With suicide doors, a dumping utility bed, and solid off-road capability, the Can-Am Commander Max is a powerfully useful and fun UTV. That sums up our experience with it after a couple of weeks in the wilds of Wyoming.
At a Glance
- Smart design for utility use as well as off-road fun
- Surprisingly fun without any added frills
- Not particularly fast or strong
In general, off-road vehicles are not for the timid or those with modest bank accounts. Besides the vehicle, there’s a need for the trailer and the truck to pull it all with. And repairs aren’t cheap. Neither are the inevitable accessories that come with the enthusiasm ownership of a side-by-side will bring.
But there is a lot of payoff in both utility and fun when a UTV like the Can-Am Commander is in the offing.
Living in Wyoming, which is one of the most outback portions of the United States, I see a lot of use for off-road machines of various descriptions. This is a place with a lot of space and not a whole lot of people to fill it. So machines like the Commander Max and similar options from other makes are relatively common. Ranchers love them. So do hunters. As do recreational riders who need to bring more than just themselves and a couple of liters of water into the hinterland.
The Can-Am Commander Max has seating for four, a small utility bed that can be tilted to dump cargo, a (nominal) roof, and about 100 horsepower (73.5 kW) of engine output. It’s designed to be an all-around utility vehicle, offering both passenger and cargo space as well as serious off-road capability and enough power to do most anything.
In the past, we’ve driven Polaris RZR machines with more brawn than weight, made for flinging through the sand and dirt at maximum speed. Can-Am has a similar rig, the Maverick, for that sort of thing. Just as Polaris has the General for competing with the Commander. Honda, the other big competitor in the side-by-side realm, also has competing models. It’s a tough market, but it feels like Can-Am has figured out this side-by-side UTV niche pretty well. The Commander hits a particular balance of practicality and fun that feels just about right.
The Can-Am Commander comes in both two-seat (standard) and four-seat (Max) configurations. The greatest difference between the two, besides number of seats, is length to accommodate that second row. Latches for the doors are on the center pillar, so the rear doors on the Max model open rearward in a “suicide” design.
The whole rig for the Commander Max model weighs in at around 2,000 lb (907 kg). It measures roughly 160 inches (406 cm) in length and 64 inches (163 cm) in width. Which means a normal toy-hauling trailer may not be large enough to carry it. A car or utility hauler may be required instead.
Driving the Can-Am Commander is a 976cc V-twin Rotax gasoline engine attached to a continuously variable transmission (CVT) with selectable four-wheel drive. Fourteen inch wheels clad in 27-, 28-, or 30-inch tires and various ways of controlling the 4WD system are to be had, depending on the Commander’s chosen trim point. Our model was the Commander Max XT-P, which has the largest tires and most trail-worthy Fox 2.5 Podium Piggyback shocks. This model also adds Can-Am’s Smart-Lok feature, which, when enabled, computerizes the differential locks to adjust to terrain automatically. We liked that feature in some situations, such as when running the trail at speed. But when seriously trail crawling, it’s better to just manually lock them (via the switch) instead.
Ground clearance on the Can-Am Commander Max is about 13 inches (33 cm) and wheel reach (suspension travel) is about 15 inches (38 cm). An attached winch has a power rating of 4,500 lb (2,041 kg). Though that number outweighs the machine by double, so actually pulling that amount of weight with the Commander would require some engineering. But it’s more than enough to get unstuck or deliver the rig up onto a trailer.
Inside, the Can-Am Commander has few frills. Three-point seatbelts are standard, but the seats (which are the same in all four spots) are ready for five-points should they be opted for. There is no infotainment, to speak of, but the driver information display is fully digital and very useful. A few clicks on the “Menu” button swaps through the various outputs quickly. Our test model didn’t have a stereo at all, which is also a good thing. I find UTV and motorcycle radios to be obnoxious both as a driver/rider and an onlooker. Helmet speakers or Bluetooth buds are a much better option.
For a utility like the Commander Max, there are a lot of use cases. It’s designed for an overall payload of 1,280 lb (580 kg) and can tow up to 2,000 lb (907 kg). The cargo bed can accept up to 600 lb (272 kg). That utility bed works like a truck bed, with a tailgate that opens to allow easier loading and unloading. It’s also a dump bed, so it can be tilted up to pour out contents as well.
In all senses, the Can-Am Commander is a nice all-rounder. It’s not as powerful or fast as many of the other options in the SXS market are, but it’s got more capability than most of those purely for-play machines do. It meets in a nice middle ground where fun is still available (100 hp is more than enough for a rig like this) and work can still be accomplished. It’s particularly well-suited to hunting, ranching, and overlanding-style adventures.
Product Page: Can-Am Commander
