Oh yeah, I forgot about you having the '99 with stock 26's. What did they measure to give you 1.25" clearance gain, that's pretty good! You don't know the "true" measurements of the 27" bugs do you? You could help it out a bit by increasing pressure, at the expense of smooth ride, but all depends on the style of riding one does I guess. I'm curious now to know what my stockers measure at 6 psi. Better check that this weekend.

Mike

 

Your stock tires must be smaller then the dimensions on the tire itself. Or the 27" Claws are larger then the dimensions on that tire. Going from a 26" to a 27" should only give you .5" greater clearence. Assuming you had 26" stock tires. Going from a 25" to a 27" should give me about 1" greater clearence. I would like to go with a 28". But I don't know if they will fit. And I'm not interested in lifting the Griz.
Cowboy, thanks for the info. I'll go to Highlifter and look at those tires also. I've never replaced an ATV tire before. Jeez, I didn't know there were that many to choose from.

 

Grizz:
I'm with you on the added height issue. I'm running 25" stockers, and increasing to the 27" should theoretically give me an increase of approximately 1", if all measurements of tires are what they claim. Now, if the 25's are smaller than they claim, or the 27's are larger, then the clearance gains will be slightly larger. Though, I'd be surprised if a tire was claimed at 27", and actually measured more than that. You'd think that for profit making abilities, they'd call it the next size bigger, and sell for a higher price. I'm going to check my stockers to see what they measure under normal load. I'm hoping that by switching to the 27" size, I'll gain that extra inch, and that should be about perfect for my needs. Seems when I do get hung up crossing logs on an uphill path, just by simply getting off the machine and giving it throttle, it pulls it's self over. It's my weight that makes the difference, so hopefully the extra inch will be enough. As for the tires available, damn, where do you start? I can't believe the number of styles of tires available, not to mention sizes! treadpot.com has a huge list of tires, not carried by highlifter even. I still think the Mud Bugs are probably my best choice though, for my needs.

Good luck with the search,

Mike

 

As it turned out the hole in my tire was in fact too large to patch. I went to Les Schwab for the patch job. A local tire outfit.
I have a set of 36" Buckshots in my garage that I run on my truck when I want to go out and do some wheeling. Since I really don't go out wheeling with my truck all that often anymore since I've owned quads, I thought they might make a good trade in on some new tires! As it turns out they are a semi-good trade in. The only 27" tire that Les Schwab has for an ATV are Titan 589's. They agreed to give me a striaght across trade for my Buckshots! I paid $209 each for my Buckshots, but I've owned them for two years now. I only put them on my truck when I wanted to go out wheeling. Otherwise they were just sitting in my garage. They wanted $133 each for the Titans. So I though that was a semi-good deal!? The new tires will be here on Friday. You can be sure that I will be out on the Griz Saturday, or Friday night if I can get free. At any rate thanks for all the info you guys!

 

Ok, before I get the impression that I'm being called a liar, I'll type what I remember. I was really meticulous about this too. I measured the cat at the three points that I normally do. Front skid, middle belly, and rear differential drain plug. Even did the rear axle too.

There was about 1.25 inches difference everywhere. I did the math and it didn't sound right either.

This is what you have to consider though. Not all tires measure true to what they say. If you have that dirtwheels mud tire review (a few months ago), they measured everything, and the claws were about the only ones that measured the same if not more than they claimed. Blackwaters and Vamps and Bugs were all .5 inches to 1 inch shorter.

I measured the 26" titans the other day, and they are like 24.5" right now mounted. Do the math or whatever, but my figures are going from the tape measure. I measured it a few times too. Nothing optimistic here. I don't brag. I try to give the most accurate things I can in order to help others and give them solid material for use in purchasing or whatever they are looking for. Ask around. Its true.

Grizzly guy- don't pay that crap price for those tires. Check all of these first (Cawoodtire.com, Highlifter.com, and rockymountainatv.com) They will have better prices. Shipping around $50. Still a better deal than $133. I didn't look but if you are in Canada, I could easily be wrong due to the change in dollar ammount.

I measured the 495's once when they were off the quad too. They measured close to the claimed height (not quite though). I think the stiffer sidewalls of the claws hold up better under the weight of the quad personally. Maybe that makes the difference. Don't know. I just know that they gave me a little more than an inch gain in clearance.

 

Andy dude, I don't doubt your numbers. Its just that in order to gain 1.25" of additional ground clearence you would have to have a tire that was 2.5" taller over all then from where you started. If you have a absolute 25" tire and you replace it with an absolute 27" tire, you would only lift the vehicle 1". So in order to gain 1.25", you would have to have a tire that was 2.5" taller over all. Also I don't doubt that I could find a better price on the Titans. Its just that the places with better prices probably wouldn't take my 2 year old Buckshots as a stright across trade! So for me its a semi-good deal. Know what I mean?

 

Andy:
No, hang on a minute, I wasn't by any means saying that. I haven't been around that long, be a year in Jan, or Feb I think, but in that time, I've never known you to state false information. Of anybody on here, you're definately the one who tells it like it is, no matter what you really would like to believe. (I.E. good and bad points of both the 'Cat and SP500) I really appreciate that about your posts, you can bet they're as close to the gospel truth as you can get.

I was just curious about the math, I haven't measured my 25's, and since the Claws are true to their size, I was kind of hoping to gain more than the 1" that you would "theoretically" gain from going from a "pure" 25 to a 27. The tire size will also be affected when it is actually mounted on the machine, compared to just standing by itself, and also how much weight is on the machine, as well as air pressure. To justify Grizz's remarks, your 495's are probably very worn down now (aren't they a couple years old now?), and would therefore be a much more significant gain than going from a pure 26 to a pure 27.

Oh, I also forgot to ask you in the other post a few minutes ago, what pressure do you run in the 'Claws? Also, are they 9" fronts, and 12" rears? I also hate to say it, but since speaking with HL today, and your last remarks, I've begun to look into the 'Claws as well. The Bugs seem to be just barely over 26", and with HL confirming that the weight won't be an issue, now I'm back at square one.

Anyway, sorry about the misunderstanding!

Mike

 

Actual measurements were like 8.5" front (I think) and 11.something rear. Too bad they aren't still mounted. I would go down there and check them for you.

 

Andy:
How many times have you had the tires taken off and put back on the same rims? I was just thinking that I could just buy the tires now, and get some rims in a month or two down the road, just use my dad's 'Cat for work. I would think that pulling the stockers off the rims, putting on 'Claws for a while, then swapping again would be OK. I was just thinking about straining the bead by changing them too much. Maybe nothing to worry about. Also kind of messy with the slime in there. Do you run slime in the 'Claws? As thick as they are, you probably wouldn't have to. My 489's got a hole in them and I had to use slime, luckily it saved my butt and is still working great. Might add it to the new tires just as a precausionary measure.

Mike