A lot of people have written with concerns about how adding the 26" Mud Lites or equivalent affect the Eiger. I have ridden 100 miles or so with Mud Lites. Yesterday I put my stock tires back on, and I have the verdict. I would like to mention that I rode in areas with the stock tires that I have spent lots of time in with the Mud Lites. Also keep in mind that I upgraded my rims for the Mud Lites, and they are about 3" further out on both sides, front and rear.

With Mud Lites:

Acceleration and top speed are both reduced
Handling is infinitely better than with stock tires
Traction in mud is much better
Hill climbing ability is noticeably improved

With Stock Tires

I was scared several times by the instability with stock tires. I rode areas that have lots of really steep hills and hard dips on one side, but have never had any problem with stability when the Mud Lites and rims were on. Yesterday, I encountered two places that I had to actually get off of the Eiger and hold onto one side of it to keep it from rolling. I could not believe the difference in this area.

The Eiger is noticeably quicker. I can reach 45mph on short runs that I used to reach 35 mph on. Very noticeable.

Believe it or not, they seemed to work better in sandy type soils. Only noticeable in 2WD.








All in all, the Eiger is a much better machine and accomplishes what I consider to be it's main purposes much better when rims and tires are added. The only loss was in acceleration/ top speed, two areas that aren't quite as important with this type of machine. I greatly prefer the stability over the speed.

Thought this would help anyone deciding on whether or not to upgrade tires/rims.

 

Thanks for the info. I have been looking at the Mud Lites for quite a while.