I sold that brute force and bought an 06 brute force with 150 miles on it, camo fenders, 2-up camo seat & 2 nice gun racks for $4500. A real nice & tight ATV- I'm thrilled with it. Effortlessly pulls the front wheels of the ground and has scary mid range power.

I always put 27" tires on my quads, it's not for mudding, mostly for a couple of extra inch's on the trails. We have a lot of roots & rocks in new england, the 27" tires give a much better ride (more rubber) and the extra height is very nice. I get worried about the axle with any tire over 27"- those 28"+ tires put a lot of strain on the drive train, slow the quad down too much and get unstable at any speed over 25mph, IMO.
I'm not into susp. lifts either- then cv joints start wearing and messing everything up.