Hope you folks are well. New member here. Having a few concerns with this awesome side by side I purchased last year. Bought it a year ago and it's been nothing but great to me so far. Im from Southern California and just got back from taking this ride to Montana last month for an elk hunt. Performed like a champ. This morning I just got back from a Chukar hunt in the Mojave Desert and noticed a loss in performance power. There's certain hills that this ride would climb with ease (4 adults) in the ride a year ago. During todays hunt, my Defender Max was struggling to say the least, climbing those same hills. They're steep graded hills to the point where I'd be in 4WD, Low Gear and have the Lockers engaged as I have on multiple hunt trips last year. Can someone lead me in the right direction as to why this is happening? Do I need to replace the clutch belt? Is it worn out to where it's not gaining traction? Is this normal wear and tear, one year into this beautiful ride? I would be able to get it up to 52 mph in 2WD with ease, can't even get it to 42-43 mph now. I let it warm up. It's not a cold run either. I'm confused and a little concerned. Hopefully this can be an easy repair if anything needs to be repaired or replaced at all. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you kindly in advance.
-Paolo
-Paolo