How much power loss did you guys notice from adding wheels and heavier tires? Was it minimal or something you noticed quite a bit? Ive been shopping for tires and pretty much anything I look at is 6 to 8lbs heavier per tire.

Ill be going from steel polaris XP wheels and Carlisle Terrathon tires. Fronts weight right in at 29lbs and the rears right around 34 for wheels and tires together.

I just received a set of SS212s today and the fronts weigh 12.2lbs and the rears weigh 13.6. I was gonna put 26" Terracross tires on them . The front terracross is 19.3 for the front and 31.8 for the rears. So Id be gaining 2.5lbs per wheel in the front and 11.4lbs per wheel in the rear.

Do you think Ill see a noticable performance loss from this wheel and tire combination? The machine is a 2010 Sportsman 550 XP.

 

when I switched from stock tires to 27" 589's (heavy tires) on my renegade 800- I didnt really notice much power loss at all. I think it might've thrown my mph off a little bit. I think your stock tires are 26"- so you probably wont have any effect on your mph.

 

I put 27" swamplites on stock polaris xp wheels on my 850, you can tell they are heavier than the terrathons but it handles them fine, I also lost some top speed and my speedo is off a little, terrathons are a cheap 2 ply tire,thats why there light

 

Golden Rule-The taller your tire, the more top speed you'l have.

And no, you wont notice much difference if at all, your bike has plenty of power...

 

If you move up in tire size and do notice a power loss issue you could always install a mild clutch kit might loose some top end but like 420 pimp said taller tires go faster there is always a way to tweek it it all depends what you want to do with it and personal prefrence.

 

Bigger tires will need to be clutched for.But you may not need a compete "kit" just lighten up the secondary spring a little and that will compensate for the heavier bigger tires.

 

You'll be fine with stock clutching - a few pounds will not make a noticeable difference. Have you had Terrathons before? I did and was very disappointed with them - lots of flats. Grim Reapers or Bighorns are a much more durable / better traction option.

 

x2 on the above statement-

stock clutch is fine until you start running with 28" or larger tires. That 550xp will handle it fine.

 

I'm running 27 inch spartacus tires on my 550 and the power loss really isn't anything to get worked up over. At wide open throttle from say 25-45 it might not pull quite as hard but the difference is really trivial. On the trail I don't notice it at all. It goes faster on the top end than I particularly care to go on a 4x4 ATV with a locked rear axle and flotation tires.

 

everytime I sell a 4x4 quad- they ask me "will it do 80mph?"

I'm like- "couldn't tell ya- my quad seldom sees speeds above 40!" and I've never had a quad above 60- even if it could-