UTV & Social Media

Does Social Media Influence your UTV decisions?

By Gary Madsen | April 1, 2020

Side x Sides have so many different parts and accessories, along with setups that require a lot of attention to make everything work properly and get maintained.  This is so that you have the best ride experience possible with the least amount of breakdowns or problems.

So, what does this have to do with social media… Facebook and all the many other possibilities.

It is great that we have these platforms to be a part of and to ask our many questions – questions about what will work best, and who has the best deals out there on particular service or parts for your UTV.

But, what I see on the forums is that when questions are asked: let’s say for example “what do I need to have done if I put on larger tires on my UTV? ”  In a matter of minutes, you will have multiple people telling you the best things to do for your problem.

Not only will they tell you what needs to be done, but you also get a lot of people willing to take care of you on the spot and will tell you to get ahold of us, etc.

You will also get many different opinions on what is best for your needs. In fact, they will start telling each other how the other person does not know what they are talking about and here is why.  Sometimes they will start fighting with each other.

You can learn a lot from all of these ideas from all of the contributors. Then decide which is best for you and what you think will fix your problem.

In my opinion, most of the people telling you how to fix or what is best are hobbyists, and maybe they own a UTV and this is what they have done. There are only going to be a very few of the real experts on the forum. So, this is what I look for in a forum or group. I read and determine who is actually the expert in the field, and this is who I am going to go to for my advice.

Polaris XP1000

Polaris XP 1000 in for some service

Polaris Side X Side

Polaris XPT Dynamix Edition

Here is what happened to me in my early years of racing – when our knowledge of the actual race car set up was, let’s say, less than stellar.

If my race car was not handling as good as it should have been, I would go around and ask my fellow racers at the track for their advice about what could be wrong, and what they would recommend changing to get faster lap times.

If I asked six racers there would be six different answers and ideas on what to change. So, I would go back to my team and tell them to change whatever I thought made the most sense to me. This could be incorporating multiple ideas from several racers, and many times we would change multiple things on the race car all at once.

Sometimes it worked, but most times I did not get the results that I was after.

I knew most of the racers at the track and had grown up with many of them… watching, and then racing with them, so I knew who the fast racers were week after week.

When I finally decided to listen to one of the fast, knowledgeable racers and committed to setting my car up accordingly, I started to get the results desired and my top five finishes were becoming the norm.

So, what I am saying about getting all your feedback from social media… it’s all great and fun! But, my suggestion to you is to find someone whom you trust and know that they have lots of knowledge and experience for you to learn from. Start focusing and trusting them on what they have to say for your side x side needs and service. You will find that this will be the best way to get great results and long term reliability.

So, use social media as you will, but know that you should be really careful about who is giving you the information that you are after.  Is it really going to solve your problem, or have you just purchased some Chinese parts because someone told you that they have been so happy with the parts for their own UTV?

Take social media for what it is for. Then seek to find the real gems of content or service businesses that know what they are talking about, and stick with them to get the results you really want.

I have all of my own content on the UTV Service website so please do a little reading and decide for yourself if my values meet up with your riding values. Get on my YouTube channel for more information to help make your decision, and if my company could help you with your side x side needs and service.

Till we ride again.

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