Why do people widen their front wheel base? I was lookin at spacers for front that widen the base 3"

JDP

 

Making the ATV wider helps mainly to control rollovers, in doing so you can take a corner faster and usually make the rear of the ATV slide, instead of the whole unit wanting to tip over.
The wheel spacers are the economical way of making the fron of the quad 3" wider, instead of new A-arms, tie rods (and likely rod ends), and possibly brake lines. You just screw them in place of your wheel nuts, and then put the wheel nuts into them.

 

hey LT250Rodney do you have those wheel spacers on your quad, cause i was goin to buy knew a arms, but i saw those but i didn't know if i should get them or not cause i would think it might weaken your hub, or be more likely to break off a lug

 

ya i would not recomend wheel spacers you can wreck your tie rods and other stuff becaus more weight is put on the connecting bolt that puts the rim to the a arm contraption.

 

What does everyone else think about spacers? Would you just do spacers or a whole new setup with a-arms and all that if you wanted to widen?

 

Buy the a-arms when you can afford it, but you have to remember, when you put wider a-arms on you are going to have to change your shocks too. It's pretty expensive.
In the mean time, buy the wheel spacers and ride with confidance. I had wheel spacers on my Raptor for the first year and I rode very hard. Because your tires are farther out, that will be more leverage on your shocks and they will compress easier. This means you may bottom out easier on big jumps. But I'm over 200 lbs and I never had a problem.

 

Starky nailed it. Wheel spacers are just like getting longer arms. Both increase the leverage on your shocks and cause them to compress easier. I personally would not use them. My front end is stock, other than the shocks, god knows what they are, they were on it when I bought it.

If you are looking for a cheap way to widen your quad, consider this;

Take the front wheels off, tires and all. Drill a new hole on the opposite side of the rim that the valve stem is on, and again opposite the old one (like if the OEM hole is on the top you want the new one on the bottom of the other side of the rim, for the sake of balance. Remember for every action there is an equal or oppsite reaction! Makes sense to me).
Rip out the old valve stem, and replace it (not REUSE it) the opposite way (so the part you fill it with air points inside the tire) and put the new stem where the new hole is the normal way, so it points out. Rinse and repeat for the other side. This will widen your quad like 2" or something (cant remember off the top of my head, its been a few years). Its sorta the same cheesy ways as wheel spacers, but at least your wheel is still bolted the your hub.

 

LOL LT250Rodney, I'm still tryin to think about that one!