Yamaha Motor US is "auto shipping" door kits to its dealers as part of a "product update campaign".

The entire Technical Bulletin (SXS2007-006) will not be made available to the dealers until tomorrow. I don't know what "announcement" entails until this information is made available to the dealers.

Now they need to announce more power and better handling!

From what I hear, not in the cards.

But I could be wrong.

700 fi motor is reality, but more speed or hp, likely not going to happen.

Its looking like a new motor, doors, and colors.

watch for a few more add on's

More of a leg minder than a door is what I heard.

The Technical Bulletin (SXS2007-006) and letter from Yamaha to Rhino customers.

Click to view attachment

What's that old saying?


"Might as well close the barn door since the cows are all gone."


or more appropriately, "might as well ship out some doors now that we're being sued for millions..."

Hey......so, Yamaha does something to do some damage control, and prevent further injuries obtained by people being stupid in the first place, and they still can't get a "that's cool" or "hey, those are nice doors they are giving out for free"? Those ARE nice doors.....they aren't some slapped together piece of tubing - they are fully functional with hinges and everything.......

Did they arise out of trying to protect themselves from people who drive to the point of dumping themselves over? YES. But seriously, why knock it?

Well put!

Looks like I have alot of doors available to me.

I haven't seen the doors, so I'm not going to comment on whether they are nice or not, for obvious reasons.


However, I am aware that a number of people have been permanently maimed or killed due to driving these Rhinos on sloping terrain and the lack of a door has contributed to the problem. Yamaha should have done extensive product testing prior to releasing the product and during this testing the instability of the vehicle should have been very obvious. They probably rolled them more than a couple of times and at that point, they should have installed doors on all of them before the very first one was sold.

I don't think anyone can argue that point. Hence my comments about it being a little late to offer doors. It doesn't help bring anyone back to life or correct the maiming they suffered. There's a good reason there is so much product liability litigation in this country. Because a lot of the major mfrs are willing to risk your life or knowingly sacrifice your life for the sake of saving $1. Previous examples include but are not limited to: the exploding Pinto gas tanks, the exploding truck saddle tanks, ALL seats produced for ALL American made cars until NHTSA testing comfirmed the problem, Ford Explorer instability, etc.

I know more people that have killed themselves on quads and atc's and two wheelers and sand rails than Rhinos. Accidents are accidents and idiots are idiots. Product development is just that development. Yamaha looked at an underutilized segment in the market and capitalized on that. No one else in the market offered side doors before yamaha came to maket and they are the first to offer this type of door at all. Plus they will upgrade my rhino that I bought two years ago for free, hell I wont complain

Way to step up, Yamaha. I like the doors too, and was already planning on having some installed, but free is waaaay better.

From what I know, Yamaha tests machines extensively, for long periods of time, before releasing them to the public. Perhaps they just had good drivers testing them, or perhaps they didn't take them to the dunes originally (what hunters are in the dunes?) or run them extensively in sideways, offcamber situations? Perhaps they gave people too much credit in that they felt a consumer could see that there was no side protection, and perhaps they wouldn't take their rhino into situations where it might tip over. The Rhino was the first machine of it's kind - how could they know where people would try to take them, and even GUESS that people would be trying to sidehill these things in the dunes or do some of the insane things people do with them?

I personally know MANY MANY rhino owners...normal owners - not racers......normal owners who have managed to ride the snot out of their rhinos, and somehow AVOIDED dumping them on their side. How do they do this? By NOT doing things they figure the rhino may not be able to handle. By common sense.

I'd hate to be a manufacturer.....I'd hate to come out with something cool and fun....and give human kind the benefit of the doubt that they woudn't do things they shouldn't with what I've created.....and then, find out just what people WILL do when they aren't thinking. And then get sued for this fun thing I have made, when someone took it somewhere, or did something with it that I didn't originally intend for it to do.......and got hurt. I am just THANKFUL that there are still companies out there who try, and who come up with MY TOYS, despite being sued at every turn, for every mistake their customers make.

SO - THANK YOU YAMAHA, and HONDA, and everyone else! Thanks for taking a chance in this SUE HAPPY, NO COMMON SENSE WORLD and making me some cool a$$ toys so my life isn't SO BORING!

