RidgeRunner frame repair

[wolverine350r]

I am a owner. you can look at my build thread on here. Drive train is out of early 2000s Polaris sportsman atvs. 4x4 efi. They reuse most of the rear drive train. Engine, trans, diff, both clutches, rear bearing carrier, hubs, brakes. They basic option axles are just the cut and lengthened stokers. Or you could do like I did and have gorilla axles installed. I am not sure what your time line for repairs is. But over the course of the remainder of this year my buggy will be going under the knife and getting a complete remodel including new wider suspension front and rear as well as a power plant swap. So I will be getting rid of my stock parts as I replace them. Basically the complete suspension will be replaced. So I will be looking to get rid of parts as I do this.

Last I talked to Bruce, (the now owner of RidgeRunner, former lead fabricator) He has a extra frame already built. And he still has the frame jigs. He has the ability to build any of the ridge runner specific parts you may need. I still live in the area and talk to him from time to time. I had him do some frame repair work for me year before last.

I hope this information helps some. I have been through a lot of stuff with my buggy. I bought it new and worked out many of the bugs that builds after mine benefitted from.

Thanks hansshanks, I'm not sure how I missed this post. I pulled mine a little further apart the other day and found some more disappointment. I looks like the hit to the rear tire tweaked the entire rear end. The two bars that mount the lower arms are not parallel with the rest of the chassis. I am planning to have a fabricator friend look at it and see if he thinks we can repair/replace that section. At this point it may be time to look into a custom chassis (or new chassis, any idea on the price??), we will see.

Make sure to update your thread, I'd really like to see what you are doing with yours.

[hansshanks]

I will try to get a hold of Bruce and see if he still has the frame and how much he wants for it.

[wolverine350r]

I will try to get a hold of Bruce and see if he still has the frame and how much he wants for it.

Thanks, I imagine it will be out of my range with shipping, but you never know.

[hansshanks]

I just talked to Bruce on the phone. He said he would like 2500 for the frame. I don't know what shipping would be.

[wolverine350r]

Thank you, I am going to have my guy take a look at my frame in the next week and see what he thinks and I will go from there.

[hansshanks]

made some updates to my build thread.

https://www.minibuggy.net/forum/proje...tml#post304588

[thirstyb37]

I used to have two of these Ridge Runners. Loved both of them. I guess my 1st question would be did you not know or look at this before you bought it? Not that it really matters, but thought I would ask.
It looks bad at 1st look, but if you have a "Fabrication" buddy, not some friend that has a cracker box welder, but a true Fabricator, should be no problem. As Hansshanks said these are jig built tube frame and are very nice, imo. They take engine, trans, rear diff and electrical from donor Polaris 4 wheeler. Hopefully you received two titles when you purchased? One from Ridge Runner and the other from Polaris. Engine will have Model and serial number on it and majority of parts are available from Polaris. BUT there are some that will def require some fabrication. I absolutely loved mine, but my Son, who is 9 now decided he wanted to go race Jr. Sprints, so away all of our off road toys went. A bunch of the stuff you will find on google search of Ridge Runner RTX is stuff I have posted. Don't be scared of it. Key is to get the right "Fabricator" and you are in. It is a real shame that Ridge Runner could not keep this deal going. He just ran out of cash flow from what I understand. Everywhere that we went I had to tell everyone what it was. Mine road like a Cadillac. Sure there were a few problems, but nothing you would not expect out of an off road buggy. These are truly very well built and far from any Chinese junk out there today. Hope you get it going and good luck to you!

[wolverine350r]

Sorry, I don't log in often.

To answer your first question, yes and no. I went to look at a complete un-wrecked RR. What I found was a rolled RR with the price cut in half. I didn't initially realize how bad the back frame was (I figured $1k at most to fix it all) so I went ahead and bought it - then every time I went deeper into it I found a new issue.

My fabricator is a true fabricator and has built desert race buggies among other things, but time being in short supply we still haven't gotten around to working on the RR. The weather is supposed to drop the heat off a bit in the coming weeks so maybe something will finally get done. I only got the buggy title, but it registered up just fine. I am aware of the parts sourcing and I have an in at Polaris so I can get those parts for it a bit cheaper.

I am really interested in what hansshanks is going to do to his with the RZR suspension as I had thought this might be the way to go initially.

[dpotter649]

Hi are you still in touch with Bruce I wrecked my 2005 RR and bent the front clip... the right front wheel sits about 2 inches further back than the left front. Any thoughts?

[K-fab]

Hi are you still in touch with Bruce I wrecked my 2005 RR and bent the front clip... the right front wheel sits about 2 inches further back than the left front. Any thoughts?

He's not been here since 2019.

So, you tweaked the subframe, eh? You can fix it with a couple of jacks and a come-a-long.

Post up pix of the damage - get a front shot and if you can one from underneath and we'll see what's bent and come up with a plan to straighten stuff.

I've been down this road with an XP900. You basically use the a-arms as levers to bend the frame section that they attach to back in place. Pix and we'll get ya back on the road.