I had the same stock tires on my 400ex that i do now on my 05X and they did great in the snow. kinda like a knobby paddle, just dont get into thick powder.

 

well when I ride in the winter i ride everywhere, trails, river, the dam, so i climb hills that are like 70 degress covered with snow, and i usually make it up every hill, unless theres about 6"or more of snow, than my back end drags, my buddy bought a new set of 22" realtors for his 400ex, on flat ground he could go further(keep in mind mine are half worn), but when it came to the hills i could fly by him, his machine would bog even with correct gearing,
but like mrds650 said "More tire on the ground - more traction.", so whatever tire you buy make sure it has a flat profile, thats why in the winter i can go further with my realtors than my larger excavators

 

what about paddles? seems they would be better than any knobby tire?

 

anybody tried the maxxis 4 snow??

 

Im am right there with Nick650, I thought my realitors would perform much better in the snow than they do. I'm not going to run them for another year. They were ok in a evened out 3in of snow but when I would hit some drifts they didnt want to push the quad very much. I have heard great things with the Maxxis 4 snows and will prob try those next. Has anyone tried out the Scat track all terrain paddles in the snow and trails?

 

i think i'm going to go with maxxis 4snow myself u think it's necessary to have .190 rims? i;m also looking into rear beadlocks...so whats everyones favorite???

 

I would say if your just using the rims in the snow then you wouldnt need .190s, the snow gives quite a bit of cushin so I doubt you would need the extra strength, may as weel get lighter rims to lightin the quad. And the same with beadlocks, the snow is going to give before the tire bead does. If you going to use them in the summer and on hard pack then you might look into them. For the snow only I would not see a need for them myself.

 

As others have mentioned, it may not necissairly be the traction of the tire, but the clearances. I found the holeshots were good for traction, but with deeper snow, as soon as your skidplate/swingarm hits the deep snow, it slows the quad down, then the tires just dig, leaving you sitting on the skidplate. It depends on what type of snow you mean.... just a few inches or like 15 inches. The DS sure makes it's weight known when you're good and stuck i'll tell ya that right now...


Oh and another thing, we have here about i'd say 7 inches of snow already... and i have ate it twice already...lol... Your driving habits do definately need to change, if you hit a little deeper snow with one side of the quad than the other side, it has a tendancy to pull fast and hard to that side, causing wheels to face the sky. My incidents were entering ditches off of the highway and at an angle, one of the front tires enters first, drags the quad sideways, and you're going way too fast to do anything about it. My shoulder hurts........

Hope this helps

 

Well, the test results are in. My bud's Baja has 22inch Vampires on the rear, and we have drag raced em', hill climbed em', stuck em' in the mud, soft sand, just about everything around my area to go through, and they are not even comparable to my MudMachines. He rode my bike up some of the hills and various places. He could not believe how much more traction mine has than his. These are brand new tires too, just like mine. He is now buying a set of MudMachines. There was that much difference. No lie. I was really surprized too, cause those Vampires are some angry lookin' suckers too. Really BIG lugs. When you dump the clutch & hammer it in soft sand, you can feel the rear of his bike drop a few inches and dig. The front stays on the ground. Mine, jerks the front end almost instantly. No comparison. Just thought you guys would like to know. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

how heavy and what ply are those tires of yours allredbomber