These doors are good - good for ALOT of people. THANK YOU!

I was looking at around 300.00 for some new doors for my wifes, now I have 300.00 more to waste on other chit

Just spoke with a dealer wouldn't confirm anything said he heard they might be adding doors
asked about retro fitting rhino's already sold said they would now more in late September. If they
are free that would be great!!!

Those doors look f-ing SWEET!

seat belts were an option for a lllooonnnggg time in cars. It took the car manufactures alot longer to fix their problem!!!

wow looks like I'll have about 25 of these things available to me.....LOL

wow thats pretty cool

probably just about killed the market for the guys selling the $600+ set of doors, I know if I had those I would have re-thought buying my doors.

Sounds like a crappy dealer. I already have a service ticket open even though they are waiting for the doors to arrive.

My opinion is Yamaha made these as utility vehicles and what we turned them into is something much more demanding. It took them a while to realize this problem with the sport use and then accidents was just getting bigger.

well said

were they waring helmets? did they stick there legs out?
should they have been on a sloping hill if they were
new to rhinos? was it their first time riding one?

gee i wonder how long and how many deaths it took hair dryer makers to
put warning labels to not use them near sinks or in bathtubs

it seems simple stupid but their are just some people out there
that are too stupid to live- yamaha cant prevent some idiot driving
beyond his ability while he isnt wearing a helmet or with his seatbelt.

look at offroadryan, he is building a homgrown race rhino with crap suspension
and he is still using a hair dryer to apply stickers

Some good pionts Corey.

Yes Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawi, Honda....etc. test their vehicles for several months and even years. Alot of times they are so focused on meeting performance targets/criteria that they overlook the obvious. As a test rider, it's easy to quickly learn the shortcomings of a vehicle and then put that behind you and feel that most customers won't experience that same situation, or drive/ride the vehicle at the same level that you just did.

As for only having good drivers test them. I agree with that, but the problem with the Rhino is that it has certain traits in which the machine reacts so unpredictably that even the best put them on thier lids. When the Rhino first came out, I knew of at least 3 people in the industry that were seriously hurt by them. Broken arms, legs, ankles, shoulders, etc. And these weren't suits.....they were test riders for other manufacturers in the US and Japan. And they were'nt doing stupid things, just driving the machine in situations in which they thought it would be fine.

Unfortunately, being in the industry you see and hear of alot of the lawsuits from customers. It's amazing what people do with machines, and then sue the manufacturer because they were negligent in their design/testing/marketing. A classic example is the label on PWC's that basically says keep your "orifices" away from the jet pump outlet....yeah, no duh....but somebody ended up with some water where it shouldn't have gone and blamed the manufacturer for not telling them NOT to do it!!!! It's people that sue for the stupidest reasons that hurt it for everybody else. Would Yamaha throw a fire breathing motor in it's Rhino to claim the most top speed in the UTV segment?? I'm sure they'd like to, but then the suits in the law department say nope....some yahoo will probably get hurt....we need to detune the motor for that machine.....

I'm not sure what design changes were made from prototype to production, but I am very aware of the primary design company who worked with Yamaha on this project and know they are one of the finest companies of its kind in the business.

They do chassis engineering and design work for many OEM's including major car companies.

I'm not too sure there is some inherent design or engineering flaw in the Rhino but rather folks doing things that the machine was never engineered to do. One needs to remember the market intended for the Rhino ie: work vehicle, hunting, and rather slow speed recreation.

I really don't believe Yamaha ever dreamed of this thing being a hit in the southwest, especially as a dune vehicle.
Just look when they came out in 2004. The vast majority of the machines were sold (and likely still are) in the mid-west and southeast US.

Allocation numbers for US dealers were based upon Grizzly sales in the early years. Precisely where both vehicles have big sales numbers.

And, I'm told from well placed folks in Yamaha Motor US that the testing from Yamaha was done exclusively in the east and southeast part of the US. This in itself kinda backs up what I'm providing about vehicle intent by the manufacture.

And most posters here are right on. The issues today with the vehicle has more to do with the operator than the vehicle in itself. Heck, most folks we see don't read the owners manual and often remove the warning stickers/plates.

In all, the move by Yamaha is in the best interest of both the customer and the manufacture.

