My Wife and I went to Patton PA on Saterday to drive the long antisapated Commander. I drove two different Models, an XT and then the X. The X was by far the better handleing machine in my opinion. Good shocks make all the difference on offroad. The XT was more Utility like were as the X was as expected more on the Sport side. The fit and trim on both machines was very well done with attension to detail. The cockpit was very confortable and the ergonmics was also good. The power was way better than I expected from a UTV. I took a very close look at how it was designed and built. The welding on the machine was top notch with good penatration. I was impressed with how it was done with the exception of a few things. Number one it needs power steering for where I ride. The front "A" arms and tie rods were on the light duty side as I expected at least 1" DOM on the arms and 5/8" OD on the tie rods for the weight and size of the Commander. The rear arms were built much better. Although the braking was Impressive a fourth caliper on the left rear wheel is needed to take the load off of the CVs and drive train to reduce ware. Overall it appears to be an easy machine to work on as everything seems to be accessable. Now on to the drive. The cource was a very tight and twisty up and down hill thru the Woods. I felt its was the perfect test run area. I tried the X in all modes and found that the best setup was 2 wheel drive in sport mode with gearbox in High. I was able to slide it at will and did not feel it was top heavy (one of my concerns). The steering was harder (more so in 4 wheel drive) than I expected. It wood be fine for desert and dunes however for tight high speed woods driving you could easyly get into trouble. The power is very good and consistant with a typical CVT setup. Overall I feel this would be a machine I would buy. At this point I am not convinced I would give up the Buggy for a SxS however the Jurys still out on that. Odds are when there is enough Empircal data to pull from and it meets the low maintence and breakdown minimum I will be buying one next year.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

I myself have been looking into this ride also but mainly for my wife cuz she dont like my buggy nor my driving lol... so well see when i get home from this deployment if thats what i get her or shes just going to be stuck in the buggy with me lol

Ody you missed your calling .You should be doing test reports for a off-road magazine .As always I enjoyed the report and your findings .I am not interested in a sxs but this stuff is sure nice to know. Ody you remind me of Vinny on American Chopper,The guy behind the scene that actually knows what's going on

Ha! Ha! Thats pretty funny Rock, however I will take the compliment, Thanks.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

odyknuck , do the commanders come with the vista lock or a true locking diff now ? curios because i was not impressed with the vista lock they have on their utility quads ! it seems like it would not engage fully at the time you need it the most ! for a example coming out of a creek bed and say one front wheel is off the ground and on a grizzley or any that have true lock front diff it will be engaged and pull you right up the hill were the vista might not engage at the time you want it and just let you slide down the embankment .
so in all im just wondering about the vista lock !
jason

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Theirs no replacement for displacement !

Jason, as it stands they are running the Vista lock, however i had read somewere that a standard locking diff is being offered. From who they did not say. The Vista locks real advantage is for steering. You get less push in the turns than you do with full lock 4 wheel drive. So I guess you have the weigh up the disadvantage and the advantage and draw your own conclusion.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

I thought I was going to wait until next year to make the decision to buy a Commander. Well the Wife Unit made it for me. I bought the 1000X Yesterday. Taking delivery OCT 1st. Now I have to figure out were I will store it. And "NO" not in your garage lol! And yes I will continue to drive my Woodsbuggy.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

Well what about in my shed? And nice write up, Steve. I agree with Rock.

-Dakotah/koko

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-Dakotah/koko
keep on keepin' on!!

You could leave it in the toyhauler!!!

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"YOU CAN MAKE THINGS HAPPEN, WATCH THINGS HAPPEN OR WONDER WHAT THE F$$K HAPPEND...WE'RE MAKING THINGS HAPPEN" The strong words of Captain Phil! Rest in peice!

Ody call my wife for me or do I need to send her up there for training:lol:

you gona keep the pilots

Ha! Ha! you made another Funny Rock! I told my wife it had to be her decision so it would not be thrown up in my face in an argument lol. Yep gonna keep the pilots. One is mine and the other is the wife units. Still like the ideal of a very fast mini buggy to take on high speed smooth trails like Hatfield McCoy.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

Hey Odyknuck, I wish I had known you were there. I was there all weekend. I would have liked to have met you. I took out the yellow Commander in 2x4 Sport mode. I did not like the steering at all. Felt like it had really tight balljoints or something. Well, we probably ran in the same group and didn't know. I for one will go back next year. It was a blast! I only live about 1/2 hr from the place. I guess I could go more often.

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Its better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Ah! Small world! Yea we could have been following each other lol. I did not know that place existed until the Can-am Tour. I talked with the folks that run the place about taking my Pilots there and its a go. They had no clue what a Pilot was so I got on their computer and brought up pics of them. So I am sure we will be checking it out next spring or maybe even take the Commander there this fall. They have trails for Buggys and Jeeps however limited at this point and time.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

Hi Steve, did you compare it to the rzr s? and whats your opinion on the rear arms? I'm thinking of goin with one too but I like the rzr. I want the power of the commander but I'm worried about it being fairly new.

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"YOU CAN MAKE THINGS HAPPEN, WATCH THINGS HAPPEN OR WONDER WHAT THE F$$K HAPPEND...WE'RE MAKING THINGS HAPPEN" The strong words of Captain Phil! Rest in peice!

Steve, I have never driven a RZRs however I have looked at them very closly and was not Impressed with the quality. There has also been a fair number of Issues with them. I like the Commander rear trailing arms. They are made well and have a beefy torsion style sway bar that can be easyly removed. The Commander is built much better than the RZRs and the attension to detail, fit an trim is 2:1. I too had some concerns about Commander being new however after discovering that most of the drive train parts (Including Engine,trans and front diff) are allready proven on the large quads and have been in operation for years.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!