Had a good weekend riding the Pioneer around the woods for turkey season and racking up some more seat time, everything worked well as it should. I towed my 18 ft car hauler around the farm for the first time and I was impressed for pulling a 2250 pound trailer. It makes me wonder how these things aren't handling 30" tires but can pull 2000+ lbs down the road at speed.
Only complaint comes from the dust in the cab going down any type of dry dirt road. It just swirls around in the cab and gets in your eyes, mouth, everything. I have the Super ATV half windshield that is a couple inches taller than the Honda unit, but I had to remove it to make driving more enjoyable. If I were to add the soft or hard rear panel, would this eliminate or greatly reduce the dust swirl with the half windshield? I have no need for a full windshield, but would like a little relief from the bugs and wind in my face driving at speed. I might add a full glass windshield at some point, but I would only use it during the winter months, so the half windshield will be used 8-10 months out of the year. I just haven't seen anyone run a half windshield with a rear panel of either type. I am hoping that the heat shield/mat that a lot of guys are mounting underneath the seat will help with the swirl somewhat as well.
I reached 130 miles and 18 hours over the weekend, so for the break-in service, the first dealer I called quoted me at $510 bucks! I almost hung up on him. So I called the dealer I bought my rig from and they quoted me $290 plus tax, but that dealership is 120 miles away from me currently. I then called the other dealer here in NWA and they quoted me $325 after tax, so I dropped it off up there. Both dealers also recommended to run conventional Honda oil instead of the synthetic because the polymers in the synthetic could cause a film to develop on the clutch packs and create slippage. I took their word for it and saved a little cash at the same time. I am more than capable of performing my own maintenance on this thing, but with potential warranty issues down the line with the clutch packs, I wanted to avoid any kind of scandal in the future.
Finally, the HD6 wheels I originally wanted from STI are on backorder, and I called everywhere, so I looked around and found some Sedona Storm Beadlocks for 425 shipped from Chaparral Motorsports. I am glad I found them, I like the looks and they are only about 25 bucks more than the STI's with a fully functioning beadlock. I plan to run 5 psi in my outbacks and these wheels since the 10 ply carcass is to stiff. Going to take the wheels up to the servicing dealer when I get them and have the wheels swapped over before I bring it home. Wheels are seen in the attachment below.
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