I asked this question in another forum and did not get a reply. I have 04 450 Kodiak, I ride occasionaly when I can. I use it to hunt and fish and trail ride. I like to cruise creek beds and blaze new trails. I do snow and mud, but do not mud bog, I do not ride double and I do not jump my quad. Million dollar Question, with my riding habits will wheel spacers tear up my quad???????????

 

probably not

You will feel a little more bump steer, and your steering parts may wear a bit faster.

 

Get some offset wheels for it like the itp c series. Most are +1 or so offset.

 

I reversed the wheels on the front of my Raptor, it added a little stability, but it wasn't worth the terrible handling. Bumps tend to feed back in to the handle bars. Also, I bent the tie rods.

It messes up the steering geometry. If you draw an imaginary line thru the upper and lower ball joints, the line should intersect the center of the front tire where it touches the ground. This is so your front wheels pivot instead of swing. Reversed wheels or spacers cause your wheels to swing. This requires for steering force and adds bump steer.

I got rid of them quick. I found that wheel spacers on the back had a better effect on stability than they did on the front.

 

Well said Master,

Spacers are ok on the back for the most part, but up front you are indeed messing with steering geometry.

Perhaps a slightly fatter tire would give you a wider stance without giving up anything in terms up handling.

I went an inch wider on the front tires on my Warrior because I wanted a little more stability up front in the corners. I went from 21-7-10 to 21-8-10 to get a bit of a wider foot print up front and it has been fine. I notice a little bit more tread on the ground up front which is what I was going for, and there has been no negative effects at all.

 

Most of the guys that I ride with run wheel spacers on there 4x4's and have never had a problem of any kind. You will get more of the trail debris on you than you would have previously though. Also, if you choose to install spacers, use the Highlifter wide-trac aluminum ones instead of the durablue graphlite. We have had problems with the graphlite ones breaking