What’s more exciting than rolling your Can-Am Defender? Doing it in front of two employees and your boss … That wasn’t in the plan when we left Knoxville for Kanab, Utah, but it’s exactly what happened when we pointed our mega-mile 2019 Can-Am Defender HD8 and Mark Hoyer’s Dirty Defender HD10 at Hog Canyon, an OHV network in the southwestern corner of the state.
We’d spent months building up both rigs for the trip. Our ancient HD8 got a raft of ThumperFab parts that we put to the test last year, as well as 32-inch tires and KMC wheels. Hoyer, meanwhile, threw the SuperATV book at his HD10, bolting on doors, a windshield, front and rear bumpers, and a BFT suspension kit that allowed him to run a set of 32-inch Kenda tires. The real trick kit was a modified Maverick X3 clutch from KWI. The two rigs ate up everything we threw at them until a navigational miscalculation put us on a black diamond route and gravity took over.
How bad was the damage? Did we have to call Matt’s Offroad Recovery to get it out? You’ll have to watch the video to see. Trust us, it’s a good one. And don’t worry, there’s a part two coming, full of more adventures in America’s playground.
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