Las Vegas, Nevada: Team ORC staff decided to take an afternoon to play after finishing the Terribles Town 250 the day before. The vehicle of choice was the new Rhino Rough Terrain Vehicle. We met founders Howard Pearl and Stuart Green at the Apex play area just outside of Las Vegas near Highway 15. The Rhino is the newest and greatest "Big Boy Toy" just released to the public after 6 months of extensive testing. With that custom tube frame chassis, 37" X-Terrain tires, and Honda 4 cylinder motor, how could we resist?

Fresh back from a trip to Moab the Rhino's suspension were setup for rock crawling but we would be testing them in more of a desert / dunes environment. The suspension is said to be fully adjustable for any type of terrain where you would like to play. After a quick intro we were off to play.

The Rhino is relatively easy to get into as you step in the front and sit back under the cage. After placing yourself in the race seat you can adjust it forward and back to fit the pedals. Being relatively short at 5' 7" I had to move the seat all the way forward. Next is to strap yourself in with the 5 point safety harness and tighten it down. The steering wheel comes on and off for easy entry so you need to snap the steering wheel in place. Now turn the key and push the start button and she fires right up. The transmission is a 4 speed automatic with the shifter found on the floor near where you can reach it with your right hand. We put it in 3rd and left it there. Gas on the right, brake on the left. Stab the gas and you are off.

THE RIDE

After spending my share of 250 miles on an ATV the day before this was definitely different. The steering takes some getting used too. The steering is fully hydraulic and there is no return to center. It is very responsive so it is easy to have a tendency to sway back and forth. This seemed to be made worse by the fact that you can NOT see the front tires. (This will soon be revised. The rhino will feature Plexiglas body panels in the front so the driver can see the front tires.)

The suspension also has a very different feel. The body dips and rolls like a rock crawler. You start getting used to it after a while but it sure is an odd feeling at first. Since the suspension is fully adjustable you should be able to adjust it to your liking and terrain. In fact after driving the yellow one first I had a ride in the orange one and liked the suspension better. It was somewhat harsher but more to my liking.

We romped around the desert, dunes and even crawled over a car for the better part of a couple hours. The Rhino tackled any obstacle we through at it.With just the right amount of momentum it tackled some fairly good sand dunes even though we didn't have the best tire for that.

THE END

Myself and Team ORC rider Cliff Failes had a blast with the Rhino. I think the Rhino may be more at home on a rock crawling trail than our test environment but we still had fun. It is easy to drive but getting proficient with the Rhino may take some time as the feel of the suspension and steering is quite different from what we are used to. With a full race compliant cage and harness safety should be very good. The highest risk is if the driver were to NOT keep their hands on the steering wheel and inside the cage during a roll over. We did manage to break one of the Rhino's during our test ride when a rear trailing arm failed. It was later determined that a bad batch of steel had caused the failure. With a starting price at $24,995 this definitely qualifies as a "Big Boy Toy". Contact Rhino Off-Road Industries for YOUR test ride.