http://www.yamaharhinorolloverandrecall.com/index.php

Do you guys think this will hurt the industry? I just remember back in the day when 3 wheelers went through the same crap. And look where that ended up

It sure can't be good for the industry! I doubt it will stop them all together, but you'll see more changes down the road I would guess. Jeep had the same issues with the CJ's, the new Wrangler was wider and lower thus harder to roll over at a certain test speed. Lawyers, I have yet to meet many that I care for at all-

There are basically 2 reasons why a Rhino would roll over.



Lack of talent, or the vehicle is basically unstable. If the vehicle is basically unstable, then something should be done about it. Unfortunately, Yamaha - like many large corporations won't do anything unless they get sued.

If it's due to lack of talent... well the talentless driver is still going to try to blame someone else.

Typical of today's society in general.... "Can't be MY fault this thing flipped when I turned it on a hill doing 40mph!" So if it's someone elses fault, let's sue them!

So tired of people not taking responsibility for their own actions.....

Add Suzuki Samurai, Ford Explorer to the list. As popular as these things are, I don't like them. I've just seen/heard of too many accidents either caused by drivers that are inexperienced or unfamiliar with terrain and lack of stability. Man you really have to becareful when driving one of those things. I think they are very unforgiving. And of course, we always want more power right?

i thinkwe as a whole need to keep an eye on crap like this you cant blame the dirtbag lawyers they are just trying to make a buck and its got to be better than chasing ambulance"s the problem is it is hard to find the time to defend the side by side industry when eveyone on the offense is making money from it

I hate the lawsuits... I agree that sxs's are tippy but man... the only people who win in these lawsuits are the lawyers... where is personal responsibility? GONE GONE GONE

gotta agree with ya on this - I hate the fact that a company can be held liable for someones actions.

While I do agree that everyone should take responsibility for their own actions, there must be a balance struck somewhere between a mfr's responsibility to build a reasonably safe product, and the user's responsibility to use it properly.

Let's say you buy your daughter a pretty blouse and go out to dinner to celebrate her birthday. She gets some sort of flambe dessert and it accidentally catches her new blouse on fire, it blazes up like a torch - giving her 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her chest and neck.

IMHO, the mfr of the blouse bears a responsibility to make a safe garment that will not easily catch on fire in a normal or even plausible event. If she was cooking in the kitchen, it might also have happened.

Or what about food safety? We should have a resonable expectation that the food we buy in the store is free from contaminants or harmful substances.

I feel kinda similar about cars and off road toys. The mfr should make a reasonably safe vehicle (ie. 4 point harnesses, strong roll cage and doors at the least) considering the potential speeds and uses the machine could reasonably be expected to encounter.

Effin Lawyers

Truly are the bottom of the barrel. Any reason to prey on the misery of others!

they didnt explain that most accidents/rollover's are performed by those who are under the age of 16???? Is there someplace located on the rhino and other UTV's to where it says must be 16 yrs of age to drive/ride like quads do? and when you purchase such a veichle, operate at your own risk. if people read the fine print and the OWNER'S MANUAL how to operate it, they wouldnt have so many problems.

Safe or not NO ONE twisted your arm to purchase your toy....
It is always up to the buyer to be safe and learn how to use what they have....
after that if your going to get stupid blame yourself
I'll go re-read the link now...Maybe I missed something.

someone trying to make a buck!!and ruin it for everyone else.
F'ing pisses me off.

I 1,000,000,000,000% disagree!!!! There is ONLY ONE REASON ANY VEHICLE ROLLS OVER... and that reason is DRIVER ERROR.

If a kid falls on a skate board, is it the skate boards fault? NO!

Are skate boards dangerous? YES!

But WHY are they dangerous? Because kids do things on them that skate boards were not meant to do.

I have over 2000 miles on my Rhino and I have never even come close to rolling it. That's not coincidence. That's me driving it responsibly. Nuff said.

AMEN!!

unicycles are inherently dangerous; why aren't those manufactureres getting sued?? its called personal liability......does anyone remember that term?

There is a commercial here in Vegas for a lawyer that wants rhino roll over victims to call him. I guess we cant use the rhino as a form of population control anymore.

