8 FEATURES ON THE MAVERICK R NO OTHER UTV HAS

 

The new Can-Am is getting a lot of attention and for good reason. Can-Am claims they have sold over 180,000 X3’s world wide. For seven years people have been trying to make sense of its front end design, spring package and subsequent issues. Not only does it appear this latest design will work great for desert and dune drivers out west, it really shows how much improvement the current X3 needed. In stock form and especially in the 64-inch wide X3’s issues weren’t as common. However install heavy tires, add cargo weight and start driving to the engines potential, and the stock chassis can’t hold up for the long term. In fact there are dozens companies making good living selling parts to fix the current X3 such as Assault Industries (front bulkhead brace) Shock Therapy (steering rack/spring kits) Alsup Racing Development (A-arms) just to name a few.

  Anyway, for west coast desert rats and duners, we think the new 2024 Can-Am Maverick R is going to be a home run not only in the frame and suspension department, the new engine, trans and driveline should solve other issues the X3 has in these departments. We have dissected the new vehicle a bit more and have come up with a list of things we have never seen on any other UTV before now.

TALL KNUCKLE

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, or elephant ear! Too soon? Anyway, those huge “Tall Knuckles” as Can-Am calls them are nothing new to the automotive and truck world. It’s how, they have reduced body roll in pick up trucks for decades.  Furthermore, a company called Laegers’ was using this philosophy on race ATV’s 35 years ago. It does work, and as far as the looks go, it will just take time to get used too.  This is another case, of the UTV manufactures taking more cues from truck manufactures instead or just building oversized ATV parts as they have been doing since the early Mules, Rangers, Rhinos and Rangers. Who will be the first, to put a full billet set of Tall Knuckles on a Maverick R? It’s coming.

SEVEN SPEED DCT TRANSMISSION

 No more belt is a great thing. Honda had this philosophy for, well, ever. They have never used a CVT belt on their Powersports products. Furthermore, they have been using DCT transmission in their ATV’s since 2010. The Talon has been equipped with the 6-speed DCT transmission since 2019 and we’re happy Rotax built their own. In fact, the guys at Can-Am tell us, this transmission has been in development for 8 years. This is the first DCT transmission Rotax has ever built, but we have full confidence it will be reliable. 

  With regular oil changes, using high quality oil, the transmission should last for tens of thousands of miles. Since all shifting is electric and somewhat computer controlled, missing a shift or abusing the transmission is virtually impossible. 

100+ MPH TOP SPEED

  In stock trim, we have seen photo/video evidence of the Maverick R reaching 102 MPH. None other than Cleetus McFarland claimed that speed was set at wide open throttle going down a fast graded dirt road while cresting a small jump. Without the electronic speed limiter in place, we think at a lower elevation, this machine will get up to 110 easy. A couple years ago with help from KWI clutching we were able to get an X3 up to 108MPH.

 

FRONT DIFFERENTIAL DISCONNECT

The Can-Am engineers devised a way to eliminate the common front differential failures that happen under hard breaking in rough terrain. On the Maverick R, if you jump on the brakes hard, the 4WD will disengage momentarily so the tires can be slowed by the brake pads only separate from the driveline. When we take our first test ride, we will report how this system actually feels to the driver.

TRIPLE RADIATORS AND SIX FANS

   There’s a lot of complexity involved with the new powertrain that requires 3 separate radiators all with two fans each. The engine does have a large 1700 Watt magneto to keep the battery system topped off. Hopefully there is plenty of power in reserve to power the accessories customers will stack on their ride. Unfortunately they did not locate the engine radiator behind the drivers. Doing so would allow for the cockpit to be cooler as there wouldn’t be radiator lines running down the tunnel. Also it would make building a race machine easier. Besides, the intake panel is so large, you can barely see out the back of the car as it is.

6-LUG

Four was the norm, then five, now six lug wheels are found on the Maverick R. Again, this is Can-Am taking cues from the truck world. Most small to medium sized pick ups use 6-lugs hubs and wheels. We bet the hub and brake hat can both be cross referenced to some pick up out there.  The Maverick R has a dual piston caliper out back and a triple piston caliper up front.

 

7) HIGH POSITIVE OFFSET 16” WHEEL

We preached all the time about not installing wider wheels than come stock on your machine as it affect handling in a bad way. To do so, and still enjoy the look of an aftermarket wheel, you need to look for a high positive offset wheel. OMF and Sedona have good ones. The stock wheel that comes on the Maverick R has a 78.9mm offset.That means the wheel face is 3 inches from the center of the seven inch wide wheel. Most other UTV’s have a 35-50mm offset wheel from the factory. The Speed UTV has a similar positive offset as the Maverick R. Lastly, this is the first time we have seen a 16-inch wheel on a production SXS.

8) DOOR BUZZER

Not only will the machine alert you if you don’t have your seat belt plugged in, it will let you know when you have left a door open immediately after you try to take off. The door buzzer will actually be much more appropriate on a four seat version. We can count how many times, we have seen someone going down the trail with a rear door swung wide open.

Here is the full release on the new 2024 Can-Am Maverick R. https://utvactionmag.com/2024-can-am-maverick-r/