Will 28" Mud Bugs be too much for my 2000 AC 500 auto? Anyone have these or ANY 28's on a 500 auto? I know the Bugs are lighter than most.

 

Tire weight isn't the issue. It is the added diameter of the larger tires that changes your overall final drive gear ratio that kills your preformance. There is a reason the manufacture put 25" tires on that machine, for best overall preformance. Bigger diameter tires will hurt it and I would suspect 28s will pretty much kill it.

 

if it were a manual i would say go for it, with an auto i suspect that not only was the last post very true but it would also be hard on your belt.

 

I know there are some guys or gals out there running larger than stock tires. C'mon let me hear from you. I realize the effective gearing would be reduced. I would like to hear some personal experience as to how bad. For those with larger tires what size would you recommend?

 

my 27's definelty decrease performance ie. top speed and acceleration. also when playing in really thick mud i always make sure to have it in low gear. i have 27 inch mudlites and love them. i contemplated going 28s but went with 27's after hearing about all the axle issues with my year cat. have not had any issues with axles and i am VERY hard on my machine. i think you could get a way with 28's. only time i think i would be concerned is when in thick mud, climbing steep grades or when pulling very heavy objects such as large downed trees. again you have an auto so that belt is taking a lot of wear and tear when your atv is hung up and trying to spin those tires. stock lugged 28's no big deal however a set of mud tires will dig in and not spin so easy and all that force will have to be exerted somewhere. just my opinion.

 

I have the stock goodyear rawhide radial tires at 26" and they go through the crap just fine. Anyone else know much about these tires? I have been looking at the Gators but dont know if they are worth the money if I am happy with the stock tires

 

I just switched from the 26 inch stocks to 27 inch mud lites. I lost 10 mph off my top speed.

 

I run 26" mudlites with aluminum rims on my 400 manual. I did not notice a decrease in top speed as I usually don't like to go that fast. At slower speeds I did not notice a difference in power or power loss over the stock 25" dunlops. The only thing I discovered was that when towing the mudlites dig more so its easier to spin the tires into the ground and not gain forward momentum than it was with the 25" dunlops.

As far as performance goes I usually run between 3-8 psi in the mudlites depending on what I am doing. I know that the 26" mudlites have the same overall height as my stock 25" dunlop tires. When I measure the distance between the ground and the skidplate there is about 1/8" difference. If I jack the psi in the tires way up (10-12psi) there is almost a 2" diifference in height.

I have over 2500miles on my machine with the 26" mudlites and have not had a problem with axles, bearings and such. I still have the original brake pads as its a manual and I use the gearing to slow me down instead of the brakes.

I am sure the 27" tires weigh more but I am not sure how much more. There is a chart on Highlifter.com that lists tires specs. might check there.

Hope this helps

SJ

 

i put 26 in xtr mudlights on itp type7 and didnt notice any differnece in loss of power but thats on the manual 500. cats arent fast in the first place so whats the difference between 55mph and 52mph. Either way to fast for big quad.

 

I'm not conserned with top speed at all. I just want to be able to turn the tires over well in fairly thick mud. I'm leaning toward 27's now. Still planning on Mud Bugs. Any more thoughts? Thanks so far...