2" RDC Lift Installed on 2009 Rhino Sport Edition

[Albertan]

After doing a little research on the Internet, I decided on the RubberDown Customs 2" lift for my Sport Edition. My local dealer carries the High Lifter kit, but it specifically states it will not work with the gas shocks on my Sport Edition, needs more grinding than the RDC kit, and is not as "beefy" as the RDC kit. Actually, the HL kit can be run on a Sport Edition but requires the use of spacers. Maybe the RDC kit does too....more on that later.

The following three posts will show photos from the front, side and rear. In all cases, the order of the photos is as follows...

1. Stock height and stock 25" Maxxis tires.
2. Stock height and 28" Maxxis Zillas.
3. 2" RDC Lift and 28" Maxxis Zillas.

 

[Albertan]

Overall, the install was fairly straightforward. The front is super easy and the back is only slightly more complicated. I chose not to disassemble the rear hub assembly, instead grinding the lower rear shock mounts with a cutting disc and polishing stones on a dremel. I did nick one of the boots, but that's due to my own carelessness. I really don't see the need to disassemble everything if you're careful. One trick I would recommend though is to detach the shock from the mount while grinding it down. This gives you a few more angles of attack.

Upon completion of the install, I did notice the floor of the cab is a little taller when getting in. I never measured the height during the process...I'm sure it's in the neighborhood of 1.5"-2" as advertised. I do notice more camber which should be evident in the front and rear photos. I don't think it's any big deal and it still rides fine.

A bigger concern is the clearance between the gas shock reservoir and the rear tires. The rear tires are 28X10 Zillas, narrow as rear tire upgrades go (stocks are 25X10 as I recall). But as you can see in the photos below, they barely clear the tires.

First photo is clearance of a 28" Zilla with the stock suspension:



And this is with the RDC installed on the other side:



This is a close-up of the left rear at rest:



And this is the left rear with myself, my wife, and my daughter (~500 lbs) all standing over the left rear shock. Notice that the tire moves away from the shock in compression:



I'm going to have to test drive it a little more to see how it behaves with the camber and proximity to the shock. So many trails I ride are so narrow the Rhino barely fits. I am going to try to avoid spacers if at all possible. Cheers.

 

[Albertan]

Placeholder post for pictures of a RDC-lifted rhino next to a stock one

 

[RZR101]

looks like Rubber Down is borrowing ideas from Racer Tech.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

You need some 2+5 offset rims

I will try to get some pictures of my machine today when we go to the farm for a sleigh ride.

Looks good, just remember with the extra lift, long high speed driving will burn out your cv boots.

 

[Albertan]

You need some 2+5 offset rims

I will try to get some pictures of my machine today when we go to the farm for a sleigh ride.

Looks good, just remember with the extra lift, long high speed driving will burn out your cv boots.

I actually like the factory rims...I asked Redline to hold a set for me if they came available. And I'm not much for the long high speed runs. If I was I wouldn't own a Rhino lol.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Well it's not so much the long high speed runs but continuous speed. Say if you have to drive about a KM at speeds of around 40 or so, it's not so bad in the winter but the summer is when you usually tear a boot.

Wasn't able to get a picture, rhino wouldn't start for me yesterday and its parked out in the equipment shed. I think my fuel pump is bad/weak, and so I am going to put an fuel primer bulb from a boat,.. just have to find one during this season

 

[AreWeThereYet]

27 11 12 rear
27 9 12 front
2" RD llift, all shocks set to low, I think the rims are 5+2, and I have 1.5" rear wheel spacers only.

 

[roadtech]

Hi AWTY
How's the rhino handling the 27's, in the snow, and is the exhaust tip stock or is is after market it looks bigger than my stock one. If so did it make any differance.
Don

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Hi AWTY
How's the rhino handling the 27's, in the snow, and is the exhaust tip stock or is is after market it looks bigger than my stock one. If so did it make any differance.
Don

Any change to the exhaust will make it better IMO, it is a 2" stainless tip with 45deg down turn, stock is 1".

As for the tires, I would say they only thing better in snow would be Mud Bugs, or tracks. We also have another machine just like mine, and it has the bugs on it and goes farther than me in the snow, but I go farther in the mud

Because I am non-efi, this weekend I am putting in an AEM wideband air/fuel sensor so I can re-tune my carb properly.

If you have any more questions feel free to pm me, I don't want to clutter up Albertan's thread too much and would like to keep it on topic.

 

[Albertan]

Well, a couple of quick notes after a few rides. First, and most importantly, the extra couple of inches of clearance is really noticeable. It really does allow you to go places you would have had difficulty with before. Second, the lift makes it difficult for my factory snow plow to sit on the ground at full drop which is affecting the machine's ability to remove snow and will need some correction.

