Tag Archives: repair

REVIEW: Bubba Rope Lil’ Bubba Recovery Rope

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There are two vital lessons to off-roading that are often learned the hard way. Don’t do any serious riding alone and always, ALWAYS bring a tow rope. Over the past couple of weeks we have put the Lil’ Bubba recovery rope by Bubba Rope to the test and it is certainly one of the best ropes money can buy.

Bubba Rope tow ropes are considered “snatch ropes” because they will stretch and are designed to not just pull, but jerk a stuck vehicle free. This can be especially helpful to overcome the suction effect that mud can have. The elastic also makes the recovery effort smoother for passengers and the vehicles themselves. All Bubba Ropes are made of 100% double braided nylon with a urethane polymer coating. The large loops on both ends are commercially spliced and seized. The ends are then dipped in a high performance elastic polymer coating, a process Bubba Rope calls “Gator-ize.” This coating helps to protect the heavily used loop ends. 

The Lil’ Bubba recovery rope is 1/2″ thick and 20 feet long. It has a breaking strength of an insane 7,400 pounds! That’s way more than enough to get your ATV or side-by-side out of anything. Bubba Ropes have their capacity and other necessary information printed on a label that is attached directly to the rope. Bubba Ropes are also resistant to UV, water and abrasives that are harmful to most tow straps.

We were able to find several testing opportunities for our Lil’ Bubba. Combined with a shackle, the Lil’ Bubba was easier to use than a standard tow strap.  The kinetic energy produced from the jerking motion easily pulled our full-sized ATVs out of the muck. Clean up is as easy as rinsing it off, though don’t expect it to ever look quite as clean as new.

Bubba Ropes come with a strap and a mesh duffel bag for easy carry. MSRP on a Lil’ Bubba is $69.00. The loops, or eyes, of the rope are available in yellow by default. For an extra $20 you can get them in black, orange, green, blue or red. If you tend to get bigger objects stuck they have a rope for that too. Bubba Ropes are available in several diameters and lengths with breaking strengths up to 131,500 pounds.

We’ve all seen the remains of broken ropes and straps around mud holes. Having a Bubba Rope means you won’t have to worry about whether or not you are prepared.

For more details or to purchase see: http://www.bubbarope.com

REVIEW: CV Restorations Monster Axles

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Sometimes bad luck follows you and if its not one thing its another. For ATVs that are out of warranty this can mean costly repairs. Neecy’s Polaris Hawkeye had two failed front outer CV joints wthin a few months time. There was no visible warning before. There were no torn boots, noises or strange feelings when driving. When the first joint failed I went to my mechanic and asked for his recommendation thinking it was time to order a CV joint. He explained that the best deal is a complete axle replacement from The CV Man at CV Restorations. CV Restorations is a manufacturer in Jessup, Maryland. For over 20 years CV Restorations has been manufacturing CV joints, axles and other ATV parts.

broken axle

My mechanic explained that I could spend $100 for a new joint and about that much for labor. All the while, the CV joint and boot on the other side of the axle is wearing away and could also fail at any time. Alternatively, I can spend $200 for a complete CV Restorations Monster Axle. The complete Monster Axle is fully assembled with two CV joints and thick CV boots on the ends of a heavier duty axle than the stock offering. Plus the labor to replace the whole axle is only about half the labor cost to replace a joint. It’s all common sense at this point.

CV Restorations HD Axle

The Monster Axles are no joke. According to CV Restorations, the bars are almost one inch diameter and are constructed of 43/40 cromolly steel. The boots are thicker than stock making them more puncture resistant. Despite the better quality they are still direct replacements for the OEM parts. This means you can replace a broken OEM axle with a Monster Axle and leave the other axles stock. To back up their quality, CV Restorations offers a one year parts warranty on everything but the CV boots.

CV Restorations offers a full line of CV boots, joints, axles and many other driveline parts for virtually every model of ATV made. To check out their Monster Axles and other products see their website at www.thecvman.com.