Thomas

Only way to solve it, FREE LONG TRAVEL TO ALL!!!! You mean people have to be responsible for there own actions?? Naaaaa... It's always someone else's fault (sarcasm)

Isn't it open season on them?

Honda made a virtually roll-proof vehicle, the FL400 Pilot in 1989-1990. It was also incredibly strong. It came with a neck brace, wrist restraints, and an excellent safety cage, plus long travel suspension. it was far superior to almost every other ATV since then.

Trouble is, it was $ 20,000 in todays dollars. Good used ones still go for $ 8000.

I think Rhinos are excessively tip-over prone, even with normal spirited driving. To advertise a go-anywhere vehicle presumes you can go anywhere at reasonable speed, 40 mph is reasonable speed. I hate to see lawsuits, but Rhinos should have been long travel from day one, at least as a reasonably priced option.. not $ 6000.

Ok, so since my quad will do 40mph, that means I should ride it at 40 I don't think so... 40mph for an inexperienced or careless rider in an oversized golf cart is rediculous. And IMO it's not up to Yamaha to provide the long travel option for any kind of price. I spent almost that 6K in long travel suspension on my quad... Same thing, it was on my shoulders to do not Hondas. Btw, I have a new F350 and can assure you that if I decided to take a corner at a high rate of speed it would probably go over as well because it's a little top heavy. Aw chit I think I'll go sue Ford for my stupidity. EFF THE AMBULANCE CHASERS!

Remember the Ford Pinto?



Remember the Ford Exploder?



Two prime examples of Ford building unsafe vehicles and getting called on the carpet for it. When driving your Pinto, you don't have any control over the clown who just rear ended you and burnt you to a crisp, so the gov't and juries decided it was an unsafe design. Ford paid dearly for all of the people they killed in their overwhelming greed.

Same deal with the Exploder. Poorly designed suspension caused it to roll over easily at fwy speeds when the driver was forced to do an evasive maneuver. What's the driver's other choice? Keep going straight and hit the car in front of you because your vehicle cannot stay upright in a sudden lane change?

Ford KNEW the Exploder would roll easily in their own testing before they released it, but they released it anyway. Their solution? To tell everyone to underinflate the Firestone tires, causing them to slide from excessive sidewall flex, thus masking the poorly designed suspension. The problem with underinflated tires is...

they blow out from overheating. Uh oh.

People started blaming Firestone for building a bad tire, and the crap hit the fan. Firestone released memos from Ford, along with video footage showing the Exploder trying to roll over on the test track (it was prevented by huge outriggers). Nothing like seeing two teams of attorneys trying to out sleaze each other to save corporate profit margins.


At any rate, if any of you ever catch yourselves hollering, "There better not be any lead paint on that baby's toy I bought that was made in China!!"

or "Those Carlyle tires are so crappy one blew out and destroyed the entire fender on my trailer! I called them and they're paying for all of the damage plusgetting me a new tire!"

Keep in mind, that while you expect your baby's toys to be safe, and your trailer tires to be safe and reliable - other people might be expecting the same thing of their $10,000 off road vehicle.

I can not disagree with that Steve. However, if I were to ride my 6 or 7 thousand dollar "stock" quad at full speed and turn the handle bars hard left what do you think will happen? Um... a roll over maybe? Probably more than maybe. Should Honda make it so that it won't or can't roll over? The need and logic behind a safely designed street vehicle is obvious, but there has to be some accountability by the operator when riding or driving an ORV of any type. Most know the risk, and if they don't they should probably stop and read all the WARNING LABELS plastered all over the vehicle before they peel them off because "they look like crap". You buckle up, put on a helmet and probably wear wrist restraints when duning to be safe. You do that by your choice not because it's mandatory. My question is, why should Yamaha be held liable because someone didn't pay attention or had to turn because there was a rock on a dirt road? I know this has happened in the past and it was way WRONG, but should I sue Smith and Wesson because some azzhat came over and shot me with a gun that S&W manufactured? This is simple, NO! It's as get rich quick scheme for some jackhole lawers office and that's it.

Its unfortunate that we live in a Society that wants to get PAID $$$$ even when they are at fault.

If SxS's were bursting into flames....or having Stuck Throttle issues...I'd expect the MFG to fix it.

If they are "Tippy" then I'd expect the MFG. to place warning labels on the vehicle.

Just as it is now.

