i dont know about your stock tires but the ones that came with my cat sucked [dunlops] my gators are way better than the stockers evan in the snow. and if you read the ad's for the gators, mud lites, and the itp 589s, the one's i mentioned befor, they say thay are an excelant snow tire, and i agree.i've gone through alot more snow with my gators than i ever did with the sock ones.so if you can go through ten feet of snow with your stocker's keep them, thay are a great tire.but the stock tires on mine were not all that good. my gators put the dunlop's to shame in any situation.and with 3psi in them thay even ride smooth.

 

ps. i've never tride ten feet of snow but i do think if any tire starts to dig in, you will sink in the deep snow and have to be pulled out.with my gators i just lower the air in the tires and they ride ontop of the snow pretty good. you just cant spin them.

 

The key to deep snow riding is to pack it and stay on top. Ohhh and never ever spin a tire, make it lug, thats why a manual quad is so good in snow. Talking deep snow here, not 1-2 feet deep. Like you said stockers will not beat any mud tire when it comes to 1-2 foot deep snow but when you get to 4+ feet of snow its horrible, they shovel the snow, they don't pack. Soon you will be hung up and stuck, while stock tired quad with a smart rider will pack it down and not spin.

I too used my crappy dunlop tires from my cat and they work awesoem in snow, all stockers do. Radials will also work very well. Try driving you quad with the gators on it through a 5 foot deep snow drift slow packing the snow down..hehe...won't work to well. Go home and try stockers and see, you will be shocked.

I have been doing this for the past 3 winters where I live and many years before that with stock tires but now that I have both on rims I can compare, try it. Stockers kick major *** in snow, when its deep. Deep being 4+ feet.

 

Not trying to drag this on or argue, but my 489s were in real goos shape when i got them. we get 6ft+ here in the winter, and there was no way we could ride in 5+ ft deep snow with any tires. you need to get that cam put this winter. i want to see that. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Look on my pics, I think I have some that show deep snow crossings. If I can get some this winter but only if I have a riding buddy and my riding buddy moved away...sooooo.

 

Y'all must have different snow then we get up here in Canada. Up here if you had 2 ft of snow you wouldnt be going anywhere on an ATV. That calls for sleds. Our snow tends NOT to be the dry fluffy stuff that you can plow through. Here 18inche so went snow can bring you to a stop as it packs under the front of the quad and you try to go thru it. The result is you get high centered and your tires are left to spin as the bike sits on the hard pack. No tire will help in this situation. I have plowed thru 2 ft deep snow drifts but if they are any wider then say 20ft I end up botttomed out and have to dig out the back and back out of the drift.

 

you must mean manitoba because he is from canada.but anyhow if the snow is frozen then it's easy to ride on top but if its wet and packing you wont go vary far if it's deep i dont care what kind of tires you have.my gators with low air pressure in them work very good in the snow unless i spin them then i sink then i have to back up and try again with out spinning them. and they do work better then my stockers because they make a wider print to help keep you ontop of the snow.

 

You canadiens crack me up....heh...heh....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]