I'd expect this move (along with the lawsuits) might just raise the price of the 2008 models nearly $ 500.00 per unit. Time will tell as the intro for these models is less than a month away.

Sometimes....I like to close my eyes and imagine I live in a world with no lawyers.......where manufacturers can put their incredible resources to great use, and design some SERIOUSLY COOL ****! And SELL it!!! And I could buy it, and have a GREAT time.......then I wake up, and go out to my underpowered, detuned little playtoys and am forced to face reality...... And then I look at my sv1000 rhino, and smile......

Can't wait to see the 08's, btw! Even if it's just small changes, Yamaha always has some cool new stuff....

Well, open your eyes and thank God there are lawyers, because if they weren't there to sue negilgent mfrs, you'd probably be dead right now.

Everyone who produces a product has only one goal in mind. Profits. Not your safety. Just profits. Look at the pet food deaths, look at the pharmaceutical companies, look at the auto mfrs.

When the NHTSA first started testing cars, they discovered the Pinto fuel tank problem and all American made cars had serious problems with the seat frames breaking in a rear impact. The driver and passenger would then fly out thru the rear window and get incinerated on the rear of the car. Fact. Deal with it.

At the time Mercedes Benz was the ONLY auto mfr who made seats that did not break in a collision. When they interviewed a MB engineer how much it cost to make the seat stronger, he said $1 per seat. When he was aksed why the other mfrs didn't spend the extra $2 per car to save the lives of their customers, he said he wouldn't speculate on that. But he did say that MB was willing to spend a lot more than $2 per car to save lives and wanted the customer to survive the crash and come back to buy another MB from them. Fact.

My mom has rheumatoid arthritis and she was given a lot of experimental medications over the years. She was not told that they had not been in use for a long period, and although they gave her a sheet of paper wit hpossible symptoms, she couldn't read it because the fine print on the poster was microscopic. But she blindly trusted that the doctors knew what they were doing and the pharmaceutical companies were honest.

After a while, she started to get weird symptoms, and I investigated. Some of the side effects included pneumonia, heart attacks, liver failure, increased osteoporsis, dizziness, destruction of the immune system and possible death. She ended up switching to different meds. But now, she has no immune system left and her liver was permanently damaged, along with an extreme case of osteoporosis.

Why? Because the pharmaceutical comanies pay the doctors to use the drugs on patients, even if the side effects may be pretty horrible. The drug comany's greed and the doctor's greed over came any desire to cure or lessen her symptoms. Now she has a LOT more problems than when she started. Fact.


If it weren't for the threat of lawsuits for product liability or shoddy research, we'd have even more people killed from poorly designed cars, cheaply made products and dangerous, poorly tested drugs. We'd all be living in a much more dangerous world.

I agree that people should learn how to drive a UTV, that people should take responsibility for their own actions. But eventually you have ot trust that the drugs your doc gave you are safe or the UTV was designed well, and too often, we find out it's not true because greed is a lot more powerful a motivator.

That was pretty much my entire point. I guess everyone approaches certain things in life with very individual defenses drawn from their own personal experiences.....

I must be a lucky person, because my experiences have been good ones - even when I crashed my brains out many times racing my YFZ......I never pointed fingers at anyone but me. Maybe it's just a pride thing.....but I am the only one responsible for what I decide to do.




P.S.....I'm truly sorry to hear about your mom.......

I think what 450 is sayin is that too many people sue for frivolous things (1.5 million for hot coffee in your lap) If you go too fast while you are turning and your Rhino tips over, did yamaha say to stick your foot out to atempt to break your fall. People need to start takin responsiblity for their actions

Are you claiming Yamaha designed a shoddy product So Cal?

Beyond that.


I'm saying that Yamaha is admitting that they should have produced the Rhino with doors on it. It costs millions of $$ to produce and distribute doors to retrofit on products already on the streets. They're not doing it out of kindness or charity.

Mostly out of product liability exposure. Maybe 20% out of goodwill. But the bottom line is they wouldn't produce it and spend the money if it didn't need it and they didn't need to cover their corporate asses.


Remember the 2001 Raptor? Weak 2nd gear, only had 2 dogs on it. The 2002 and later Raptors got 4 dogs on the gear.


