SXS or Prerunner. Your thoughts and what you choose.

Here is my SXS logic. 1, you will never get the power to weight ratio of a turbo SxS without spending butt loads of money on a prerunner and having the potential to do a wheelie out in the dunes is awesome to me. 2, the bang for your buck for desert racing and a rock crawling 4x4 vehicle is insane. There is a race ready rzr for 11k on fb marketplace right now. I have wanted to race my whole life, but could literally never afford it, a SxS puts me close to being to actually race. 3, You can definitely make SxS's unique and really badass, most people are generic, but that doesn't mean all sxs have to be. Honestly, I can't count how many identical looking rangers and or tacomas have I seen. 4, You can make a SxS street legal and super unique all in one stroke by body swapping it with a dune buggy or a baja bug, which is my plan! I live somewhere that is really cool (Truckee, CA) that has endless amounts of desert and rock crawling near by and I want a rig that can do both, the only non SxS I can think of that can readily do both is a 90s Bronco, but those are now 10k for a barely rolling shitbox and honestly driving a SxS on the road is going to be more reliable than that (even though a built 90s Bronco is a dream for me).

I have a 2010 Nissan Xterra with mid travel and was going to go long travel, but compared to a rzr the math doesn't add up; front LT 3-5k, front shocks 1500-2k, axles 800-2k bumps 600, then there is the install which I would do but then you have to tire clearance and cut into fender wells and move a bunch of shit in the engine bay. Then the rear deavers 1200, shocks 1-2k, shackles 200, install do I somehow tuck the shocks under the cab or am I chopping my rig up? Plus wheels and tires 2-3k. That is at least $12,000 for a basic prerunner with no cage and no power upgrades, no cooling, no seats, no harness, no fenders, no radios. Plus the 6k I spent on the rig itself. For $18,000 I could get such a badass SxS with stupid amounts of power, 22" of travel front and rear with 4x4, a cage, seats harness, etc, race ready. Then I can just throw a Kartek baja bug body on it and register it as a bug (many have done something similar to this). People even have throw heater & ac in there rigs. Check out a few cool builds: https://utvsportsmag.com/magazine-feature/baja-bug-polaris-rzr/
https://dirtwheelsmag.com/polaris-rzr-dune-buggy/
https://www.facebook.com/100087771408816/videos/3681490608822689/

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Sxs are cool don’t get me wrong and they are fun as hell to drive but every time I get in one I’m freezing my ass off or sucking in dust or scared shitless because every person that has one drives it like there Robby Gordon with no actual driving experience. Prerunners are the best hands down
 
I get on marketplace to look at used 450s knowing full well I'm never buying another dirtbike, considering my knees and hips hurt from just sitting too long in my truck.

My needs and the part of the world I live is likely different from most on this forum. I can't justify a sxs, mostly because of the cost. For what a fully dressed one costs up here I'm buying a slightly used 2 door hardtop Rubicon with a mild lift and tires for the same money. Closed cab, heat/ac and I can drive it year round to work if need be.
 
I had a bit of a sxs run. When i crashed my truck in 2016 i knew it would be a long rebuild- (2-4 years) i had to replace about half the truck. A buddy of mine sold me this Weller Racing R1 Rhino for 10k and i ran it for about 5 seasons. It was an awesome car and terrifyingly fast. Fully built by weller, the only SR1 ever built with coilovers and bypasses on all 4 corners.

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I had a bit of a sxs run. When i crashed my truck in 2016 i knew it would be a long rebuild- (2-4 years) i had to replace about half the truck. A buddy of mine sold me this Weller Racing R1 Rhino for 10k and i ran it for about 5 seasons. It was an awesome car and terrifyingly fast. Fully built by weller, the only SR1 ever built with coilovers and bypasses on all 4 corners.

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I can get behind this
 
I had a bit of a sxs run. When i crashed my truck in 2016 i knew it would be a long rebuild- (2-4 years) i had to replace about half the truck. A buddy of mine sold me this Weller Racing R1 Rhino for 10k and i ran it for about 5 seasons. It was an awesome car and terrifyingly fast. Fully built by weller, the only SR1 ever built with coilovers and bypasses on all 4 corners.