Finally, with regards to the Zillas in snow, they reportedly work exceptionally well run backwards. I'm too lazy to swap mine around to try it. Cheers.

 

[summitized]

how much was the lift......looks awsome

 

[scoobienorth]

Well, a couple of quick notes after a few rides. First, and most importantly, the extra couple of inches of clearance is really noticeable. It really does allow you to go places you would have had difficulty with before. Second, the lift makes it difficult for my factory snow plow to sit on the ground at full drop which is affecting the machine's ability to remove snow and will need some correction.

Finally, with regards to the Zillas in snow, they reportedly work exceptionally well run backwards. I'm too lazy to swap mine around to try it. Cheers.

i was wondering, here how much ground clearance do you have now in the front and in the rear? my rhino is really low in the front.10" front and 13.5" in the rear.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

I am just going by memory here but I think I am around 15" in the rear and 14" in the front.

That's to the bottom of the hitch mount

I personally bough the lift so I could run my shocks on lowest setting for most flexibility with height, rather than no lift, shocks max and rougher than a lumber wagon.

 

[Albertan]

how much was the lift......looks awsome

I don't recall the exact price with shipping. But the price is on their site and the shipping is quite reasonable since it comes from Ontario instead of the U.S.

 

[Albertan]

i was wondering, here how much ground clearance do you have now in the front and in the rear? my rhino is really low in the front.10" front and 13.5" in the rear.

I'll measure the back. I actually pulled the front end lift off because my plow wasn't working as well with the lift on (not sitting right on the ground properly) and its a simple ten minute job to put it on/take it off. My shocks are still on the stock setting because I can't find my owner's manual to understand how to adjust them. lol.

 

[DRD]

Mine was sagging pretty bad with the stock springs and the added cage, mud etc, I bought the tool and then put the EPI springs on my shocks. It lifted it back up and allowed me to take the adjuster off the max settings. Rides much nicer now. It sits about 13" at the rear and 14" at the front now. Probably picked up a couple of inches clearance.
A pretty good mod for the guys who don't have "sport" shocks. The springs are pretty cheap. I wouldn't try and change them without the proper tooling though, unless you wear a helmet and have good insurance.

 

[rubberdown]

looks like Rubber Down is borrowing ideas from Racer Tech.

PLEASE do tell what the hell you are talking about?????

 

[rubberdown]

Hey guys, I found the forum thanks to one of your members and my customers. I see where the tires are really close on the gas shocks with stock wheels and aftermarket tires, in all honesty, we try to make every lift kit we build work with stock rims and tires whenever possible and also with aftermarket rims and most tires (some have limitations due to the massive size of some of them) but stock rims and aftermarket tires are not one of the things we aim to make work as this usually is not possible. Reason for this is that as you push the wheels down with the lift, they are pulled in tighter to the machine, so if we can manage to get the full stock setup to work and the full NON stock setup to work, we think we did okay, NOW to try and make the stock wheels and non stock tires work, the lift would have to be made MUCH lower and therefor be pointless in our opinion. The only alternative would be wheel spacers, and they are a requirement with a lot of lift kits, not just ours, but this is only on the rare occasions with certain rim/tire combos.

I think I heard that Yamaha offeres a free 1" wheel spacer kit to all of their Rhino customers, this might be a good way for you to gain back that "shock to tire" clearance at no cost out of your pocket. Also, the lift likely pulls the tires in around 1/2" to 1" per side, so by adding the free spacers, you would be right around stock width again after you install them.

Paul.

 

[TABSTER]

Hey guys, I found the forum thanks to one of your members and my customers. I see where the tires are really close on the gas shocks with stock wheels and aftermarket tires, in all honesty, we try to make every lift kit we build work with stock rims and tires whenever possible and also with aftermarket rims and most tires (some have limitations due to the massive size of some of them) but stock rims and aftermarket tires are not one of the things we aim to make work as this usually is not possible. Reason for this is that as you push the wheels down with the lift, they are pulled in tighter to the machine, so if we can manage to get the full stock setup to work and the full NON stock setup to work, we think we did okay, NOW to try and make the stock wheels and non stock tires work, the lift would have to be made MUCH lower and therefor be pointless in our opinion. The only alternative would be wheel spacers, and they are a requirement with a lot of lift kits, not just ours, but this is only on the rare occasions with certain rim/tire combos.

I think I heard that Yamaha offeres a free 1" wheel spacer kit to all of their Rhino customers, this might be a good way for you to gain back that "shock to tire" clearance at no cost out of your pocket. Also, the lift likely pulls the tires in around 1/2" to 1" per side, so by adding the free spacers, you would be right around stock width again after you install them.

Paul.

Hey Paul,
Nice to see yah here. I will be contacting you in the near future for a Rhino lift.
I use Rubberdown products.... Top Notch!
Neil