P1000 Another enclosure thread - are zippers working for you guys?

[bldmtnrider]

Pulled the trigger on a 1000-5 over the weekend and am now looking at enclosures. From what I can tell there are 3 primary options for soft enclosures out there: Honda, CEC and Side-by-side enclosures.

At this point the Honda one is out. Not that hung up on the sealing issue, but I want something that can quickly be pulled or installed and I am reading that is a bit of a pain with the Honda doors.

CEC and Side-by-Side enclosures are pretty similar designs with some personal preference going toward the Side-by-side design, but have some concerns about the zippers. Seems like the dust would trash them pretty quick, or water would melt and re-freeze around the zippers, or mud might dry and lock the zippers,... Anyone been running them for a few seasons and have anything good or bad to say about the zippers?

I'm not a big fan of having to unzip to get in an out but I don't see many better options out there.

 

[bldmtnrider]

One more question on the soft enclosures, do they need to be removed for trailering or can a trailerable cover be used to keep the windows from blowing out?

 

[ehart814]

I had a friend with a soft enclosure. The zippers alone are enough to make me stay away. The mud plugs them up and they wear very fast when using them when they have mud or dirt in them. He had to pull it off and have zippers replaced at a canvas shop more than once.

I always thought it would be a great idea if someone used rare earth magnets to hold them shut rather than zippers. Haven't seen anyone try that yet though

 

[tdhanses]

Personally the zippers are what made me go with the seizmik doors and the Honda mid fabric panel. I wanted my doors to open normal and the windows do zip down for warm weather, see no need to remove them. I have the SATV flip up windshield and it did take some modification to make it work, the gen 2 Honda soft doors are supposedly much better then the gen 1 for sealing up. The Honda mid fabric panel also unzips and rolls up so no need to remove it. Also the Honda windows in their doors zip down as well, so really no need to remove.

Also the CEC and side by side enclosures will not seal up the bottoms of the doors, you’ll still get some air flow in the cab unless you seal them up with any of the soft options. I need to install my frame mounts so the door seals up better but it does a good job even with the gaps but that just because they sent the wrong cage mounts for the inner frame.

 

[Ohio4x4]

I have the honda soft doors on my pk1- 3 and love them. They're not at all a problem to take off. I can go from doors on and sealed up to no doors in seconds. Just pull the door handle strap off and lift the doors away. As for trailering I trailer mine locally 55mph and less with them on regularly with the windows closed. You can watch the cabin of the buggy pressurize as you gain speed. 55 balloons them and is at the edge of my comfort zone with them closed. As for highway I more recently began rolling down the windows and leaving them on. A few trips at 80mph with no issues so far.

 

[rickoshea]

i found very quickly that my squirt bottle of dish soap/water that i use for the windshield works really good for removing grime from and lubricating the zippers,especially the soft mid panel.no issues so far.as for trailering,i just zip 'em down,roll them up and good to go.