Quick Connection
Rugged Radios Makes Communication Easy
Story By: Staff of UTV Sports Magazine
Photos By: Tristan Twisselman
Communication is key, whether it is with your significant other, employees or friends. The ability to clearly talk to each other in an off-road vehicle has also become extremely valuable. As the GOV. continues to reduce riding areas and new UTV sales continue to climb, the trails get more congested. Instead of just the driver’s head on a swivel, clear communication gives everyone in the car the ability to call out traffic or dangers. Rugged Radios is not only ahead of the curve on communications, but they are also making it easier for consumers to do the install of these products without the need for an expert.
The introduction of the “all-in-one box” kit was the beginning of the simplification of communications. This kit has everything you need to easily install an intercom and radio in your UTV, but what happens when you need to wire helmets? The days of peeling the pads out of a helmet and going through multiple hot glue sticks in hopes you got everything in the right place are gone. Rugged has come up with the Quick Installation Helmet Kit, an ingenious little mount that makes life really easy.
We caught Rugged’s own Steve Bechard at a recent event and wanted to see how easy this kit really was to install in a Bell Eliminator helmet. Steve has installed a lot of these kits, so we knew he would make it look easy and figured we would spend 15-20 minutes with him chit-chatting while he worked. As he snatched the helmet off the counter, he gently set it in the helmet cradle. Pulling the parts out of the package seemed to take longer than the install. Loosening the 2 set screws on the bottom of the bracket, the mic boom and wiring slid in and cinched down securely. So far, this is far from complicated.
The Quick Install Mount simply pinches the outer shell of the helmet and holds everything in place. Making sure the mic is in the correct spot inside the helmet, Steve snugged the 2 allen head screws. Pulling the cheek pads, the speakers simply velcro in place. With just snapping the cheek pads and tucking some wiring away, the install was complete. I am not exaggerating when I say this whole process literally took him 3 minutes to do start to finish, if he can do it that quickly and easily, we should be able to accomplish it in well under 20 minutes with the same results.
Now after 500+ miles on this helmet kit, it works great, Swapping from helmet to helmet takes minutes and it sounds great once installed. This is a great way to easily and quickly put a helmet kit in.
