- 7 hours ago
UTV SHOOTOUT: Maverick R vs Teryx H2
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00:00Oh, why did I do that? My passenger is not happy with me right now. Behind us are the two
00:06fastest
00:06production side-by-sides in the world, and we're pitting them against each other. The last time
00:10we did this, we put a 2024 Polaris Pro-R against a 2024 Maverick R, and the Maverick R came
00:16out on
00:16top. At the time, those were the biggest, baddest rigs on the market, but now we have a new
00:20challenger, the 2026 Kawasaki Tarex 5 H2. With 250 freaking horsepower from a supercharged inline
00:28four engine, the H2 is undoubtedly, indisputably, the king of the hill in terms of power. But is
00:34power king? Does all that power matter? Do all those ponies make for a better rig? Today, we are going
00:39to find out. We are going to thrash and abuse and make questionable decisions within reason with both
00:44of these rigs. Debuting in 2024, the Maverick R was Can-Am's answer to the Pro-R. This thing makes
00:50more horsepower per cylinder than a Lamborghini Aventador. Aventador. Lamborghini Aventador.
00:56Regardless, that engine gets mated to a dual clutch transmission, which for these days is as close to
01:00a manual as we're going to get. Now, I don't know about you, but I like being fully in control
01:04of
01:04all those ponies, unlike, say, a CVT. The suspension features a tall knuckle design that lowers the
01:09roll center, which in turn reduces the chance of a rollover. Add in Fox Live Valve and 32-inch tires,
01:15and you've got a rig that's ready to take on the king of the hammers. The Maverick R was a
01:18horsepower
01:19king for a total of two years until the Kawasaki H2 came out. The Kawasaki Terex H2, the first
01:25supercharged production UTV in history. Piggybacking on engineering, design, and spirit from the
01:30legendary H2 sport bike, it's an exercise in marketing and imagination. Deliberately tuned
01:35to win the horsepower wars with 250 horsepower, it's power for power's sake. Like, that's a bad
01:41thing. It's about killing a flea with a nuclear-powered hammer. Does anyone actually need a
01:45supercharger? Probably not, but the idea of additional power coming directly from the crank
01:50instead of the exhaust manifold is a fine idea. Turbochargers are great for the dunes and high
01:55RPM situations, but superchargers give you power down low where you actually need it on these tight
02:00East Coast trails. The Terex H2 doesn't share exact specs with its motorcycle sibling's engine,
02:05but there's no doubt that the bike's development made this Terex possible. In other words, Kawasaki did
02:09it because they could, which is one of the better reasons to do anything. So which one's better,
02:13and which one's right for you? We're at Windrock Park in Oliver Springs, Tennessee to lay down some
02:17miles and find out. This week's sponsor is DirtHammer.com. Do you love looking at rigs on
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02:56looky-loo. Thank you so much to DirtHammer for sponsoring this video. Now, back to the action.
03:00Now, let's get into how this works. We're not going to get into points or scoring or any having to
03:04add up
03:05stuff. Who's got time for math? Instead, we'll be judging these rigs on three categories.
03:09First up is power, because, duh, that's one of the reasons we decided to do this. Both are fire-breathing
03:15rigs at the top of their game. They both sound great, but how does that power feel? How does it
03:19come on? Power is just more than a number, and we're going to get into how these rigs actually
03:23put it onto the ground. Second of all, capability. With all those ponies at your right foot, how do
03:27the chassis and suspension feel? Is the tall knuckle suspension design really superior, or is the
03:32tried-and-true double-A arm the way to go? We'll be testing these rigs to go over obstacles and
03:35see how
03:36the chassis feels when you're not just blasting through a dirt road. Lastly, comfort. Both of
03:40these rigs are made for parties of four, and in the case of the H2, five. It's one thing to
03:45cram
03:45people in a side-by-side and floor it. It's another to actually enjoy the ride. What's it like for
03:49your
03:49fellow human beings inside, and could you actually spend all day with your butt planted on the seat?
