I am getting sick of the stock tires on my 05 foreman 500 es 4x4 and wanted some mud tires and wanted a second opinion. I was looking at swamplites, mudlites, vampires, and some 589's. I wanted to know the top ones in your guys opinions for mud and how big to go but I don't want to lift it I want to stay stock and I will be getting aluminum wheels as well. Next I was looking into getting a locker and wanted to know how hard the detroit would be to install. Another thing I was considering was getting a snorkel put on and wanted to know how hard it would be to do it myself and if you guys have any diagrams or a website to buy a kit off of. The last thing I wanted to know was do they sell a stake or something to winch off of because if i get stuck in a creek i need to have something like that or the winch won't help me and where can you buy it. Thanks so much for any info and if you have a site with a good deal could you please post it.

 

i only know stuff about tires........
for pure mud use i would rate the tires you have listed as follows
1-vampires
2-589s
3-mudlites
4-swamplites-they just do not look like a great mudder
i think you can go to 26" tires, maybe 27s, depending on the tire, some are just truer size than others

 

Dirt Wheels did an article on installing a snorkle on a Honda 450 in the August issue. For tires you should look at Goodyear mud runners they dig better than 589's ride smoother and wear like iron my buddy has a set of 25's with over 5000 miles on them 3800 hundred on a Rubicon and 1300 on a 750 Brute Force and he still gets arround better than my Brute with 26" 589's. On my 450 26" goodyear's rubbed the front fender at full compression and took allot of power away. Best price for goodyears at treadepot.com

 

check this out for tires

http://www.atvnews.com/output.cfm?ID=48925

i hope the link works

 

I had mud Machine tires for 10 years and they rocked. There wasn't a place I couldn't go through. My last couple years I was using the 26" BiClaws font and rear, but they sadly don't offer them anymore unless a good demand comes up These were for my 350 ranger and no lift was needed. So with your machine I'd seriously look into the Mud Machine's 27.5" BiClaws front and TriClaws rear. They will take you where no man has gone before. And if your worried about power you could always add a K&N power filter.
http://www.mudtires.com/indexj.html