstripping I used to stop the rattling. Stole the idea off of YouTube, can’t remember the user but credit for the idea goes to him.

Would love to see those pics. Wanting to step up to a larger tire myself.

Over armor off road is making these now.. https://www.sidebysidestuff.com/soft-doors-by-over-armour-offroad-can-am-defender-max.html?utm_source=bingshopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=soft-doors-by-over-armour-offroad-can-am-defender-max&utm_campaign=cse&msclkid=0a4795a7d90519749cf3cb9862917de6&utm_content=All ID's long tail DT%2FTab%2Fmobile I wish they looked a little better, I’d be a little more interested in them. I’ve tried reaching out to puddle buster to see if they make rear doors too, but no response so far. I really like the setup they have but my Max would look pretty dumb with just doors on the front.

Looking good. I really like those factory look switches. I added a front light bar and the switch that came with the wiring harnessis a little different than the stock ones. I will be SWITCHING it out for sure, ha! Now I have to upgrade the stock bulbs to get the same color. You don’t realize how yellow the factory lights are until you put a 5k led light in between the headlights. I’ll be interested to see how you like the no sway bar long term. I’m not afraid to open mine up on the good roads, and the body roll without the sway bar would scare me I think. I wonder if anyone makes sway bar-quick disconnects like on jeeps? Best of both worlds then. That might be a million dollar idea, I call dibs!

I did the same thing RossO and joined for the same reason. Welcome.

I’m a fellow Orygunian but not close to PDX. Felt bad that this post was just sitting out there with no replies. Hopefully you can track down some folks to hit the trail with. I’m blessed to have a good number of friends with machines, I’m the only Defender though.

Not a problem. Found your post in the classifieds. Good deal for whoever bought them.

Thanks guys. Makes sense that the diameters could end up slightly different. Only reason I was thinking of 10’s front and rear was that some of the tires I’m looking at only come only in 10” width. But I really don’t have the cash for wheels, plus I like the looks of the XT rims anyways. pmbaseball24 what would you have to have for those 1.5 spacers?

Thanks for the response. I am also really mindful of where/when I use Hi/Lo range. Not only is it easier on the clutch it really prolongs belt life. And they don’t just give those belts away.

Planning on upgrading to 29” or 30” tires in the near future. I am happy with my stock wheels so I really don’t want to drop extra coin on something I don’t want. So my question is, is there any issue with running 10” width tires front and rear on the stock wheels? I imagine you may need a wheel spacer on the back. If so should it be 1”, 1.5” or 2”? Thanks for any input.

These machines will break you on options. Hoping not so much on mechanic bills. So far so good on mine.

Good looking machine, your ATV almost looks bigger! No advice on the heater or wiper, but the heater from Super ATV runs around $300. Not as custom looking as the Can Am one but substantially cheaper.

Hello from South Central....Oregon. I’ve been popping in on many of your posts looking for ideas and answers, and thanks for all the information. Purchased my Defender in October and I haven’t done a lot of substantial upgrades to my machine thus far. Clearly Tough front window, Super ATV rear window, kolpin gun rack on the center front seat, Seizmek mirrors. And I just put on the Battle Armor 2” lift, really loving the stance of the machine with that. Doors and 29-30” tires on are the horizon, when I can come up with $2k+. I am glad to find a good forum that seems to have a bunch of people trying to help each other. Look forward to adding to that.

I’ve been looking for the same thing Reddog. Can’t believe no one has come out with a soft upper door for the can am half doors yet. The doors from puddle buster look good but I need front and rear for my max. The couple places making aftermarket doors seem to forget about the six seaters most the time, or charge an arm and a leg if they do make 4. I might contact puddle buster and see if they would be willing to do rear doors too.