03:53Those are our three categories, but before we get on the trail, let's take a closer look at these.
03:58First up, the Mavar. This thing feels like a rocket ship, and it drives like one, too. The massive center
04:03screen shows you everything you need to know about your rig. Right in front of you is a steering
04:06wheel, and behind that are paddle shifters that let you control the DCT. You can keep that
04:10transmission in auto mode, or shift it to manual and do your best Max Verstappen impression. This
04:15thing won a ton of races in its first eligible year in basically stock form, and with smart shocks and
04:19Fox Live Valve, it'll make you feel like a pro. Now, the Challenger, the 2026 Kawasaki Terex H2.
04:26This one's actually a Terex V. This rig shocked the market when it debuted with an incredible 250 horsepower,
04:32999 cc supercharged four-banger. Wait, did you just say supercharged?
04:36That's right, and it's the first of its kind. Instead of using exhaust gases to spin up a turbo,
04:40the supercharger is attached directly to the crankshaft, offering almost instant boost. Now,
04:45I can't help but notice, but this rig feels a little nicer than the Mavar. Yeah, I'm getting that, too.
04:49The seats are nice and plush, the steering wheel feels good in your hands, and the visibility is much
04:54better than the Mavar. Also, there are far less sharp plastics to cut your hands on. This rig feels like
04:59it
04:59rolled off of an automotive line, not like something that's meant to blast through the
05:02desert. Also, the integrated Garmin infotainment center is much better than the Mavars. It looks
05:07like it was all designed all at once, instead of just added on over time. Well, it looks like we
05:11have
05:11an early lead in the comfort category. All right, enough talking. Let's get these things on the trail.
05:16All right, so I am starting with the Kawasaki H2, and Anders is starting in the Mavar. Now, we have
05:21two
05:21different perspectives on this, because I have driven both of these, and Anders has driven neither of them,
05:26right? Listen, in my head, I won Dakar with this thing. It was a fabulous dream, but I have never
05:31actually spent any real sea time in here, so I am excited to get in this green monster, and I
05:36also
05:36have not been in the Mavar either, so this is kind of like, I don't want to say newbie, because
05:42I'm not
05:42a newbie, but first impressions, I'm kind of a newbie-er. We are us. Oh, my Lord. I miss this
05:49thing,
05:50dude. I actually tested this rig back in the summer in the desert. I could not get enough of it.
05:56Dude,
05:56I feel like I'm in my car right now. Like, these seats are some of the most comfortable I've ever
06:02been in a side-by-side. I'm going to give you a fit and finish on the H2. However, we
06:06are on rough
06:07and tumble trails, and I feel like a little rough and tumble finish. Maybe that's just synergy. I
06:13don't know, you know? The Mavar feels like a race car. If you want to feel that feeling of, like,
06:18Dale Earnhardt going past the finish line, the Mavar is your girl. The seating position and the way you
06:23just step into it instead of actually, like, you know, getting into it like a normal car. Like,
06:28you have to lower your body to get into it, and that just gives you that race car feeling,
06:33and it gives you the feeling of speed, where the H2, um, it looks and feels like a, uh, an
06:40old
06:40Terrix, you know? I will say, obviously, the seating and the interior are all better.
