king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Best of 2007 Feb-March 2008 - Index

76
again in high range and with no
differential lock!”
Conquering the beautiful
hills, rocks, roots and mud of
Tennessee was all part of the setup
that makes the new Rhino 700 FI
perform so effortlessly. I did come
to realize very quickly that the mud
bogs in “Volunteer” country are very
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deep and smell really bad. With that
said, I was very grateful for the doors
and realized how much mud and water
they kept out of the cab of the Rhino.
Brush and branches were also defl ected
with ease. Maybe these doors weren’t so
bad after all. The only drawback I found
is that they did make it more diffi cult to
get into the Rhino. The smoothness of
the motor was great and the power
to get through or over obstacles
was never an issue. The wheelbase,
combined with the four-wheel drive
system, really made the Rhino 700
a tremendous hill climber. I don’t
think I fully realized how much I
took for granted the ease of going up
the slippery hills with exposed tree
roots and rocks until I saw a group of
guys on four-wheelers stopped at the
base of a hill. After I cruised up the
hill in the Rhino without thinking
twice about it, I realized that those
guys were actually taking pictures as
I was working my way over a group
of gnarly rocks half-way up the hill.
It might be simple, but
one of my favorite features on the
Rhino was the improved parking
brake. The lever has been extended
to make it easy to pull and the brake
is strong and secure. The braking
system is much better with the dualdisc
brakes in the back. Throw in
the solid Yamaha engine braking
and the big Rhino seems fairly
nimble. Speaking of nimble, one
surprise was not only how the Rhino