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Why UHMW Is the Best Bushing Material

By Kavan Wright | Behind The Wheel on June 16, 2017
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Small changes to your machine can make a big difference. Different ball joints, different axles, or different bearings can change the way your side-by-side rides. For the most part, stock components are good enough for standard riding. But there’s one part where the difference between stock and the aftermarket option is so great that you should upgrade no matter how you ride: your A-arm bushings.

Don’t Skimp on A-Arm Bushings!

A low-quality material will lead to premature wear of not just the bushings, but the wheel bearings and tie rod ends, too. And if you really abuse them, you could even damage your A-arms. That’s because worn-out bushings allow your A-arms to move and shake in ways that your suspension isn’t designed to handle.

For something this important, UHMW is what you want and what you need. UHMW bushings are so tough that they should never need replaced. They’re great for worry-free casual riding and high-octane trails and mud. Here’s why nothing can compete with UHMW.

UHMW bushings kit
A bushing kit usually includes bushings and steel sleeves. Sleeves might be standard but getting the right bushing material can make a huge difference. Using UHMW bushings means you may never have to change your bushings again.
Photo by SuperATV

The Right Bushing Material Makes All the Difference

Before we explain why UHMW is great, we need to look at some of the other common materials. Generally, A-arm bushings are made of Delrin, HDPE, or UHMW. These are all different kinds of complex plastic. A rough breakdown of quality goes like this: HDPE is better than Delrin, and UHMW is better than HDPE. The crazy part? Most stock bushings are made from a material that’s worse than Delrin, which is what we’re looking at first.

Delrin

Delrin is the more well known-name for polyoxymethylene, and it’s used for low-budget parts. This material is a hard, stiff, and smooth plastic—which is OK, but it is prone to wear. They need replaced often and if you ride hard, you’ll find that they’re not cut out for you at all. If you’ve got Delrin, you should upgrade the first chance you get.

HDPE

High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) bushings are a definite upgrade over Delrin and stock bushings. They can handle a wider range of conditions than Delrin and will wear better. However, this type still wears over time and needs replaced occasionally. If you’re not careful, you can end up riding on worn-out bushings for a while without realizing and do damage to other suspension parts—which brings us to UHMW.

UHMW

The real overachievers are ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMW) bushings. That’s because UHMW is a very special material that has some interesting characteristics.

First of all, it is super stinking tough. In fact, it’s pretty much indestructible. It’s the same material we use on our skid plates and it’s used in some bulletproof vests. It offers incredible hardness and will outlast your stock bushings by years. We’ve been working with UHMW for many applications for a long time now, and we’ve never seen it break or bend when it’s not supposed to.

UHMW sheets
Here are raw UHMW sheets waiting to be machined into indestructible UTV bushings. UHMW is incredibly strong and self lubricates as it wears. These two properties together make it the perfect bushing material.
Photo by SuperATV

UHMW is also self lubricating. That means that as it wears, the microscopic UHMW particles that come off of it act as lubrication and reduce friction. Even if it wasn’t one of the most resilient materials on Earth, it would take a lot longer to wear down due to these self lubricating properties.

When you combine those two aspects of UHMW, you’re left with a material that’s perfectly suited for use as an A-arm bushing. So that’s what we make ours out of. They’ll last a very, very long time—so long that you may not even have to replace them in the entire lifetime of your machine. They are the perfect choice to replace your stock parts with. You don’t want to wait until your stock bushings start going bad, because by then you’ve already started to wear out your other components.

We have UHMW bushings available for all sorts of side-by-sides. Get yours today and you’ll never buy another set again.

RELATED CONTENT: A-arms27 bushings3
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16 Comments

  1. Avatar for Anand Plastics Anand Plastics says:
    May 29, 2021 at 3:14 am

    Nice work

    Reply
  2. Avatar for William Logan William Logan says:
    October 17, 2021 at 12:38 am

    I’m looking for a flanged UHMW bushing with .78″ ID, 1 .25 ” hole dia. and 1.25″ dia. cap dia., and .75″ sleeve. I would accept .75″ ID and bore out. I need #200.

    Reply
    • Avatar for Tyler Lichlyter Tyler Lichlyter says:
      October 18, 2021 at 2:54 pm

      Hey, William! Can you tell me what machine you’re needing these for? Thanks!

      Reply
  3. Avatar for Doug Doug says:
    February 5, 2022 at 12:14 pm

    Any chance of putting together a wet for Zforce machines, particularly the 500 and 800?

    Reply
    • Tyler Mingione says:
      February 7, 2022 at 2:33 pm

      Hey Doug. I’m not quite sure what you’re asking for. But if you can clarify, I’d love to try and help. Thanks for tuning in with us!

      Reply
  4. Avatar for Mike Mike says:
    February 5, 2022 at 4:47 pm

    Please produce kits for CFMOTO machines

    Reply
    • Tyler Mingione says:
      February 7, 2022 at 2:03 pm

      Hey, Mike. Thanks for the feedback! I’ll be sure to send your request to our design team.

      Reply
  5. Avatar for ron engebretson ron engebretson says:
    March 8, 2022 at 9:04 pm

    good day
    i just installed one of your uhmw bushing kits on my rzr
    just wondering why yours are so short compared to the stock ones

    Reply
    • Tyler Mingione says:
      March 9, 2022 at 8:26 am

      Hey Ron! What machine do you have and what bushing kit did you purchase from us?

      Reply
  6. Avatar for ron ron says:
    March 9, 2022 at 2:11 pm

    2010 rzr 800 efi
    i purchased the uhmw kit from revco
    some of the stk bushings are 2.5″to 4″ long
    none of the uhmw bushings are over 1.25″
    the front kit part# is aab-p-rzr800-k1-001-bp1
    the back kit part# is aab-p-rzr800-k1-001-bp2

    Reply
    • Tyler Mingione says:
      March 10, 2022 at 11:07 am

      Polaris has actually moved to the shorter bushings over the years as well, which is why we followed suit. The extra material isn’t really needed since the only pressure on the bushings is at the outer ends.

      Reply
  7. Avatar for ron ron says:
    March 10, 2022 at 11:29 am

    thanks for the reply
    installing them today
    and have a good day

    Reply
    • Tyler Mingione says:
      March 10, 2022 at 4:59 pm

      Sounds good. Enjoy the ride!

      Reply
  8. Avatar for james james says:
    March 24, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    looking for 3.5 bore bushings can you be of help , 4 inch long pieces, about 1/4 wall or heavery would also work

    Reply
    • Tyler Mingione says:
      March 25, 2022 at 9:13 am

      Hey James, are you looking for a specific machine?

      Reply
    • Avatar for James Kleinsasser James Kleinsasser says:
      March 25, 2022 at 10:13 am

      Found some in New Jersey plant

      Reply

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