But if you took an 01 back to Yamaha with a broken 2nd gear, they wouldn't take responsibility for it, they charged you to repair it, even though the part they replaced it with was the newly re-engineered gear with 4 dogs.

So where was the extensive product testing on the Raptor? Who knows? They changed the design only AFTER they got tons of them back for repair and the online forums were buzzing about the problem.

Look at the Yamaha 450 quad... a lot of the engines have been blowing up from some kind of oiling problem. They have a fix for it now, but you don't see them stepping up to repair any engines for free.

We all agree that there shouldn't be frivolous lawsuits. But with a product like a Rhino, you get into a grey area. Was the person going too fast? How? The machine goes as fast as it was designed to.

Is the machine not stable enough for the speeds it is capable of? I think there is the key. The mfr has a responsibility to make the machine safe under whatever circumstances it may normally be used under. Farms have uneven terrain, and the Rhino can go fast enough and more importantly, is top heavy enough, to be a pretty unstable vehicle.

Based on posts on this board, more Rhino owners have rolled their vehicles than have not rolled them. Natural instinct is to put your foot or arm out.

Knowing those 2 things, if I were designing the Rhino, I would have put a side net on it before selling it. People can take it off if it's too restrictive, but at least I'm covered from a liability standpoint.

I've raced for many years in off-road race cars. I can't think of a time pre-running or racing when we got out of shape or on the roof any instinct like what you have provided.

More to the point, I'm trying to remember a golf cart that has doors.

Just look at most NASCAR tracks. There is usually a vendor who rents golf carts. No doors.

The bottom line here is its the responsibility of the driver to operate the vehicle in a safe manner.

damn max, those are some of the most intelligent sounding posts I've ever seen next to your name, you were the only member that I blocked posts from cause I thought you were a rhino hater that waited on every pointless opportunity to bash rhinos in any way. thanks for the real input.

Yeah it sounds great but I want them to send me the $400.00 my doors cost me. I don't own it anymore and if they send me a letter I will just laugh at it. The good thing is I have friends that have them and they need doors so now they don't have to buy them.

I might not be the smartest guy in the world but I at least figured out that my Rhino needed doors before Yamaha. Take your stock Rhino and put your hands on the upper cage and push it back and forth and watch the wheels come off the ground. Add wheels with more offset, wheel spacers, or a long travel kit and it makes it much more stable but hmmm what about my feet comming out of the tub? Guess all of us with doors should call Yamaha and ask for royalties or something because we are smarter then the engineers at Yamaha.

Buy the way I understand that the Rhino was designed to be used on the farm to haul hay but the minute it hit the good old open desert or sand why did they not do it then? I've seen Yamaha with a display at the SSSS for the last couple years and I even asked them why they don't put leg minders on them stock and not as an after market ad on. It sure would have saved them some money!

You are right, no manufacture or company does anything out of the kindness of thier hearts. The problems is both sides have lawyers, and if you have one lawyer suing over a precevied product flaw, you have a lawyer on the other side telling them the best way to limit liabiility for them... The problem is people started suing over being stupid and the people who really had problems were stuck in the swirling wind of Lawyer BS.

Were doors neccesary, depends on your plan on using your Rhino! Was it up to Yamaha to supply them, yes and no, not standard bit as an accessory.

I liked the choices from the aftermarket better than the Yamaha "doors". I would still rather have my Desertworks doors than ones I'll be getting from Yamaha. My campaign doors will be going in the garage just because I want my freebies!

As far as your Raptor woes.. Since your Raptor had a white line warranty (once it crosses the white line on the road it's over) it would have been goodwill for Yamaha to fix your Raptor, and if you don't ask for you aren't going to get it or if you tell them "I'll never buy another Yamaha"...

Oh and Steve, I'm sorry about your Mom.. We are dealing with the same kind of issues with my Mother and Mother-in-law.

Just an FYI I just called my dealer and am dropping off the Rhino tomorrow and will be picking it up on Saturday.

I'm all for free doors and actually like the looks of them.

As for all the Rhino bashing... what's next, training wheels on dirt bikes? Come on people. A Rhino never hurt anyone. People driving Rhinos over their head hurt THEMSELVES. Simple as that.

