My rugged setup for my maverick

[Tzenev]

Just thought I would share my setup that I am installing right now.

At dunefest rugged was offering killer deals so I picked up a 686 intercom with behind the head headsets, their 5 watt handheld radio, can-am mount, and all the cables I needed.

While we were still over there me and two other friends just ran the radios connected straight to the headsets, anyone looking to do it cheaply that is an awesome way to go, you could get the baofeng uv-5r radios and cheaper headsets or helmet kits and run that. We were able to get about a 2 mile range running like that. Pretty good for the Oregon dunes cause you are running in the trees a lot of the times on trails.

Since we've got back I'm putting in the intercom, and making a mount for two Ptt buttons on the steering wheel, one will be for the radio and the other will be for a horn ( yea I rock a Dixie horn on my maverick). I will mount my 5 watt handheld radio on the left hand side of my steering wheel and am planning on getting an external antenna to run on the roofs to get a little better performance out of it. Eventually I will upgrade to the 50 watt vertex but the handheld will do for now.

Once I get it all finished up and use it I will let you guys know how I like it! Thanks to Greg and the guys at rugged radios for answering all my questions and hooking me up with an awesome product. Once you drive with car to car communications you won't go without it!

 

[megadesertdiesel]

Talking shit to your buddies while dunning makes the ride that much better. There is nothing like calling out you buddy for taking a shortcut to miss the nasty hills. Or calling out the witches eyes.

+1 for Rugged Radios

 

[Tzenev]

Talking shit to your buddies while dunning makes the ride that much better. There is nothing like calling out you buddy for taking a shortcut to miss the nasty hills. Or calling out the witches eyes.



+1 for Rugged Radios

Exactly! Nothing better!

 

[M@VR!CK]

I dig it! I've been looking for something similar.

 

[Toyskinz]

This is a sick set up, we always take something like this to the St Anthony dunes. One thing we noticed is that there is no wrap on your ride yet! Check us out and we can get you fully set up on a kit for that maverick no problem! Happy riding!

 

[RuggedRadios]

It was great being out there at Dunefest, had a friggin blast! This is sick. Cant wait to see it finished up! Definitely give us a call or shoot me a PM if you ever need anything!

 

[Tzenev]

It was great being out there at Dunefest, had a friggin blast! This is sick. Cant wait to see it finished up! Definitely give us a call or shoot me a PM if you ever need anything!

Ok sounds good. I'm wanting to get another Ptt button for a horn button. What do you guy have? Would like for it to be on a coil cord.

 

[NIKAL]

This is close to the very setup we are putting in our group of 4 UTV's. We have been buying our Rugged equipment piece by piece over this off season. I got my 660 intercom when they had a demo on the clearance page. The others got theirs when Rugged had intercom specials. We bought the handhelds when Rugged was have a big sale on them. Bought the PTT when they had a buy one get one free. Bought the cables & jumper wires when they had the Forum Appreciation 15% off sale. Some of use still need to finish getting our helmet kits.

Overall we have saved a bunch of money, and by piecing it out it has only been a few buck here & there at a time, vs a big chuck of cash all at once. Which then has to be explained to the wives!

The reason we chose the handheld radio vs a full race radio, was we all ride together and are never more then a mile apart. The compactness of the handheld gave us more mounting options. One less item to have to hard wire in the RZR's. Some in our group do desert motorcycle rides. The helmets kits & handheld radios can be used on the motorcycles with the addition of the motorcycle wiring kit. And when we caravan to and from the desert or river we can use the handhelds in the RV's. Oh and the cost of the handheld is a small fraction of what the full radio cost and we are going to be able to use them in more places.

 

[Tzenev]

This is close to the very setup we are putting in our group of 4 UTV's. We have been buying our Rugged equipment piece by piece over this off season. I got my 660 intercom when they had a demo on the clearance page. The others got theirs when Rugged had intercom specials. We bought the handhelds when Rugged was have a big sale on them. Bought the PTT when they had a buy one get one free. Bought the cables & jumper wires when they had the Forum Appreciation 15% off sale. Some of use still need to finish getting our helmet kits.

Overall we have saved a bunch of money, and by piecing it out it has only been a few buck here & there at a time, vs a big chuck of cash all at once. Which then has to be explained to the wives!

