A bit less sport, a bit more utility?

[KentT]

Ahhhhh I think you mised this. This is a Jeep club.

The New England 4 Wheelers, Inc. is a family oriented four-wheel drive club created to promote the sport of recreational four wheel driving on primitive roads. Vehicles are limited to Jeep type sport utility vehicles that are narrow, lightweight and agile like Jeep CJs, YJs, TJs, Cherokees, Suzukis, Defender 90s, Scouts, and other vehicles of this genre.

And I think you missed this:

Suzukis, Defender 90s, Scouts, and other vehicles of this genre.

That, plus the fact that Massachusetts classifies any ATV over 1000 lbs as an Off-Highway Vehicle, throwing the Rhino into that same category.

OFF-ROAD VEHICLE USE in MASSACHUSETTS STATE FORESTS and PARKS, 1-26-08
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Recreation Vehicle Safety Laws and Regulations as they pertain to Massachusetts Forests and Parks: ​

Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Defined- Also know as Off Highway Vehicle (OHV), ORV's are any motor vehicle designed or modified for use over unimproved terrain if used for recreation or pleasure off a public way and all legally registered motor vehicles when used off a way. Vehicles over 1000 lbs (gross vehicle weight) such as pickup trucks or SUVs are prohibited from all trails at all times.

 

[Scooby074]

The club rules you posted about the 20k tow hooks, max tire size, cb's and that look to me like they're for a 4wd truck. Your ATV is NOT "Suzukis, Defender 90s, Scouts, and other vehicles of this genre." I think thats referring to on road vehicles being used offroad. It would be overkill on a Rhino. Perhaps a call to the club to confirm their requirements specifically for a rhino might be in order

Mass might classify anything over 1k as a OHV, but they likely just use it as a restriction to keep you off trails where a larger vehicle might be too wide or heavy (ie:bridges) to cross safely. I hope that the above club restrictions are club specific and not state requirements?

If that club is going to force a ATV to have that stuff to go out on the trails, i think id find another club With all those rules they sound like they'd be a blast on the trails

Oh, and you can use a ratchet strap to help seat a tire without resorting to gas or either. Although ive used either in a pinch and still manage to have both eyebrows

 

[MNBobcat]

I've totally destroyed tires. Actually, the wheels. If you ride in rocky areas and come into a corner too hot you run the risk of catching the bead. If you're not running beadlocks, you're probably in trouble. Luckily, when its happened to me there were engineers from the ATV manufacturer who appear and give you a new ATV and then take the old one away to fix it. Ah, the good old days....

Awesome looking ride. Have you thought about mounting the spare on the back gate?

Dave
(Former ATV Editor)

 

[KentT]

The club rules you posted about the 20k tow hooks, max tire size, cb's and that look to me like they're for a 4wd truck. Your ATV is NOT "Suzukis, Defender 90s, Scouts, and other vehicles of this genre." I think thats referring to on road vehicles being used offroad. It would be overkill on a Rhino. Perhaps a call to the club to confirm their requirements specifically for a rhino might be in order

Mass might classify anything over 1k as a OHV, but they likely just use it as a restriction to keep you off trails where a larger vehicle might be too wide or heavy (ie:bridges) to cross safely. I hope that the above club restrictions are club specific and not state requirements?

If that club is going to force a ATV to have that stuff to go out on the trails, i think id find another club With all those rules they sound like they'd be a blast on the trails

Oh, and you can use a ratchet strap to help seat a tire without resorting to gas or either. Although ive used either in a pinch and still manage to have both eyebrows

Scoob, if you'd read rather than react...

I started out waaaaay up at the top saying that some of the 4x4 clubs here required full size spares. Because I've found I can't ride with the ATV clubs in the state parks/forests here, I may have to ride with the 4x4 clubs that will allow something other than Jeeps. The specific one I pointed out is just for smaller, lighter Jeeps and 4x4s -- they don't want large pickups, Grand Cherokees, etc. Note the "narrow, lightweight and agile" part of their description...

Also, I've also checked into registering it in VT and joining an ATV club there, in addition to their statewide association, because Vermont's cutoff is 1700 lbs. I can ride with the ATV clubs on the ATV trails there. Here in Mass, I cannot, unless those trails are on private land. Even though it is registered as an ATV, I cannot ride it on the public ATV trails.

By the time this whole thing is over, I may end up being a member of three different clubs:

1. A Mass 4x4 club to get access to the private trails they use
2. A Mass ATV club to get access to the private trails they use, even if I can't ride with them in the state parks/forests
3. A VT ATV club to gain access to their statewide network of ATV trails, and to use the VT reciprocity agreement to ride on private trails in New Hampshire. (Note that there is no reciprocity between Massachusetts and either Vermont or New Hampshire on ATVs.) New Hampshire also has the 1,000 lb limitation on all their state forests, with one exception, the Jericho ATV Park, where the cutoff is 1200 pounds.