I do think they should have had doors from day one, but they didn't. So people should drive them accordingly. No different than three-wheelers. A bunch of idiots that crashed all the time killed the fun for those of us that rode them like they were supposed to be ridden.

As for natural instincts, some people do it, some of us can control our instincts better. But I still have wrist restraints for all 4 seats in my rail. Because I believe in them and I don't want to get sued by anyone riding in my rail if the unthinkable happens. I don't give them a choice. Wear the wrist restraints, and they will prevent injury to your hands or arms, regardless of what you try to do. Of the people that I dune with, there are very few of them who don't have wrist restraints.

I have a golf cart and it has no doors. Nor does it have a roll cage or seat belts.

I've never rolled it, and I don't take it where I could roll it. It's just a camp cruiser. If I did get sideways on a hill and it started to roll, I'd just step off of it and get away as it flopped over.

You just proved my point.


If Yamaha thinks they need them now, they are admitting that they always needed them, from day one, but neglected to put them on. Admitting negligence can cost you a lot in court.

It REALLY would have been cheaper for Yamaha to put the doors on from the beginning.

I never said I owned a 2001 Raptor.

I did my homework and bought a 2003 Raptor, after I was positive the gearbox problem was fixed. It always ran great, only gave me 1 problem. The rear caliper dragged so badly it warped the rotor, but I think I overtightened the rear brake, causing the problem. I'll be the first to admit I hardly had any miles on it. It always fired up instantly.

And in your post prior to this one you proved my point. You said your golf cart has no doors or cage. But you don't put it into situations where you might roll it. Well that is YOUR good judgement that keeps you from rolling it. No vehicle is unsafe. Only drivers are unsafe. Why is it any different with a Rhino? I've never rolled my Rhino and I've never stuck my leg out the side of it.

Steve, please don't tell me you have the New Orleans attitude, where responsibility lies on someone else, mainly the government and big companies.

No, I don't think the gov't should have to watch out for us. But I do believe that produycts and food should be safe for normal use. That's why cars have doors, seatbelts, airbags and ABS.

The Rhino should have better seatbelts and doors, based on it's performance envelope. Apparently most owners of rhinos agree with that, because that's the first thing a lot of them install. My golf cart is just that, a golf cart. It's only capable of so much and so it doesn't need as much safety equipment. It's also far more stable than a Rhino.

We have to admit, the Rhino is a huge hit with teenagers and a lot of parents are letting teenagers drive them with little or no instruction or supervision. They have been rolling them and getting injured or killed. Proper harnesses and doors could have prevented that. I'm not saying that what these parents or teens did is right or wrong, just the reality of it.

Bottom line...everyone that has been hurt by a rhino was doing something that it WASN'T intended to do. Were you farming with it? hauling hay across your land? I dont think so. When these were released that was the intent for the them, how was yamaha supposed to know that people on the west coast would use them for what we do.

Not to mention the retards that put long travel, motor work, and every other trinket on them and still have the stock cage and no friggin doors

Everyone ive seen or known hurt was self inflicted stupidity, or drunk. if you think other wise....come on! Wake up and get a grip on life...People are sue happy for something that was their own stupid ass fault.

Yeah yamaha is trying to cover their ass now...wouldnt you? I think its awesome they are stepping up and giving out doors.

Carry on...and keep it civil moofs.

I never said you did either....

AS for the doors, I still believe it is up to the owner to install the doors based on their needs... I know a couple of owners that will not install doors because of the way they use it and probably would not have bought one had the doors been installed at the factory.

I just got a letter in the mail yesterday from Yamaha for my 2007 Rhino. If I go to the dealer they will give me free doors and passenger handholds. They also gave me a giant sticker to stick on my dash to reduce the risk of accidents and injury or death caused by rollovers. Anybody else get this stuff

This topic is getting pinned, hopefully more people will see it there and not re-post the same topic 4 times. This is a great topic for everyone to see and read.

Keep others informed when your rhino is upgraded with the equipment...and of course

Lets keep it on topic guys...

Got my letter and sticker yesterday. I haven't called the dealer yet but will soon

got mine yesterday too. I wonder if you can just pick the stuff up and do the install yourself.