Wheels & Your Opinion
 

i thought I would run a thread on wheels for all the people in my situation to see what others have done or would do.

Santa has a new fat set of 27" Mudlite for little bigbear03. I'm not mounting them on my stock rims. I have decided to sell my stock rims and tires to my brother for his 98' bigbear. If you are on the market for wheels what would you get. If you already bought whats your take and would you buy something different from what you have.

I have 3 main choices for my taste:

1) ITP C-Series Type 4: Good looking, late model, heavier than the new ones but fits the need and price is lower

2) ITP C-Series Type 5 & 6: Good Looking, new style , polished vs extra polished, very open design, super lite

3) Douglas Wheel "Rokstar": Brand new on the market, good price, know nothing about them but looks great

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

all of those wheels are good choices but some the type 4's are harder to keep clean. I however like the looks of the original C- series type 4's the best. I not very familar with the rock stars.

I would run a thread on how well a 400 handles the power loss associated with 27" mudlites befor you have them mounted. We have been doing some testing of some different wheel and tire combo's on our big bore quads and that unsprung weight eats HP like candy. We have seen quads that dyno out with 10 HP more than another quad and just running 25" bighorns will cause it to loose to quads that dyno 10 HP less running stock OE tires. I was dragg racing a BF750 the other day with our totaly stock 700 STP/prairie and beat it by 4 bike lenghts in less than 200 yards The BF had several perfomance modds and 27" muddlites. Just remember you can spend a 1000.00+ in performance modds and loose all those gains just by adding heavy tires.

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

Vision Wheels There as cheap as the Rokstars.

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

Yes, unsprung rotational weight will adversely affect performance, but for true utility applications, heavier is sometimes better. It will help with pulling, plowing and it also lowers the center of gravity. Also, stock steel wheels are more rock friendly in some of the rocky-muddy trails we use up at deer camp.

Light weight is better for speed oriented performance but sturdier (heavier) tires and steel wheels do have their places int he ultility world.

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

I not sure how raising the quad up 2" with taller tires is going to improve the center of gravity, maybe a heavy tire with the same oe hight would but I think the added hight hurts the center of gravity.

I have bent alot of steel wheels on rocks, granted never enough to cause a flat, but a cast aloy wheel will not bend and considering the weight of a quad and its rider breaking one is very unlikely. I have been using cast wheels for years on alot of rocky trails and no problems. I have hit large rocks at over 50mph and no wheel damage. A spun aloy wheel is softer than steel and will bend easy.

You can see both styles of Vision wheels with tires monted on them in my pics. I will say I am not sure if I like the 8" width or not but they are a good looking rim with a clearcoat for easy cleaning.

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

The 27" ML's are already purchased and under bigbear03's tree. I know the power consumption of the heavy tires will be noticed.

I dont drag race, jump or go fast. LOL I have a Bigbear total utility work horse. I rarely get out of 3rd gear.

I think an aluminum wheel is going to help in weight over a steel wheel. Also I do have a 2" moooselift already installed and taller tires is going to raise my center of gravity, point taken. However i also already have Highlifter 1.5" spacers to remedy that issue or help.

Other than weight the wheel purchase is totaly cosmetic.

PS) You guys that alreay ready have ML's I notice the tire says 7 psi max. How much air can put in those things? i want to run atleast 10-15lbs psi.

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

cc1999, My comment in regards to lower CG was assuming tires and wheels of the same size. Obviously having the axles higher (in a concentric arrangement) will raise and therefore make worse, the CG. Sorry if I stated it in a confusing way.

I too love reducing unsprung weight, especially unsprung weight that rotates! lighter wheels can allow sturdier (heavier) tires without undue weight gain but while aluminum wheels look great and provide all of the weight reduction benefits, steel is less likely to chip or crack aorund the bead. I've been to Moab many times with Jeeps and the serious rock junkies all go steel because its so forefiving.

With all of that said, I do like aluminum wheels, especially billet over cast, but will likely keep my stock tires and steel wheels for deer camp where everyone's steel wheels are dinged and dented all around the bead. Just my two cents.

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

A couple of things not brought up:
A larger tire means an effective change in gearing, a loss in low end, but gain on the top. If you are working the quad, the larger tire will cost some of the low-end grunt.

An aftermarket rim offers changes in backspacing an the oppurtunity for a wider stance, improving stability, not to mention the larger (wider) than factory tires doing the same.

Bottom line, you already have the wheels. The mudlites are some of the lightest tires out there, so the size increase will be negligable from the weight perspective, so a lighter rim will help.

Personally I like the C type 5 rims, I am afraid the even lighter type 6 with a thinner lip will incur more damage from rocks than the type 5.

Best of luck, & keep us informed!

Happy holidays!!!!

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

That was what I was talking about when I stated cast was a good wheel for ATV's concidering the weight of the ATV and it rider is so light. Where jeeps and other large offroaders, cast wheels may not work so well in extream terrain. But they seem to work great on ATV's in extream terrain.

Wheels & Your Opinion
 

As far as power loss goes, I wouldnt worry about it. I run My Bear through hell and I dont have any problem with my larger tires causeing problems. You are running a lesser aggressive, lighter, and smaller tire than I am. When I had 27's on my Bear the only time that I noticed it was in the really thick stuff, It didnt change a whole lot when I went up to the 28's. After I put the pipe on it, I noticed a difference for the good.
As for your wheel question, look at it like this, when the original C-series came out, I wanted some so bad but I never bought any, really glad to because a few months later, everybody had some. Same way with the type-4's and Type 5's. I dont know about the new douglas wheels yet. I dont know why many dealers dont push douglas wheels over ITP's really. I carry both, there isnt as much money in the douglas so I am guessing thats why. So I would rather go with the Douglas over the ITP's, There a really nice wheel but I dont think that you are going to see as many of the Rockstars everywhere like you will the ITP's and so there going to look that much better.