New to the site, not to the industry

Hi, my name is Eric Fandrich and I am new here however I have been working in and out of the UTV industry as a fabricator since around 2006. I am 26 years old and love the desert and off-road racing. I actually grew up no more than 100 yards from the top side of Bee Canyon Road where it meets HWY 243 in Pine Cove, CA. In fact, that is where I am signing in from right now.

I have been involved in the off-road industry since 2002 and have been fabricating since 2005. I got my start in the UTV side of things when I got a job at RUV. I worked there for literally 1 week when I realized how much of a joke the place was and took on an offer to work for Kyle and Jason Taylor as their production Rhino cage builder, their company was called RhinoTech. I only stayed there about 4 months until I couldn't stand the shop "foreman" anymore and went and talked to my good friend Scott at Desertworks. I worked for Scott for 3 years and we are still good friends till this day. He gave me the chance to start doing custom fab and I had allot of fun working for him. Myself and Scott built the cage for the very first standard RZR that was delivered to Montclair Yamaha which was finished and painted just in time for the Sand Sports show in '07. After 3 years I left Desertworks, not because of Scott but because I was burnt out on building UTV's and went and did my own thing for a year working with a friend as well as working for another pretty big off-road company.

I have built hundreds of UTV's of every make and model, and until recently I haven't been interested in them at all, I have always been a fullsize guy. I started working at Pro Armor with Paul in the R&D department about 6 months ago and since the inception of the RZR XP900 I have really grown to like UTV's and I plan on getting my own XP in the summer. I guess taking a break from the UTV industry was good for me, I am now happy to work on them again and enjoy what I do every day.

I apologize for the lengthy post. Good to be here.
 

vsanchez

New Member
Apr 10, 2011
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Hi, my name is Eric Fandrich and I am new here however I have been working in and out of the UTV industry as a fabricator since around 2006. I am 26 years old and love the desert and off-road racing. I actually grew up no more than 100 yards from the top side of Bee Canyon Road where it meets HWY 243 in Pine Cove, CA. In fact, that is where I am signing in from right now.

I have been involved in the off-road industry since 2002 and have been fabricating since 2005. I got my start in the UTV side of things when I got a job at RUV. I worked there for literally 1 week when I realized how much of a joke the place was and took on an offer to work for Kyle and Jason Taylor as their production Rhino cage builder, their company was called RhinoTech. I only stayed there about 4 months until I couldn't stand the shop "foreman" anymore and went and talked to my good friend Scott at Desertworks. I worked for Scott for 3 years and we are still good friends till this day. He gave me the chance to start doing custom fab and I had allot of fun working for him. Myself and Scott built the cage for the very first standard RZR that was delivered to Montclair Yamaha which was finished and painted just in time for the Sand Sports show in '07. After 3 years I left Desertworks, not because of Scott but because I was burnt out on building UTV's and went and did my own thing for a year working with a friend as well as working for another pretty big off-road company.

I have built hundreds of UTV's of every make and model, and until recently I haven't been interested in them at all, I have always been a fullsize guy. I started working at Pro Armor with Paul in the R&D department about 6 months ago and since the inception of the RZR XP900 I have really grown to like UTV's and I plan on getting my own XP in the summer. I guess taking a break from the UTV industry was good for me, I am now happy to work on them again and enjoy what I do every day.

I apologize for the lengthy post. Good to be here.


Hello Eric,

Unlike you, I'm new to both the site and the sport. I plan to be roaming around here asking the experts for advice (I'm a rookie/newbie/don't know much about anything). I need this advice because my senior project involves a new design concept for a custom Rhino. In your post you mentioned that you built custom Rhino cages,if you don't mind me asking, what materials did you use and how did you decide on the geometry of the cage?

Hope all is well.
-Victor
 
A good material to use for a rollcage would be 1018 or 1026 1.75" DOM tubing. Cage design is not very complicated on a Rhino. Build the main basic structure of the cage and then triangulate the areas that are squares or rectangles. You do not need allot of tubing because Rhino's are heavy and not very fast.

Just look at pictures on this site and see what you like and what you don't like and what may look like a good design.
 

DUNE DUMMY 29

OG Sticker Man - UTVUnderground La Familia
Feb 28, 2009
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www.planetsidexside.com
A good material to use for a rollcage would be 1018 or 1026 1.75" DOM tubing. Cage design is not very complicated on a Rhino. Build the main basic structure of the cage and then triangulate the areas that are squares or rectangles. You do not need allot of tubing because Rhino's are heavy and not very fast.

Just look at pictures on this site and see what you like and what you don't like and what may look like a good design.
CHECK OUT LSRGREG'S CAGE. IT IS THE BEST LOOKING CAGE I HAVE SEEN ON A RHINO SR1. IT IS RADIUSED.
 

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