The reason we chose the handheld radio vs a full race radio, was we all ride together and are never more then a mile apart. The compactness of the handheld gave us more mounting options. One less item to have to hard wire in the RZR's. Some in our group do desert motorcycle rides. The helmets kits & handheld radios can be used on the motorcycles with the addition of the motorcycle wiring kit. And when we caravan to and from the desert or river we can use the handhelds in the RV's. Oh and the cost of the handheld is a small fraction of what the full radio cost and we are going to be able to use them in more places.

That's the another reason we went with hand helds. We use them on the quads and when we are traveling as well.

 

[Tzenev]

A little update in my intercom/radio install.

Got the handheld radio mounted. I just used some smaller rubber grommets to space it out from the dash to the radio will still clip on the mount like it it supposed to, worked pretty good.

To run the cables for the headsets I decided to go down the driver side rocker pannel to keep it away from the heat of the motor and exhaust. Then brought the cables upright beside the driver seat and ran the passenger cable across behind the plastic between the seat and the rack in the bed area. Found it easiest to run the cables through the headset to kind of keep them contained. Eventually I will upgrade to the cables with their offroad plugs just for convenience.

Only a few things left of the to do list, #1 is cut out my Ptt button mount for the steering wheel( should get that done today), #2 is find a nice sturdy iPhone mount for when my phone is connected to the intercom, #3 is get some sort of external antenna, not really a need I would just like to have a little big more range if I needed it. Most likely won't, when we ride we are never very far apart but it wouldn't hurt to have.

I did play around a little bit with the intercom a little bit. I am very impressed with it, really nice unit. I have my phone plugged into the auxiliary port in the back, so I can listen to music and take phone calls. Talking on the phone over the intercom is very clear in the headsets and the person I was talking to said it was very clear. The music was also very clear and had plenty of volume. One thing I noticed though is it did not cut out when I started talking. I will have to mess with it a little more. But overall I am very very pleases with ruggeds product!

 

[Tzenev]

Another update, got my steering wheel mount made and installed.

I also ordered a new headset, got the h42 ultimate headset. My original one was the standard h42. The differences between the two is the ultimate has their comfort kit on it which has gel pads, cloth cover, and a foam mic cover. It is also hard wired with a coil cord and their off road plugs, also have a different mic boom.

Headed to the dunes on the 22nd for my bachelor party, will give you guys a little review of everything when I get back.

 

[Tzenev]

Well i had an awesome bachelor party and got to use my rugged setup a lot over the weekend. My thoughts on my setup are that it rocks! The 686 intercom is killer, It has plenty of volume and vox adjustments, is really clear even without the DSP Chip (might upgrade to that in the future) even on the beach going around 65mph with the high wind it hardly affected it at all. I ran my Iphone plugged into the back auxiliary port so i could listen to music and also talk over the phone. Phone calls come over the headsets clear and you can definitely blast your music as loud as you want. I have the regular h42 headsets and a h42 ultimate headset. Both are awesome but it is really nice having the longer coil cord on the ultimate, so i will be getting a coil cord with the off road plug and the correct adapter needed to run it. Now for the Rh-5r handheld radio, it worked really well, never had a problem talking to other cars or getting out of range on the rides we went on. in the oregon dunes you really never get to far apart. We used them in the pickups when we were traveling there and back as well, so they are very handy to have. I will be adding an external antenna on my maverick and also adding the battery eliminator kit so i don't have to worry about the battery dying. Even though the battery life on the radio is very good. I also added my ppt button on the steering wheel, i highly recommend to everyone. It makes it way easier to go car to car while driving hard. Overall i am very pleased with my setup and have a bit more fine tuning and a few more little cables and accessories to get and it will be dialed in. Once you drive with and Intercom and car to car communications you will never go back. Makes it way more fun to talk shit to your buddies while riding and also makes it more safe to warn them of things coming up. Thank you Rugged Radios for the awesome product and all the help getting me setup.

 

[RuggedRadios]

Bumping this thread due to high level of awesomeness. How's married life Trevor?

 

[Tzenev]

Haha thanks man! It's awesome! Having a killer time in Hawaii. Maui is an awesome place! We leave tomorrow to come home. I'm itching to get back out to the dunes to go ride.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RuggedRadios]

That's great man, glad to hear you're having a good time.