When we finished packing the gear into our Moose Cargo bag we needed a bit more light for the trip to the tree stand. The stock halogen lights are ok but with the glow of a halogen lamp along with the limited reach of the stock beams we longed for a bright and far reaching HID light. Knowing that HID not only uses less power but gives up twice the light it had to be an add-on that wouldn't get into our way while weaving in and out of the woods on the hunting property. The guys over at Baja Designs sent us their answer to our needs.

The Fuego 4 inch HID lights had just the right size and plenty of the whitest light for our project. The only trouble we encountered here at the shop was there were limited options on the mounting of our lights. If you remember correctly we went over to the Baja ironman Richie Browns shop where he helped us create a light bar to perfectly fit the Outlander 650's front rack. With all of our wiring installed on our workhorse the mounting of the lights was at hand. These little lights have the same ballast and bulb as their bigger brothers and if lighting was ever in question there is simply no option now. During our late night rides in an undisclosed location the Baja Design Fuego was the best light in the trails. Envy set in on most riders but after giving up my source I witnessed a few more of these lights in my favorite after dark riding area.

So with our trails getting the light they needed I thought that maybe a little better traction could be helpful when dragging the firewood out of the woods and over to the barn. If you were thinking that the "workhorse" was just a trailer queen you couldn't be farther from the truth. The viscolock four wheel drive and a combination of leading tire manufacturer Maxxis Bighorn tires mounted on a set of one off OMF Beadlocks made our working stud a bit more macho. Maxxis has had its Bighorn tire on more working class atv's for years and there are also championship trophies on walls of many garages because of this very tire. With a combination of great traction and turf varietys coupled with the low bounce and strength the Bighorn has made its place in the off-road world.

Speaking of our one-off OMF wheels makes me think back to the many choices we had in our world of atv wheels. When I found the OMF adjustable center wheels I thought this had to be the beginning of a great thing. Boy I never knew how true that was going to be. Thanks to the great guys at OMF we had our custom wheels to match our Camo Outlander. The centers as you remember were Hydrographically covered to match the camo pattern on the quad. Man did they look good.

Well you might be asking how these fancy little gems looked after some deep rutted mud puddles and a few large sharp edge rock gardens.

I'm here to tell you that the wheels still look as good as they did when we first got them. This is partially due to the large Maxxis bighorn tires but also to the awesome quality that only OMF can deliver into their wheels. The camo pattern on the wheels never faded and seemed to get all the other hunters attention at camp. I have never been more pleased with a product as this one. And if you haven't noticed, they look awesome!

So when the rubber met the trail with all the gear that a typical hunter might carry with them on the trail the suspension seemed to get a workout real quick. The first thing I could think of was I have to call the great guys at Elka suspension.

Elka had a great new Utility series line for my custom ride and with compression and rebound adjustable shocks I knew the day on the farm was getting even better. After only a few hours of adjustments the CanAm outty 650 had the smoothest ride. Taking the overall ride height down just a bit was concerning but I can tell you the shocks performed flawlessly in all situations. And ground clearance never seemed to be a problem. With the lowered height it seemed to make our workhorse handle better in the tight stuff. After hitting a few hard rocks and unnoticed ditches in the dark I remembered why I like the Elka shocks even more because with the stockers I could have easily gone overboard.

The next big thing would be the addition of an HMF Engineering exhaust to get the most power out of our stock motor with out intruding into the engine itself. HMF sent us one of the utility series pipes and with more going out we needed a TwinAir filter to allow more in. The great guys over at HMF questioned us about the general use and purpose for our quad and their answer was the Utility series pipe. The Twin air filter would not only allow better airflow but with the trick three layer filtration the dusty days wouldn't worry the maintenance guy ever again. Getting the spark arrestor into the HMF pipe made the tone lower and a little quieter and this was a great pipe for our quad because quieter in the woods during hunting season is always better. The power increase was noticeable and right off the bat I felt it in the seat of the pants. I could hear the throaty pull of the cylinders through the Twin Air filter and the throttle became crisper with the combination of these items. During our trips down the trail it was nice to experience the excillerating whip of the throttle when I felt the need.

As a final treat for the CanAm 650 Outlander Max we refered back to the guys at HMF where we found that they had a specifically mapped device that would get our workhorse running at peak performance with all the other changes. The HMF EFI Optimizer was a product that would allow us to deliver the best possible fuel ratio to our 650 engine. The optimizer was easy to install and came preset to a very good base for us to begin the improvements we had set for our project.

Many days and nights were spent in the trails and our workhorse project became the favorite of all the projects we had at our disposal. The CanAm Max had plenty of hauling capabilities and when we needed something with the extra grunt and passenger room this was our choice. The 650 Outlander has come full circle and each and every product we installed on this utility leader performed flawlessly. The only thing left to say is if you need a dependable atv that can haul you and a passenger to the end of the earth the CanAm outlander 650 Max is an obvious choice.

Thanks to all our partners in this project and we hope to start the next project with all new and even more advanced products from these great sponsors.

Sosebee's out