My signature says 26"x12"....the 12" being the wheel diameter. The tire is in fact 11" wide which if you read your own post....you were talking about width. Again....the offset is the same as stock.....the width is the same as stock..... and there are no spacers.

I fully understand your point that added offset, and spacers increase the relative stress on wheel and suspension components. I agree. In my case, however, these factors were not present and therefore were not a contributing factor.

As I stated in my previous posting, it is my belief that the cumulative effect of rough terrain contributed to the failure. Metal fatigue at high stress areas seems the most likely explaination. It is also my belief that the design and quality of the components should take this into account and the design, quality of components and manufacture of the set up should be robust enough to prevent the failure indefinately when a stock configuration is used.

 

Bryce.... I have no idea where you are coming from. I was talking about advertising the tires, since Sportsman's, acorrding to the people here, can't handle the tires. You took me to a Raptor post? What freaking Raptor do you know of that has Mudzilla's on it? If,... you thought that I was advertising the spacers,.... why would I care what Raptor guys felt about them? Wouldn't ya think Grizz would be the place to check. Thanks for the concern, but I already know they are a different bolt pattern anyway. So know, I let you waste EVEN MORE of my time!

 

Not to waste any more of your time than is completely necessary, but your stock wheels appear to have way to much offset. No offense, but are you sure you do not have the rims on backwards? Same question to you Backinthesaddleagain.

 

That must be it!!!......I had better check my car too. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Look at his side view of the right front tire in his pics. It appears that I can see the edge of the inside hub where it welds to the wheel. We should not be able to see that if the wheels were on right.

 

Just to quickly chime in; I ride with several Polaris riders. The only time I've seen these bolts break is when someone catches some big air and usually after many repeated jumps. From an engineering standpoint wheel spacers on any machine increase the leverage factor on the suspension components far beyond what the original design limits were. It's all a matter of physics. If leverage and weight forces exceed the parts strenght the part fails, simple as that. Most all types of motorsport's engineers frown on wheel spacers. Some internet searches on this will give much info as to why wheel spacers are not usually a good idea.

 

i agree with bryce, i never noticed it till he said that

 

I do understand sometime pics can be descieving(hey we need a spell check option[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]), I take that as a compliment. We all want our paint jobs to have depth[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Although I hurried this paint job, you can tell from the previous color(yellow) sneaking in here and there, from scratches. There are 2 new pics up of the tires in question. I had them on correct.

 

I am glad your buddies haven't broken. All I know is mine has. Let me make a repeated statement. Wheel spacers and offset rims essentially do the samething. Basically you are moving tire tracking. The quad width is affected. The tires are farther apart. The tire will stick out farther. I have run out of ways to say it. Would you guys be giving me this much grieve, if I had a +1.5" offset rim with no spacer? I could do that and have the tires exactly where they are now. I would have done that, but I had a set rims already. An offset wheel has a built in spacer, so to speak! It makes the tires stick out farther just like my spacers do. You guys are telling me about physics and geometry, I understand those points. You all act like spacers are to blame, and offset rims is the cure.

You also have helped my complaint. I realize that bolt will break if over stressed. That is what I am complaining about. The stress should be put on the bushing. Have you looked at my broken pic? That bushing barely slides into the hub. You could almost say that the bushing does not go into the hub at all. It is almost flush with it. The bolt receives almost a scissor action. I say scissors because, the arm continually pushes down and the hub is resisting because it is on the ground. The steel bushing is not in the hub far enough to offer any stress relieve. The bolt takes the abuse! I agree! I have covered all of this!

Look guys, this is the only thing that I dislike about the quad. I think some of you may have given your biased oppinions, in which they are welcome. It just baffles me that you guys are so defensive. It's like someone is talking about your mom. This is the only fault I see, worth griping about. I think wheels almost falling off is a big deal. If I break where I ride, There is no way of getting the truck for a rescue operation. It would be mighty hard on the old Grizz to tow me with 3 wheels all "THE WAY OUT"!

Broken Quad

 

I have an '03 Sportsman 600 and I've broken the bolt in the exact same location both times. Once with about 150 miles and once with about a 1000 miles on it. the dealor in Utah that fixed it the 2nd time said it was a common problem with Polaris that he's seen at his dealorship. I don't jump it and I don't pull anything with it, just easy trail-riding. Sorry to give you the bad news.