You guys want to argue -- I'm just substantiating what I said earlier... and I have dug deep into the what I can and cannot do here in the very restrictive Northeast...

 

[KentT]

I've totally destroyed tires. Actually, the wheels. If you ride in rocky areas and come into a corner too hot you run the risk of catching the bead. If you're not running beadlocks, you're probably in trouble. Luckily, when its happened to me there were engineers from the ATV manufacturer who appear and give you a new ATV and then take the old one away to fix it. Ah, the good old days....

Awesome looking ride. Have you thought about mounting the spare on the back gate?

Dave
(Former ATV Editor)

Thanks Dave! I replaced the factory aluminum SE wheels with these heavier powder-coated steel ones, knowing that I'd likely be beating the heck out of the wheels, especially the beads, on these rocky New England trails, and I didn't want to pay the $1000 or more price for a set of bad-lockers and tires. That's also why I went with the original style, though heavier Bighorns -- they're famous for their toughness in rocks and the way that their design helps protect the bead...

I looked into rear tailgate mounts but most of the mounts available blocked the bed from dumping and the tailgate from opening, at least until you removed the mount and tire. There is one swingout mount available for the rear, but its pricey ($500) and it permanently blocks the bed from dumping because of bracing that mounts down to the frame...

Similarly, the ones that mount to the back of the rollcage block the use of a rear window/enclosure. Every design has its drawbacks, it seems.

 

[Dmace]

Is the roof panel strong enough to hold the spare? That's where I would put it, a decent mount should hold it well and you can access it easily by standing in the rear bed.

 

[Scooby074]

Kent,
I see what your saying. Im not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand some of the issues you are facing as they're quite different to what i know up here in Nova Scotia. Ive read posts on TBN regarding Mass's state rules before and what your saying doesnt surprise me. Things is the states are quite different than they are here. Up here, when you register your ATV each year, part of that fee goes to support trails. This gives you access to all trails, with few restrictions as the majority of trails are on crown land or private wood lands.

The only thing different is snowmobiles. They require an additional trail pass, thats good across the province. This is there to basically cover grooming.

Here you dont have to be a member of a club. Is this required in your area?

Dave: Ive never seen anyone totally destroy a atv tire. Maybe ive finally found someone harder on gear then me or my friends Them things is tough, just ask anyone who'd had to break down and mount one. Ive ran Kenda Bearclaws for years and have run them miles with no air (ripped off valve stem). The sidewalls alone are enough to keep the rim off the tire in most cases. About the worse carnage ive done or seen to tires is a bent rim. A BFH and some air and your back in the game.Sidewall tears are pretty rare. Now, i should mention that nobody i run with runs stock tires. All bets are off with the stockeys. They're pretty thin, and the tread sucks for the muddy stuff.

 

[KentT]

Scoob,

Supposedly my $40 state registration went to support ATV trail maintenance. They took my money, yet I get nothing for it. I showed the lady at DNR a Rhino brochure when I registered it, just to make sure she understood what it was. Her comment was it's an off-road vehicle, it's not a Jeep, it has 4 wheels, it's an ATV... It's just that I later learned that last year's regulatory change now says I can't use those ATV trails because my particular ATV weighs 38.5 lbs too much.

There's only 4 remaining state forests where you can ride ATV's at all in Massachusetts and they're all in the western part of the state (the Berkshires). They're about 1.5 to 2 hours away, depending on how much 2-lane road I have to take. The local dealer wasn't even aware of last year's regulatory change, when I was shopping. I bought it thinking I could ride it in those four remaining forests -- there used to be 15 or 16 that allowed them, I understand. It was only after I bought it that I began hearing, "I think the rules have changed." I called a Yamaha dealer in Western Mass and asked about how Rhino owners were being treated in those forests. Their response was it all depended on which agent you run into -- some would send you packing, but most would not -- but that was last year, the first year of the new policy.

The law here is that an off-road vehicle of any type MUST be registered if you use it outside your own property, period, even if it is on someone else's private property. They just don't provide anywhere to legally ride them, though Polaris RAZRs which weigh 965 lbs can still ride like an ATV, while my Rhino 450 (1038 lbs) or a Mule 610 4x4 (1010 lbs) cannot -- really objective, fair and sensical eh, when the RAZR has roughly twice the power and will go twice as fast...

