I'm looking at several different aftermarket rims for my Hawkeye. No one sells an 12X8" rim for the rear, they are all 12X7". Any problems mounting up the 23" Swamp Fox tires I now have on the rear 8" factory rim on to a 12X7" one?

 

There shouldn't be any problem. Most aftermarket wheels only come in one size, 7", for front and rear. You end up with a lot more of the sidewall bulging out over the rear wheels but it works.

 

a 12x7 rim will be fine. i put a 10x5 on the front of mine and the stock is 10x6.the tire has a little more rounded look to it.

 

as mentioned above most of the aftermarket brands have gone to a standard 7" width since it seems to be a one size fits all thing that helps them trim manufacturing costs...to further frustrate things, most companies sell only 12x7 rims in a 4-3 offset for Polaris bikes which kind of limits what you can do...There are a couple companies that still sell a 12x8 rim with 4-4 offset for the older Polaris rigs...If I'm not mistaken Vision Wheel still offers this size

Kind of a raw deal to spend the big $$$$ for nice rims and still have to fork over more for spacers to get the right fit or look!

 

Another note: You will find that the 12x7 rears with 10" or 12" tires will fit fine and the side wall will actually do a better job of protecting the rim and tire bead, but unfortunately, the opposite is true up front since the wider rim on the narrower front tire will expose the rim and tire bead a bit more then stock! So a little extra care would be a good thing here!
You will get wider footprint up front also!

Here is a pic of the new 12x7 Douglas Rattlesnakes with 25x8 and 25x10 Swamplites on my SP 400 HO...could have actually gone with 25x10s all around!

 

Nice ride you got there. If I recall correctly, a lot of the earlier Polaris quads like my '97 had 6" front wheels and 8.5" rears that worked great with 8" front tires, 1" past the rim, and 11" rears, 1.25" past the rim. Now with 7" wheels, the same 8" and 11" widths are 1/2" past the front rim, no protection, and 2" past the rear rim. The amount of tire sticking out past the rim was originally almost the same front and back. Now the rear tires stick out 4 times as far. It looks even worse with 12" tires sticking out 2.5" past the rim, 5 times as far as the fronts. I've NEVER seen anything like that on cars, trucks, or motorcycles.

It was really hard getting used to the sight of that when my friend got aftermarket wheels and tires on his Kodiak. It was so goofy looking until I got used to it. The front looked good and the back was like... Dude, WTF is wrong with your rear tires? Did they sell you the wrong wheels?

 

Thanks Jumbo, the new rims set the tires out a ways, I really like the added stability from the extra width!

 

Jokout I have the same sportsman and i was thinking of getting those rims but 14". will those fit?

 

also, will 26" tires work on those rims on the sportsman 400?