06:45This thing, basically, the Mavar feels racier to be in. Now, this is kind of interesting. Now,
06:50there is a bit of lag when you bury your foot. There's just that kind of, like, little lag,
06:56and it takes about 1,000 or 2 RPM to, like, really kind of, like, wind up. Now, that's kind
07:01of part of
07:01the fun, uh, sort of, like, on open, like, kind of crazy trails like this, but it's going to be
07:06really interesting to see what the H2 does in terms of, like, supercharger, power working right
07:11off the crank and all that. That was a lot of fun, and, you know, this is kind of an
07:15aside. I got to
07:15tell you, the Tennessee mud tastes particularly nice. There's kind of a little tartness, a little
07:20tungsten, a little lime kind of thing. Yeah, a little brimstone. It's very tasty. All right,
07:24so the taste of mud aside, how did you like the Mavar? I love the Mavar. I love the Fox
07:29Live
07:29valve shocks. It's so great. In fact, they're almost too great because you don't really get
07:33a sense of, like, what you're going over. You just kind of hover over everything. I'm not going to
07:36make a religious joke about, you know, like, walking on water or whatever, but you kind of
07:40just sort of go over everything. You don't get a lot of feedback, but as soon as you start learning
07:44to trust it and what it's doing and what it's putting you through, just hit the throttle and
07:48just go. It's great. What did you think of the Green Beast? Everything you said about the Mavar,
07:52it being low to the ground, you not having to think about anything, that's kind of not what I'm
07:55getting out of the H2. Oh, yeah? I'm getting a classic side-by-side feeling out of the H2.
08:00I've tested other Teraxes. I've tested X3s. I've tested Razors, and they all feel like this. The
08:06double-A arm suspension, it feels like the rigs that I've been driving for the past four years,
08:10you know? It's a little bit more upright, so you're kind of rocking and rolling a little bit more.
08:13I can see stuff out of that, which is what I really like about it. In the Mavar, you're down
08:17low.
08:18You're in the cockpit. In this, you feel like you're sitting on top of it. That helps even more
08:22because the interior is actually nice to spend time in. You know, we've tested the Expedition
08:27and the Armax and all that, and you get those nice bolstered seats, and that's what you get in this.
08:31You get nice padding under your butt, and it feels nice to actually spend time in, which is not
08:36something you can really say about the Mavar, at least in my experience driving it. I love this
08:40thing. I love the turbo. I love the triple. There is a bit of lag. However, in the next round
08:45that
08:45we're going to do, I think you said that there is, what is it called? With Sport Plus mode,
08:49there's anti-lag. I just noticed when we parked here that I did not have that on. We're going to
08:53do a couple more rips around here, and we're going to see if that makes a difference. It's not really
08:56a big deal. If you know where the sweet spot is as far as, like, where the power is, you
09:00can kind
09:00of keep yourself there all the time. Honestly, you stay in second and third most of the time,
09:04you're good to go. You don't really have to sit and, like, fiddle a lot with the paddle shifters.
09:08And what do you think of the Green Beast? I adore the power. You know, we were coming down this
09:12mountain, this trail that we just got off of. There was one straightaway, and I think I came into it
09:16doing 25,
09:17maybe 30 miles an hour, maybe a quarter mile long, floored it. And by the end of that quarter
09:21mile, I was going 70. Wow. So it is the acceleration of the supercharger and not having to wait on
09:27that
09:27turbo lag is phenomenal. Would you say it's game-changing? I absolutely think it's game-changing.
09:32I think a supercharger has been well overdue for a side-by-side. Well, there you have it. There you
09:36have
09:36it. Jackson Cooper reporting for UTV driver. We're going to get back into these. We're going to swap rigs.
09:40I'm going to try out the Mavar. Andres is going to get in the H2, and we will report back
09:44at the top of
09:45the mountain. Let's do it. I was wondering why I wasn't going any faster. It's because I was in
09:54manual again. I was like, why am I going out of first gear? That's a mud hole. We're not going
09:58through that.
10:03I'm going to be honest, manual mode is kind of annoying. I'm not used to it.
10:06All right, let's see what we can do about this mud hole.
10:11So, Andres was kind of right. I'm not really thinking about what I'm going over right now.
10:16I'm kind of just going. Obviously, I'm slowing down when it comes to these mud holes. But yeah,
10:21the Mavar just kind of like eats up whatever is in front of it. I didn't bring a change of
10:27clothes.
10:27I know that how the Mavar is notorious for covering you in mud, no matter how deep or how fast
10:32you go
10:33through a mud hole. And another thing I will note about it is that it's a five-seater, which means
10:38it's a family rig. Four-seaters are becoming ever more popular. Like, that's what families are buying.
