I have a 2000 Sportsman 500 that the front tires are finally just shot on so it's time to replace them. The back tires are still over 60% I would estimate. I don't have time to go riding for fun as taking care of my property and since last year taking care of my parents since my dad past away which will be a year next week and my mother can't do anything with the ground so I'm maintaining both and instead of using the tractor for the most of the stuff like taking care of fence rows, plowing snow, moving gravel, dragging down trees and using a rough cut mower as a few examples. I would like to stay at the stock size I think of 25x8x12 front and 25x11x10 on the back. I've looked at a lot of tires and I know that when you setup to 26's you get a deeper tread and all. I've looked at Mudlites and Bear Claws the most I would say. I also saw ITP AG tire kit which looks awsome I don't know if I want to spend that much on those tires as occassionaly when I'm going to work on a fence row or something it's nice to go faster then 5mph lol. So any opinions or anything from others who use there quad's like I do would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

Hello, I use sportsman 500's everyday for ranch work. Roughly 1000 acres + 1200 acres BLM. I have run the stock goodyears and they got cut bad in the rocks and leake horribly. I then bought some Gators, they are holding up excellent but are really too agressive for what I do. I purchased the ATR's and they are great seem to be holding up good (except for a fence staple in one and a nail in one) and ride very smooth. They are OK in mud as long as it's not too thick. They are kind of spendy though especially since you would need to get 12" rear rims. I just put a set of Mud Lites on the other sportsman and they seem to be great. I only have a couple hundred miles on them but they ride very well, grip excellent and do almost as well in the mud as the Gators. If I was starting over I would pass on the gators, just don't get into that bad of mud and the Mud Lites grip better, and take less power to turn.

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1997 Sportsman 500- 25" Mud Lites
2002 Sportsman 500HO- 25" ATR's or Gators

 

Oh yea one more thing the Gators slide sideways on hillsides much easier than the Mud Lites and especially the ATR's.

 

if you are doing alot of mowing, etc, then a more turf friendly tire will likely make your work easier... the ag kits are much too aggressive for mowing with... the ATR's would be a good choice, as are the Bad Lands XTR's, but they are very limited in sizes ... the Dirt Devils & Mud Lites, would likely work pretty well, however the Lites will likely wear pretty fast, if you use them on the road at all ( they are both available, in a wide range of sizes... also Kenda, & Duro, make several tires that may work well for you, & their prices are much lower than alot of the other brands

 

The types of mowing that I do are fence rows, road sides and things things of that nature. I use a rough cut so a turf friendly tires doesn't really matter to me. If I was doing finishing mowing with it that would be a concern of mine. But the places I'm mowing are on hill sides, wooded area, fields, things of that nature. Not around the houses or anything like that, with the exception of the road sides but those are also hills. Not too many flat area here in south western PA that is lol. I had taken a look at the Duro's but really couldn't find out too many people that are using them. I think I've kind of narrowed it down to the Kenda Bear Claws, Duros Excavator and the AMS Swampfox.

 

Just my thought but I bought a Sportsman with new Excavators on the rear and I couldn't get them off fast enough. It was like riding on egg shaped baloons. Also veyr bad lateral control. You can do lots better for about the same money.

 

Wow, that sounds pretty bad for the Excavators then. What did you switch to?

 

I put some wore out stock Goodyears on and they went down the trail much better. The Goodyear were on until the Mud Lites came in the mail. I'm pretty impressed with them as a agressive trail tire. Check my pic's the two red Sportsmans are mine the one in front has Mud Lites and the second one has Gators. On this trail the Mud Lites really shined, tha gators were kind of slippery. Pretty bad when your girlfriend can go everywhere you can LOL [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

 

ldouglas where in PA do u live!?

 

I live in a little town called Wind Ridge, home of the Jacktown Fair. Which is suppose to the the oldest continious running fair but that was some debate around these parts. But it's close to Waynesburg which is just south of Washington which is just south of Pittsburgh. I was thinking about maybe the Goodyear Mudrunners as well. Saw over the weekend where I could get a good price on them. A little over $50 per tire. Just a though.