Hey guys ,

I just bought a 2006 Sportsman 500 EFI Mossy Oak from Polaris of Chattanooga about 2 months ago . I have been really pleased with the performance of the ATV .
I have had 2 issues with tires and needs some help on which direction I should go to correct the problems

My tires are Polaris PXT 26x8x12 / 26x10x12
1. First outing in the woods I cut the front right tire sidewall by nicking a rock in a corner . Not that big of a deal being its a sidewall issue.

2. Last night we went on a 45 mile trail ride and had a stick punture straight through my right rear tire. Another ATV in front of me ran over it and kicked the stick and it was in my path .

Kind of sucks the first 2 trips have resulted in flat tires. hehe

What would be a good tire that will take a lil more abuse for trail rifing and going through mud and creeks ?

Also a buddy has a set of wheels and tires off a Stealth edition 800EFI he is wanting to sale with polished alum wheels , will those wheels/tires bolt right up on a 500 EFI without any backspacing or clearance problems ?

thanks for the help

 

Those rims and tire will work just fine f clearance issues! His studs are longer though, Polaris ATV's that come with aluminum rims have longer studs. If you don't change them out, you will get about 4-5 threads on it and they WILL strip out. The studs are about $1 ea., but kind of time consuming in replacing them. I did mine, you have to remove calipers and hubs, or remove caliper and loosen the rotor to slide the rotor in towards the quad for the longer ones to fit. Use your stock lugnuts to "pull" the studs into position. Make sure to get the correct lugnuts for whatver aluminum rim you choose. Sounds like kind of a hard project, but not too difficult.

 

amen to what the instigater says

 

are the PXT tires that came on my 500 2- ply ? From what I read on the type of riding I am doing I should get a 6-ply tire to take more abuse

thanks for the help guys

 

Rocky terrain is pretty harse on stock tires. Try for a 6ply. Someone told me that lower air pres. will help the tire "form" around the rock instead of resist it and slide over the rock which could cause sidewall issues! Not sure though. I don't do much rocky riding!

 

What P.S.I. wre in you tires......I run 5 pounds.......What it calls for..........caper..................
I got about 950 miles.... no stock tire problems yet I even have a few dings on the side of the rim I cover alot of ground where there is large rocks on some good slopes also.I guess I had good luck so far and that traveling with two 450's My wife's and mine............caper.............

 

have been running 7 psi . which i believe is whats on the sidewall


just gonna get a new set of some tires and go from their I guess

just got to make up my mind what tires to get

 

If you decide to change out tires (most of us do, it's just a matter of when) have a look at Mudlites (6 ply rated). I've been happy with mine since I got them, over two years ago I think. We see a lot of rock and sticks, almost all our use is in the woods hauling out fence posts, etc. and there's no worse place for sticks than a cutting area.

Still, if you drive over a dead log with "stickers" pointing straight up, you run the risk of punctures, I'm pretty careful. We run about 4 pounds or a bit less, I think Honda calls for 3.6, but no one I know is that fussy.

 

7 psi is the max air to run in the pxt's. it does say it on the sidewall. however i only run 4 to 5 in the wires 450 as shes lighter then me and she goes slower to contour to the terrain. how you hit the bad spots and how fast your going over them has alot to do w/ it. i cut my side walls in my xtr by hitting this rock to hard and not the proper angle so i cut the sside wall. the old baloon tires on the 3 threes only ran 2 to 3 psi because it was there suspenion so the less air sometimes makes for a better ride. but beware as i've sen tires rolled off rims on hard corners or a very hard hit.

 

Running 7# will make it steer and roll easier but ride quality, handling and traction will suffer. I personally run 4# in our trail machines (Swamp Lites and XTRs). 5# is what most people run but log hopping and traction in soft terrain improves with 4#s.