Kawasaki Teryx Long Travel Kits

Posted on November 17, 2013

Kawasaki Teryx’s come stock with fully independent four-wheel suspension: Double-wishbones front and rear deliver 7.5″ offront wheel travel, 7.3″ of rear wheel travel and 11.2″ of ground clearance. All very similar to the Rhino.

Teryx has a 75.8″ wheelbase (same as aRhino), a 115.7″ overall length and are 58.3″ wide (4″ wider than a Rhino and 8″ wider than a RZR).

The Teryx is 4″ wider than a Rhino

If aftermarket suspension manufacturers follow suit and offer +6″ wider per side long travel arms for the Teryx, it would end up at 70.3″ wide. That is almost 6 feet wide!

Specifications:

Front suspension / wheel travel: Adjustable dual A-arm with gas charged shocks / 7.5 in.
Rear suspension / wheel travel: Adjustable Independent Rear Suspension (IRS) with gas charged, reservoir shocks / 7.3 in.

Overall length: 115.7 in.
Overall width: 58.3 in.
Overall height: 75.4 in.
Wheelbase: 75.8 in.
Ground clearance: 11.2 in.

Narrow frame allows for longer a-arms with better geometry

Although long travel kits are far from cheap, they are the bestway to improve your Teryx’s suspension. Approaching the goal of longtravel in steps can result in more expense because stock length shocks will notwork. It is a hard pill to swallow, but if you want to get to long travel,you will save money in the long run by waiting until you can buy a full longtravel kit.

If a long travel kit is just out of reach, but you still want toincrease your track width for more stability in the dunes, you can try offsetwheels and/or wheel spacers.

Most of the long travel kits increase wheeltravel, front and rear track width and stretch the wheelbase. Long travel kitswill be available fromseveral manufacturers.

What is included in a Teryx Long Travel Kit?

Before you go running off to buy one of these long travel kits,it is best to understand what is included so that you can make side by sidecomparisons.

Here is a typical Teryx Long Travel kit. It includes new A-Arms, Axles, Tie-Rod Extensions and Shocks.

A-Arms – A few different types of a-arms are outthere. Most are made from chromoly tubing, others are boxed, and a few aremade from billet aluminum or mild steel. Each material type has pros and cons.Ask questions about why a particular material and arm design was chosen.

Some kits come powder coated in a standard color.Others come unfinished or offer custom colors.

A-Arm Hardware – Inner and outer a-arm hardware istypically replaced. The majority of long travel kits come with new bushings (Delron,Daystar, etc.) on the inner side of the a-arm, but some come with heims. On the outer or spindle side, some kits use heims, others use uni-balls, and afew reuse the OEM ball joint. There are pluses and minuses to each type of setupand quality can vary from heim to heim and bushing to bushing, so ask questions.

Axles – When you extend the wheels out, you are going toneed new axles. There are two approaches to this. The cheaper routeis to reuse the stock CVs and just replace the axles. The more expensive routeis new axles and CVs. Many builders use Gorilla Axles & CVs. Steppingup to Gorilla Axles & CVs will increase strength and is much easier toinstall. The cost to step up to Gorilla Axles and CVs varies, but expect to payup to $1,500 more.

Tie Rods – Some kits come with tie rod extenders. Afew come with new tie rods.

Shocks – All of the kits include new shocks.Several shock manufacturers have developed Teryx specific shocks, so there aremany options and prices out there. Long travel kit manufacturers will tend tohave a favorite. If you don’t want to mess around with shock valving, stick withwhat the manufacturer recommends. Shock selection can greatly affect not onlythe cost, but also the performance of the kit.

Front Shock Tower – Optional frontshock towers that moves the upper shock mount location up and out and allows for a longershock and morewheel travel. Some welding may be necessary.

Spindles – Stock spindles aren’t typically replaced, buta few manufacturers are now offering new spindles as an option. If you race orlike to jump, you may want to look into new spindles.

Frame Gussets – Long travel kits put more stress on thefactory mounting locations. Several manufacturers are now offering bolt-on orweld-on gussets to help beef up the stock frame in critical areas. The Teryx frame is pretty stout, so you won’t see as much for the Teryx as you do for the RZR or Rhino.

Other things to ask:

Does the kit affect ride height? This not only affects how the Teryx will handle, but also if it will make it inside your toy hauler.
Make sure your kit is “bolt-on” with no welding required.
Will my OEM wheels will fit? Some of the Teryx kits will not work with OEM wheel.
Will the OEM rear sway bar work?
Does the kit put extra stress on OEM parts that do not get replaced?

Kawasaki Teryx Long Travel Kits

Cognito Motorsports

Status: Available

A-Arm width: +5″ Per side
Wheelbase: +1″ rearward
Wheel travel: 14″
Shocks: FOX
Axles: Summers Brothers

CST Performance Suspension

Status: Available

A-Arm width: +3″ Per side
Wheelbase: No change
Wheel travel: 12″
Shocks: Standard travel
Axles:
Custom Creations

Status: Available

A-Arm width: +6″
Wheelbase: + 2 1/2″ – 1 1/4″ front and 1 1/4″ in the rear
Wheel travel:
Shocks: Sway Away with Air Shocks or Coilover Springs
Axles: Summers Brothers