10:48Screwed myself there.
10:52I've got a lot of mud on my visor. That's all right.
10:56It's going to have to deal with them. Oh! Oh my, why did I do that? My passenger is not
11:03happy with me right now. I will say, I think I like the turbo, the sound of the turbo a
11:08little
11:08more than the sound of the supercharger. You know what? This is so classic, but it's so
11:12easy right here. Look at this. That is an emergency brake on, off. It is so much easier. Now,
11:20there's really nothing wrong with the Mavar, the button and all that. But buttons,
11:24buttons are dodgy. Buttons stop working sometimes. But the interiors of rigs lead really, really,
11:31really tough lives. Like, the interior of a rig is literally as inhospitable an environment as the
11:37outside. We hose these things off with high-pressure hoses, so all that moisture over time is going to
11:43get into, like, little crevices, wiring, and stuff like that. So to me, and this is such a minor thing,
11:49but man, I just love a lever that just clicks. I gotta say, the brakes on this H2 are really
11:54sorted. These are some of the best brakes I've ever, uh, actually tested. Really responsive,
11:59no bushiness. Like, these, honestly, these are, like, these brakes get a chef's kiss. Yeah,
12:05so going up those trails, I feel that the Mavagar is a lot more stable around the corners. You feel
12:12planted. It doesn't feel like it's going to, uh, to do anything you don't want it to do. All right.
12:19All right. So how was that extra 10 horsepower? If you told me that it was 50, I would believe
12:24you.
12:24It's just so much more tractable and usable, and it's right there on command. Like, you don't even
12:29have to ask. All you do is think, and it's right there. Oh, yeah. And I had it on full
12:33in all sorts
12:34of technical stuff, but if you know what you're doing, and I'm not saying that I do, what's really
12:37great is you can just scooch the rear end out, like, at will. You can use that power in just,
12:42like,
12:42little tiny bursts to get over anything, and I felt like there's just no lag. Like, I just thought,
12:47and then it happened. Oh, yeah. As we were coming up with the Mavar, I wanted that power. As we
12:51were
12:52going through mud holes or around corners, I wanted to press down on the gas pedal and just take me
12:57through a corner. The turbo lag, uh, did not do that. Obviously, the anti-lag was a little bit
13:02better, but you still get that, like, grinding noise from the engine in there because it actually
13:06turns off a cylinder to do that until it spins up, and then when the turbo's fully spun up, it
13:12does full
13:12power. You get kind of annoying noise in the back, and it doesn't sound too great for the engine.
13:17Obviously, it doesn't matter, but still, that instant power with the supercharger, you don't
13:22need a specific mode for it. It just does it because mechanically, that's what it does.
13:26I gotta say, CVT, like it or not, this thing is dialed in. It's really wonderful. The gear ratios and
13:32everything, honestly, I couldn't think of really no notes as far as the CVD, the transmission,
13:37and the power delivery, and all that. So, I did notice one thing. I'm really, I'm really proud of
13:42you. I think you went through way more mud holes this time than in past times. I don't think I
13:46went
13:46through more. I just think I hit two very, very hard. As you can tell by how I look, I
13:53went through
13:54a few mud holes, and that's something to say with the fenders of this. Obviously, because you have this
13:59tall knuckle suspension, you don't really get fenders. So, these tires are just throwing mud on you,
14:04where when I was in the H2, it didn't really matter, because these tires are behind these
14:09fenders. Most of the mud that's coming off these tires are going to get blocked by these fenders,
14:14and that's just not the same with the Mav-R. And obviously, we're off-roading. It doesn't matter.
