There is no comparison. You will be amazed with the Pitbulls. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. It took me a couple of weeks to decide between the Rockers or Growlers. Did you get the 6 ply or 8 ply?

 

Just put on my 25.5" Growlers on 12" wheels last night & I was smilin' like a butcher's dog! I am astonished with how thick the sidewall rubber is on these! It has to be 3 times as thick as my old Carlisle 489's. Maybe a difference going from a bias 3 ply to a radial 6 ply?

The lugs on these are aggressive as hell. I've heard that photos don't do justice to these. Now I believe it...

I took my quad for a short ride on hard pack & was immediately impressed with how quiet they are & how much better they handle than my Carlisle 489's. There is significantly less body roll with these tires, making handling leaps & bounds better!

Oddly enough, my steering effort was noticably less too... I don't know why, but I will take it!

One of my fears was going to a tire that was so much heavier. (robbing power) All of those concerns were laid to rest. What I found was that I noticed a little power loss when I really get on it. But, I am riding on an 800 so I still have more than enough power and the loss is only barely noticable for how I ride.

I didn't get to try anything challenging yet. No mud or hills or rocks yet... I will let you know how that works out.

Right now I am runnning 5.25 lbs pressure all around. I have a little pooch in all of the tires and the ride is nice and smooth. I am may go up to 5.75 lbs and try that after I ride a little more. I used to run my Carlisle 489's between 5.5 - 6 lbs. Any suggestions as how to determine what tire pressure to run?

Wish I knew how to add a photo from my computer...

 

I haven't been disappointed after riding with these tires for a few trips. I have hit steep hills, rocky climbs, and moderate/light mud without any issues. These tires are as advertised.

The biggest benefit of these to me is the added stability of the radial design. Having a heavy 2-up Polaris, the old tires used to roll under when I turned. The added stability completely changed to the positive!

I haven't really attempted any deep mud, so I can't comment on that.

I will keep you all posted as I continue to try these out.

 

I got some nice riding in yesterday with the new tires. They have been excellent so far. I am still looking for that sweet spot for the tire pressure. I started at a high pressure and have been dropping weight 1/4 lb at a time. I am going to take it down to 5 psi next time.

I decided to attempt to cross a creek yesterday that I never was able to with my OEM tires. The creek has a very soft mud bottom and I only made it to the other side in AWD in the past, but was never able to climb the bank. Well that was before yesterday. I made it across the creek in 2wd. (These tires clean very nice for being a trail tire.) Then in AWD after one failed attempt, I made it up that bank that I never was able to climb before. Impressive!!!

I drove over several wet logs without much of an issue. I wasn't overly impressed with crawling over the logs. Not better.. Not worse...

I climbed a few hills that I haven't tried in a while. On those steep hills I did notice that my engine was working harder than normal, but I think it was mostly due to these tires digging in more than the OEMs. And wow do they dig! I was able to glance back at one point and it looked like I was a speed boat in the water spraying up water. (or dirt in my case)

I do notice a little power loss when wide open. It takes a little longer to reach top speed, but I rarely am able to run wide open where I ride. The only other negative so far is that I can feel everything under the tires. I think that it is due to being a radial tire. (and not flexing as much as bias ply) I hit a rocky section and I got beat up a little. I am adjusting the tire pressure to see if that makes any difference.

Overall, these tires are excellent. The handling and steering of these tires are amazing! I have put them through some difficult conditions and they haven't left me down yet. Time will tell how they hold up.

 

During the last two weeks I was able to run out a tank of gas and get some good deep snow riding in to test out my Growlers. Me and another fellow went out last Saturday.

We had two back to back snowfalls last week. The first left 10" of snow, the second left 6" of snow. Some of the snow packed down, so it was probably closer to 11" - 12" deep.

I was riding my Polaris Touring 800 with the 25.5" Growlers, and my buddy was riding a Yamaha Grizzly 450 with 25" Maxxis stocker tires.

I know that my quad has more ground clearance, so all factors aren't equal. I broke trail for the 4/5's of the ride and had zero issues with traction. I did however have to winch out my friend 3 times. I was thinking that maybe his lack of ground clearance was the issue, so I left him inf front to break trail in the snow. That didn't last very long...

I had to pull him out several times as he got stuck even with his front locker engaged. He was really struggling. I took over the lead and I had no issues. I just had to keep checking back on him to see if he needed pulled out. (and he did multiple times)

My Pitbull tires just clawed and dug in sending me forward. Hills were a challenge. Neither of us could make it up long hills that were at about a 45 degree + angles, but I did pull him up several shorter steep hills after he got stuck.

I found myself thinking about my tires and comparing them to past riding and plowing with my old stock Carlisle 489's. The Growlers definitely grip better in turns, dig wayyyy better. (Almost beyond comparison) Oh... And not to mention how these things clean out.. Wow.. I was sucked down into hidden mud holes under the snow and had no issues getting out. I was throwing all kinds of mud and snow. After making it threw the mud holes I checked and was pleasantly surprised at how well these cleaned out.

As for the wear of these tires, I haven't put on all too many miles yet. Maybe around 200 miles. I can only see the edges of the tread starting to wear. (but hardly) I am expecting to have these for several thousand miles at this pace. (maybe 3,000 as a guestimate)

All that I have to say about these tires is..... AMAZING!

 

Thanks for the update. Still waiting for someone in these parts to get a set of Growlers so we can compare head to head with the Rockers. So far the Rockers have been pretty much unstopable with about 1,000 miles on them now.

 

One upgrade that I did back in October (due to the heavier tires) was a new clutch spring from Dalton. Before the new spring I didn't have much of a decrease in power, except when I really got on the throttle. However, I decided to upgrade. I think that the spring was something like $15 - $20 and took a few minutes to install.

The results were amazing. My low end was way torquier and the top end remained the same. It is a very cheap upgrade and a very noticible benefit. My quad feels better than new!