Thought some of you might be interested in what I've found out going from the stock 20" rear tires on the Raptor to 22" Razrs. Ground clearance was the deciding factor but as you'll see it wasn't that much of an improvement. I went to 12/44 gearing in an attempt to maintain the same overall ratio as the 12/40 with stock tires. It feels pretty close, but if anyone can do the math and figure in the larger tires I'd like to know how close it is.

Stock clearance: Sprocket 4 1/4", brake rotor 4 1/4"

Clearance with 22" Razrs: Sprocket 4 7/8", brake rotor 5 3/4"

The Pro-Tech stainless steel swing-arm skid plate could have had a little less clearance between the sprocket and the guard but only by 1/4 - 3/8".

To go with the 22" tires I had the following expense.

22" vs. 20" tires and rims $ 20
Sidewinder 44 tooth sprocket 130
Sidewinder chain 80
----
Total $230

Was it worth it?? I don't know yet. I need to ride more with my buddies who have stock Raptors.

 

I didn't do the math this time, but I can tell you that you are now overall geared lower than when you had stock gearing and stock tires.

I would think that you had gained more ground clearance based on my experience. I put some Holeshot XCT 22" on mine and it was well over an inch of extra clearance.

The down side to the heavy tires is that it slows your drag racing down a bit, but the upside is that you can tackle hills with ruts and other obstacles without worrying too much about getting high-centered.

I'm running a 12/43 combo. With 2 large holes cut in airbox lid, 25 pilots, 150/155 mains with needles raised all the way up, I can hit 74-75 MPH (GPS measured) depending on the weather. I'm at 450 ft above sea level.

 

Im not saying that you are wrong, but isnt stock gearing 13/40? I havent put larger tires on mine yet but I can tell you that the Raptor has plenty of power to pull a 14 tooth front with ease.Of course I dont hillshoot or trail ride much.

 

You're right, stock gearing is 13/40 but most everyone has found that going to 12/40 or even 11/40 with the stock tires really helps for trail riding. I was running 12/40 before I got the 22" tires and I wanted to keep that low gearing or perhaps go even a bit lower. For trail riding in the Rockies you need the low speed crawling ability more that the 70+ mph top end. The lower gearing also gives you even more exceleration at low speeds, provided of course that you can keep the front end down.

 

Going with a 12/44 sprocket combination along with the 22 inch tall rears will almost exactly be the same as the original 12/40 combo with the 20 inch rear tires.
I have a lotus spreadsheet that has all of the info "pre-plugged in" (primary gearing-secondary gearing-individual gear ratios-etc) for the Raptor. If you want, I can send it your way.

 

garyc660r,

If you wouldn't mind, please e-mail me your spread sheet. I too am going to be using 22" rears here soon.

Thanks, I really appreciate it!
Swytak

 

Our new Raptor is due any day now. The durablue axle and nerf bars are waiting in the carport (quadport?). On my DS, I put 22 & 23 XCT's and went down two teeth on the countershaft.
I think it is a little lower than stock. But now we have an extra set of tires if we stay with 20's on the Raptor. Guess we'll ride it and see
what it needs.
The DS is really working good.
You can stuff it into a corner way too fast and hit the brakes or hit the gas and shoot right through. The difference between this thing stock and post mods is night and day. I expect similar results with the Raptor. This is going to be like a real life shoot-out. I'm sure the Raptor will be at an initial disadvantage, since the DS has had a month and $1,400 put into in. But then as we dial it in, who knows? The magazines just stop when a quad hits a tough spot, but we modify and improve. Even that modified DS vs.modified Raptor shoot-out kinda went too far with the Raptor and not far enough with the DS.

 

Joe,
Something's wrong with your report on the ground clearance after the mods unless your new skid plate has really different clearances between the right and left side. Notice that your sprocket ground clearance only increased by less than 3/4 of an inch, but your brake rotor clearance increased by 1 and 1/2 inches. My Armadillo skid plate has exactly the same clearance under both sides. There is about 3/8 of an inch between the stock sprocket and my Armadillo plate and also about 3/8 inch clearance between the brake rotor and my Armadillo plate.

Good luck,
Lorrin Lee

 

Go to Raptorzone they have a gear ratio chart.

 

The reason that there is a difference between the right and left sides is because the brake rotor didn't change in size but the sprocket did. Since the skid plate was custom made I had them increase the depth of the sprocket side by 1/2", and leave the brake rotor side the same. The clearance between the sprocket and the skid plate came out more than it needed to be by about 1/8" - 3/8", so the resulting ground clearance is reduced by that amount. I think you have to measure ground clearance at the lowest point, which in my case would be the sprocket side.