My interest in "club membership" comes from the fact that there is so little undeveloped land here, and farms or tracts are typically pretty small by some standards. 100 acres is a pretty big spread, here. To gain access to trail netorks on private land, you typically are required to join a local club that has "negotiated" the access, maintains the trails, and sets the rules on how they're used, and who can use them. That applies to all off-road vehicles, whether 4x4s, ATVs or motorcycles. Most states (at least Mass, VT, and NH) require that you have WRITTEN permission to ride on someone else's private property. Club membership meets that requirement, since the club has negotiated a written agreement with the landowner.

In Vermont all ATV trails are on private land (none are in state or national forests or parks) and all are maintained by the local clubs and Vermont ATV Sportsman's Association (VASA) a state-wide association of those local clubs. You must join a local club and pay an additional registration fee with VASA to get access to the state-side trail network. Clubs typically make VASA registration a condition of membership.

New Hampshire has similar restrictions as Mass in their state forests, 1000 lbs plus the 50" restrictions that the US Forest Service uses. However, NH has 14 forests that you can ride ATVs in. One of those (Jericho, as mentioned earlier) has increased those restrictions to 1200 lbs and 60 inches so that most of the common 2-seater UTVs can use that one forest. NH recognizes the VT registration.

Maine doesn't recognize any other state's registration, and doesn't limit the size of the ATV/UTV, unless it is in a national forest which has its own requirements as described earlier. Maine has thousands of miles of ATV trails, including them being legal on lots of specific rural dirt roads. But, unfortunately for me, most are so far away that they're not feasible as a day trip.

Connecticut has no legal use of ATVs on public land, period. I really haven't checked into Rhode Island, since it is so small that there can't be a whole lot of trails there, regardless....

Such is the life of those with politically incorrect hobbies here in the Northeast...

Sorry I rambled for so long...

 

[Scooby074]

No need to apologize. Thats alot of good info for sure.

Some of your rules are quite similar to the ones pushed thru here for "our " safety. Public land access is pretty much guaranteed, unless some greenies petetion the government to restrict access. This has happened a couple places, however it usually meets with alot of public outcry. The gov't just reversed a decision that locked out atv's from an area.

With the new laws,Private land requires written permission for new trails, and the snowmobile and ATV clubs have gone and gotten permission for most existing trails. Membership in the club is not required for access, so long as the owner has given permission for the trail to "somebody". Also,An existing trail on private land trail is considered useable, unless its posted otherwise. The gov't also passed laws limiting landowners liability for accidents caused by ATV's. Were also allowed to drive in ditches and on "k class" public roads.

Registration rules are similar, $11.57 on your own property, 50 if you go off you land, with 40 going into the trail fund, plus we are now required to have insurance. I agree, i've yet to see any benefit from the $40. When they first suggested it, i figured we'd end up with trails "smooth as a highway", but this hasn't happened. My gut tells me it was just a big tax grab.

There are no restrictions on Rhinos or sxs specifically. But there are trails here that a Rhino cant get through. Its really fun getting behind a guy from away when were on a rally and he gets stuck between a couple trees cause he dont know the trails

The rules there are a little ridiculous. A Razor is ok but a Rhino isnt? Only a bureaucrat could come up with stuff like that.

The way its going here, we could end up in as bad a situation as your going through. Fortunately the MLAs have a little sense. The environmentalists really have been putting the squeeze on the politicians, but they've resisted most of their demands. Funny thing is most of this pressure comes from people in Halifax or newcomers to NS, who've never owned or operated an ATV. They dont get it and never will. Things are getting a little crazy when you consider it costs $52 + $200 (insurance) + machine payments & expenses just to go bounce through the woods.; and thats just the summer months. Winter rolls around and i got to pay that again + i need to buy a trail pass ($100-125 depending on date purchased). Its getting to a point where i have to wonder if its worth the money to do it anymore.

I wish you good luck in figuring out a place to ride. Whats happening in the northeast and here to a slightly lesser extent is a prime example of how bad it can get when gov't listens to the special interests.

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

the one thing to remember is don't over load the rhino them stock shocks blowout fast . plus that rear bumper is nice but it's a rhino hanger if you get into a hole. we put one on my rhino and sure enough the corner of it kept getting hung on the ground in the deep holes so off it came. i had the same side mirrors but they didn't last long for two reasons one whenat top speeds they would slowly turn to the back and would neb=ver keep their setting and two they always like to smack trees so i went with one rearview mirror on the inside of the rhino.infact thats where you wanna keep anything that you don't want to get banged up "inside the rhino" if it sticks out it's gonns get tore up. there's no dought you got a sharp lookin rhino. and i would yank them tie rods off the swaybar befor you bring it in you paid for them why not keep them they will come in handy one day.