Leg minders.....an improvement that come from real world use after the fact.

I'm sure the UTV was not originaly designed to be what it is today.

are you in the tire business? just wondering

i think your analogies are a little apples to oranges.

i don't believe we were the target market for the side by side and the strength of this industry is dumb luck.
we are crazy if we believe that injuries are happening hauling a bail of wire to the back fourty to repair the fence or packing out a twelve point.
the injuries are happening when you(proverbial) and a bunch or your buddies get together to have a dumb-off and wad it up doing dognuts or playing robbie gordon. or you(proverbial) let your teenage kids have at it. this industry feeds my family and i have watched it grow from it's inception so maybe i should leave some things unsaid, but we(collective) are choosing to take these things outside of their intended use. the pinto and explored were intended to operate on the highway and if not safe they should suffer the consequence. if you take the explorer to the speedway and run the oval and wreck it, even though you are on pavement, it's on you.
i don't think yamaha is afraid of the suits. i think they were ready for them before they came. a couple of phone calls to the rite numbers by the yamaha lawyers could most likely have us all doing nothing other than hauling hay with our sxs's and thats my fear.

My 2 cents..

The tire pressure adjustment was for ride quality....

Ford = Poor Design

Yamaha Rhino (All ATV's and Motorcycles) = comon sense.... Well really, people not using theirs...

Toys made in China = Corperate greed!

Carlisle tires = You really think it was all their fault? considering the current sticker fiasco and lawsuit against ??....

OK, for those ofyou who feel that Yamaha has no responsibility to make the Rhino a reasonably safe vehicle.



Answer this question.

Why did Yamaha spend hundreds of thousands (millions?) designing, shipping and installing doors?


Take your time. No, aesthetics is not a valid answer.

^^
so they wouldnt get their azzes sued off by idiots with no common sense

i have a polaris ranger with almost 100 hours on it... i have never tipped it, even while riding in some hairy situations.

why? because i used common sense

first and foremost, the first time in it, i didnt go ballz out. i tested its limits, found out where i was comfortable, and where i wasnt

imo anyone who lets their kid drive a SXS without personally being in the vehicle with them is just asking for an accident.


think about it.....these kids are surrounded by adults who guide them in their daily life..parents at home teachers at school, coaches in sports, instructors in dance class...yad yada yada.

why not have one with them when they are basically driving a miniturized car?..hell, even the gubment is smart enough to have restrictions on teens driving with a permit, and a license......

If your a farmer, the rhino is perfect for you stock. If your an offroader then doors, harnesses and a better cage are a must. If you don't prepare for these things (rollovers) its your own damn fault! After all there's a warning about it on every new rhino.

Answer: Because the world is filled with morons/retards that are using the rhino for what it was never intended to do. Do you really think yamaha intended the rhino to do endless doughnuts or jump 1 foot let alone jump down the face of a dune? if you do your a tard. When Yamaha started to see that people were really stupid they had to try on their part to make some saftey improvements, hence the doors. I am not mad at you or your question, it is just that people don't think and want some kind of compensation $$ for their stupidity and we as a whole end up pay'n for their dumb a$$'s.

great answer,
I was going to say the same thing. Rhino is a farm vehicle never intended for a dune buggy.
morons sue over there incompetence, so yamaha has to make it somewhat stupid proof.
example.
an old lady buys a motorhome, get it up to 70 mph sets the cruise controll and goes in the back to make a sandwhich.
of course she totals the motorhome, then sues winnebag0 and wins millions plus a new motorhome.
winnebago had to change there instruction manuel so no other dumbshits do the same thing.

I remember that But she actually went to use the bathroom... She stated in court "I thought cruise control meant it would drive it self like an airplane"
The lawyers blamed the salesman for not explaining that fact a nd the jury found the dealership neglegent and held them liable.

[quote name='Rusty' date='Feb 2 2008, 08:06 AM' post='2619566']
Typical of today's society in general.... "Can't be MY fault this thing flipped when I turned it on a hill doing 40mph!" So if it's someone elses fault, let's sue them!

So tired of people not taking responsibility for their own actions.....

This is the truest statement of the decade, why does no one take responsibility for there own actions.... it is ridiculous!!!!!

I just sent them a nice little message on the "Contact" page Bloodsuckers