14:19Would you trust a mechanic who wasn't dirty? I don't think so. I don't think so, and I wouldn't
14:23trust an off-roader who wasn't dirty either. So, here's my notes for the H2. I felt it was way
14:27more
14:27softly sprung, but I felt like I was getting feedback from it, and it was a lot of wallow and
14:32everything,
14:32but I like that because I like knowing what I've hit, what I'm going over, and what sort of feedback
14:37I'm getting. I'm going to disagree with your first point when you first got out of the Mav-R,
14:41and it could be because we were on different kinds of terrain as we were coming up. When you were
14:44driving the Mav-R, we were on semi-flat terrain. When I was driving it, we were going over tons
14:49of
14:49rock gardens and through mud holes. I felt almost everything I went over. The H2, when I would go over
14:55an obstacle, it was very plush. I almost liked it because it felt like getting hit by a pillow,
15:01where this kind of feels like getting hit by a lead pipe, where when you go over something,
15:05it's very sudden, and it sends a shock through your body. Well, Mr. Cooper, you're making me
15:09rethink my driver's notes. You know what we're going to have to do? We're going to have to switch rigs
15:13again. I'm sorry, just to be thorough. I don't want to do this, but I might just have to take
15:17another turn in the Mav-R and see if my notes hold up. Oh no, how awful. How awful. God,
15:22it's so hard
15:23being a power sports journalist. But I think with our notes right now, I think we can declare a winner,
15:27don't you think? One, two, the H2. Yeah. God, it's the H2. I hate agreeing with you. The whole
15:34point is to disagree and everything, but I feel you, man. So the H2 has its problems, mainly of
15:40which I do like the tall knuckle suspension better. I feel like it's more stable through the corners.
15:44On almost every other point, I think it's the H2. I think it wins all three of our categories. It
15:49has
15:50the power, and it delivers that power well. It has the capability. The suspension is just better
15:55than the Mav-R. It has the Fox Live valve 3.0s instead of the 2.5s. It's literally a
16:01new generation
16:01of Fox Live valve. And in comfort, I think it's a dog walk. You know what? I'm going to throw
16:06all
16:06the specs out the window and just say, I just felt like I had more fun in this thing. I
16:11felt like
16:12if you took a pro driver, if you took Brock Hager, Kyle Chaney, whoever, and put them in the rig,
16:18you know what? They might actually make better time with that thing. I had more fun in this thing. I
16:23felt faster, and it felt more fun, and it felt like I could use the power whenever I wanted to.
16:28It's the same thing that we've been reiterating. This is a side-by-side, and this is a race car.
16:32And obviously, pick the rig that you like. If all of your friends are out in Can-Ams,
16:37then go with a Can-Am. If all of your friends are getting Kawasaki's, get a Kawasaki. Ultimately,
16:42it's not really a case of the right rig. It's a case of the right rig for you. Yeah, as
16:46always.
16:46This is meant for someone who really knows what they're doing, someone who's experienced,
16:49seasoned. This thing forgives a lot of mistakes. It's just so friendly. And I think at the end of
16:56the day, both of these rigs do that. And again, we say all the time, comparing certain rigs are
17:02like apples and oranges. I don't think that's the case. I think it's like oranges and tangerines,
17:07in this case, where they're almost exactly the same thing. It just really depends on what you prefer.
17:12But this thing is so much fun, and the actual user experience of just hearing the chirping in the
17:16back. To me, it was like having the Three Stooges behind me. It was like, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop.
17:19And I love that. I don't know about an entire day. An entire day gets a lot, which is kind
17:23of why I
17:24like this and the turbo in it, because the turbo only reacts when you do something. Where the supercharger,
17:30it's going all the time. Thank you so much for Dirt Hammer for sponsoring this video. I cannot say how
17:34much fun we've had. Thank you so much for watching. This has been UTV Driver. If you like this video,
17:38go down below, hit like, hit subscribe, comment if you feel like it. Tell us what we got wrong. Tell
17:43us what we got
17:43right. And then head over to utvdriver.com, where we have news, reviews, and buyer's guides five days a week.
17:49And when you're done doing that, head over to our socials. We're on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and of course,
17:54here on YouTube, seven days a week. We will see you out on the trail. You're welcome, America.
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