That car was on marketplace recently, and may still be? Do you still own it?

I had an SR1 for a while and it was probably the funnest vehicle to drive that I’ve ever owned. I’ve yet to ride in/drive something as fast through the dunes as this thing went

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Reviewing this almost 2 years later i still think sxs are lame for the most part. But there are cool ones and that is any SXS Pre 2007 so pre first rzr everything after this is a mistake View attachment 43983
I’m gonna stir the pot.
While I agree sxs are gay looking. They’re getting so fast and so well put together that, to me, it makes more sense to pick a truck or suv or car you wanna build and just put it on a sxs chassis and cage it nicely. Any current sxs willl blow the doors off any leafsprung anything
So let’s say I wanna build an explorer. I’ll have a faster car WAY sooner and cheaper if I just put an explorer body on a rzr pro r 4 seat chassis. Still street legal (register the cab)


This gremlin is a rzr and street legal.
 

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I'll strictly never own a RZR or sXs, because i never want to be one of "the ones i talked endless amounts of shit on"

i don't care if they are better/cheaper/blah blah blah because, in fact they definitely are........... but ill never become a golf cart fag.
lose money, time, all the other things, i dont care. ill eventually be the "old school dude that didn't get with the times" to my sons generation and i'm fine with that.
i'll stick to my ways through and through.
 
SXS have their place. I believe they can be one of the easiest/cheapest ways to get into something thats capable of decent speeds in the desert or dunes. With that said, seeing guys drop $100k into their RZRs and Can-Ams to only go to the dunes seems crazy to me. You can get a really nice sand car or build a decent truck for that price.

Currently I have a sxs and I’m building my truck. Its fun to go rip around the desert right out the front door, but its also kind of lame. Always windy, always dusty, always slightly gay. A truck with AC cruising at the same speeds is a lot more enjoyable.
 
they can be one of the easiest/cheapest ways to get into something thats capable of decent speeds in the desert or dunes. W

This is what makes them so dangerous and, quite honestly, a nuisance in the desert. Being able to hop right into something so capable, fast, and dangerous is hazardous to new users and everyone else around them. It totally eliminates the learning curve of what hand signals mean when passing on the trail, staying on your side of the trail (if it's a two way), enjoying the experience of nature and machine instead of blasting ethnic music for all to hear...
 
This is what makes them so dangerous and, quite honestly, a nuisance in the desert. Being able to hop right into something so capable, fast, and dangerous is hazardous to new users and everyone else around them. It totally eliminates the learning curve of what hand signals mean when passing on the trail, staying on your side of the trail (if it's a two way), enjoying the experience of nature and machine instead of blasting ethnic music for all to hear...
Couldn’t agree more
 
This is what makes them so dangerous and, quite honestly, a nuisance in the desert. Being able to hop right into something so capable, fast, and dangerous is hazardous to new users and everyone else around them. It totally eliminates the learning curve of what hand signals mean when passing on the trail, staying on your side of the trail (if it's a two way), enjoying the experience of nature and machine instead of blasting ethnic music for all to hear...
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That car was on marketplace recently, and may still be? Do you still own it?

I had an SR1 for a while and it was probably the funnest vehicle to drive that I’ve ever owned. I’ve yet to ride in/drive something as fast through the dunes as this thing went

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Nice Sr1!! May just be the angle but yours looks a bit longer than mine was. I agree 100% absolutely the funnest driving experience ive ever had. Literally a shifter kart with good suspension. The amount of power was amazing, i could easily keep up with my friends in their big v8 cars. I miss it all the time but i had my fun with it.

I dont own it anymore- i sold it back in 2020. The guy i sold it to did have it for sale for a while im not sure if it sold or not.
 
I’m lucky enough to have a wife that likes to ride, so she is on board with getting the kids on bikes and quads.
I’m sure if your wife or “significant other 😉”doesn’t ride…. the SXS program is much more appealing,

You used to see long lines of kids on mini quads stringing through the dunes.
Now you see kids pile out of the can-am at olds with their IPAD’s…..

Just different times I suppose.
If I were to drop some monies it would be on this guy
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BFD revo.

I’m aware it’s just a small sand car, but I think it’s cool and kinda SXSish
 
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