I think posting these Q's on the Yamaha forum was a waste of time... 0 replies. Hoping the good folks here can help.

I think I've narrowed down my tire to Bearclaws (although a little intrigued by the 489 XT, but I think the Bearclaw will be better all-round for hard pack/rocks/boulders/off-cantor riding). XT only seems slightly better for mud. Do you recommend staying with stock sizes (25x10, 25x8) and why? I was thinking of moving up to 26x10 and 26x12. Why should or shouldn't I do that?

Should i bother with alum rims or am I just wasting $$ for looks? My '03 450 kodiak has steel rims. I
already noticed a couple of dents. I saw ITP offers a cast alum rim, whereas Douglas has a .190 rim. ITP doesn't give guage and says theirs isn't measured that way since it's one piece cast, and not made from a roll of alum. They claim they're very strong, no problems. Same package price for both. Which would you get and why?.... OR, should I keep factory rims?

I'm hot to purchase, but really agonizing over this, so thanks very much for any help!

 

sorry no one is helping you out... I don't know why you couldn't go to a 26" tire... although the raised gear ratio & weight of a 26" tire, over a 25" tire make the aluminum wheels more important... you'll likely notice a lot less acceleration / power with the bigger tires... a carefull selection of bigger tire, mounted to an aluminum rim, may put you a close to the stock weight... the C series wheels generally have a 1" wider offset than most stock wheels... this may help you with both fit, & a wider stance can improve handling... I'd be as much concerned about tire weight, as tread if you are going to go with taller tires... look at the Mud Lites, & compare the weights of a tire like this, to the Bear Claws... the biggest performace improvement we've done to our class leading ( mud bog racing ) 300 Prairie, was to ditch the stock steel wheels & install my stock aluminum wheels off my 650 Prairie... the stock wheels on the "big" Prairie are only .016" aluminum wheels... you should be fine, with most .016 ( mid weight ), .019" or cast aluminum wheels...

 

thanks newbeatle, for being the only one to reply. You also gave me some info on another link. I ordered 2 Titan 489XT's (rear), plus 2 Mudlites for the front. was too hard to ignore the price from Nebraska tire, $70/pair for the Titans, shipping INCLUDED. I'm sure no matter what I put on will be better than stock Maxxis. I took your advice and splurged an extra $12 for 2 Mudlites over the Bearclaws, for the fronts.

 

oh yeah, too bad they didn't have any other sizes at Nebraska ,VERY limited selection.

I ordered the others from atvoutfitters.net in Greenville,SC. Anyone got any experience with them?Good or bad?also ordered skid plates from them, and a set of tires for Jr.'s LT80.