Polaris RZR Expedition Build

I have always wanted to build a RZR specifically for expedition trips and extended camping trips. Polaris finally gave me the opportunity to do so and sponsored the vehicle in their build off competition.

I would like to hear what you guys think about the RZR as an expedition/sport machine. There are some obvious hurdles with making it street legal, but for some trips, that might not be an issue at all. Please let me know what you think.

We custom built the back roof setup to add extra dry storage.


I used a ton of LED lights on it so we could still operate effectively at night.



I customized a Mig Apex Ultra trailer to haul the heavy cargo. It opens up to very comfortably sleep driver and passenger.





I also built a custom roof rack for the trailer. It is removable once you setup camp to serve as a camp table.








If you guys have any questions or concerns, please let me know. I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Well, that's some start ... welcome by the way!

Whereabouts are you based? The States I would guess, but what do I know??? The buggy scene is still in its infancy here in the UK, but it's growing rapidly.

Have to say that in Central Europe it's progressing faster, and to that end, I have introduced quads and ATVs into two of my events -

Adventure Southside Lochmühle, D-78253 Eigeltingen, South Germany Fri 24 - Sun 26 June 2016 www.adventuresouthside.com This has the biggest quad/ATV course in the south of Germany. Good, but nothing compared to our show in the West of Germany.

It's called Off-Road West. Located at Fursten Forest, Pommernstraße 12, 49584 Fürstenau, West Germany Fri 12 – 14 Sun August 2016, the off-road courses cover 400 hectares. Personally I can't visualise what this means size-wise, all I know is that it's MASSIVE!!! It was used by the German Army as a tank-training facility, so this says everything. Together with all the usual 4x4s, 6x6s and 8x8s (they love the big stiff over there), quads and ATVs will feature heavily. www.offroad-west.com

Anyway, back to your post - with a trailer, you can do a lot of travelling in a Polaris. It's good on fuel, it's lightweight construction means you shouldn't get stuck too often, and if you do you have a winch just in case, and best of all, you don't need air-conditioning ... which I detest with a passion. I'm always pissing off taxi drivers in hot countries by winding down the windows! Natural air no matter how humid is better than stale man-made conditions.

So, you 'won' that rig in a build off competition? Nice!

Tom Mc wrote:

Well, that's some start ... welcome by the way!

Thanks, Tom. I appreciate the detailed reply.

Yes, I'm in the states. I have been racing RZR's for Polaris for a few years now. Here's an in-car video in a RZR to get your heart racing.



I haven't won this vehicle yet. I have to win the competition first. The voting competition is held on the Polaris RZR Facebook page. So far, I'm winning, but the contest lasts until Feb 4th.

Here's a video of this RZR in action.



The States is covered up with UTV's. It has opened up off roading to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't have had the means or the time to build a vehicle this capable off road. I would love to see them adopted more globally. I believe Australia is adopting them fairly quickly. We have talked about running the Finke desert race there a few times. I haven't done it yet, but it's definitely on my bucket list.

They makes perfect sense, although maybe not quite so quick for a lot of folk. Me I love it!

THE man to speak to in Oz is Dave Metcalfe. He's been running extreme 4x4 events in Australia for years, plus is one of leading officials of the Rainforest Challenge of Malaysia, hence he knows what he's talking about! Super nice bloke too ... half the battle! Only downside is he's into Nissan Patrols, but hey, we can't all be right.  

You'll find him here - www.facebook.com/david.metcalfe.37?fref=ts

Tom Mc wrote:

They makes perfect sense, although maybe not quite so quick for a lot of folk. Me I love it!

THE man to speak to in Oz is Dave Metcalfe. He's been running extreme 4x4 events in Australia for years, plus is one of leading officials of the Rainforest Challenge of Malaysia, hence he knows what he's talking about! Super nice bloke too ... half the battle! Only downside is he's into Nissan Patrols, but hey, we can't all be right.  

I would absolutely love to international ride trips, too. I think there may be an opportunity to do some of that with this vehicle if it wins the competition, especially if I can get Polaris interested in being a part of it.

I'll reach out to Dave. Thanks for the recommendation.

Hi there

looks awesome, but where do you put the kids?

kevinf wrote:

Hi there

looks awesome, but where do you put the kids?

In an all new Polaris General, of course!

Looks good wish you all the best in your trials and trips.

Great looking buggy! I bought my son one way back in about 2005 when he was about 12 and he learned to drive using it. We had miles of tracks in the woods and fields around us in Manitoba and had a blast with it.

There are a couple of companies that run short, overnight buggy trips in Morocco. A tour is 4-5 buggies and a support vehicle. I think it would be possible to set one up for longer trips, especially with your trailer along. I think the challenges are reliability...sometimes the engineering in those just isn't up to long distance travel and ability to carry supplies. The drive train components just are't designed to haul heavy loads...unless your talking about a John Deere 'Mule'-style quad buggy. But that would never go long distance. I ran a ranch in Alberta where we had six buggies that we used for all sorts of work...hauling firewood, chasing horses, general run-arounds. They did pretty well but needed a fair bit of maintenance.

I do love anything lightweight and open top though...so I am keen to see how you do!

Tembo wrote:

Great looking buggy! I bought my son one way back in about 2005 when he was about 12 and he learned to drive using it. We had miles of tracks in the woods and fields around us in Manitoba and had a blast with it.

There are a couple of companies that run short, overnight buggy trips in Morocco. A tour is 4-5 buggies and a support vehicle. I think it would be possible to set one up for longer trips, especially with your trailer along. I think the challenges are reliability...sometimes the engineering in those just isn't up to long distance travel and ability to carry supplies. The drive train components just are't designed to haul heavy loads...unless your talking about a John Deere 'Mule'-style quad buggy. But that would never go long distance. I ran a ranch in Alberta where we had six buggies that we used for all sorts of work...hauling firewood, chasing horses, general run-arounds. They did pretty well but needed a fair bit of maintenance.

I do love anything lightweight and open top though...so I am keen to see how you do!

You're exactly right about reliability being a concern. In my opinion, these latest generation UTV's from all of the manufacturers are significantly more reliable than the early models. That's also the reason I thought the Turbo RZR was a good fit for this project. It has upgraded axles, brakes, clutch primary and secondary, clutch belt, transmission, and a few other key components. This extra strength is good for the extra stress I will be putting on it.

If you guys are interested in how we end up using these vehicles, please follow along at www.expeditionutv.com. We'll be doing a similar build on the General very soon.