Finally got my wheels in for my Grizzly this Friday. I even got the winch in the same day. The next morning, I had everything mounted. I swapped the crappy hawse fairlead that the yamaha winch came with out on my AC and put the roller on the Griz.

The ITP chrome wheels are the same rim for the front and back of the griz, and they do the job in widening it. I found a spot between two trees that I just barely squeezed through, and I had gone through this easily when it was stock. I'll say this, the wheels and tires bog down the 660 big time in high range. For driving on roads, its fine. It doesn't have that blast of takeoff power that is has with the light stockers, but you can manage. In the woods and up steep hills, you absolutely have to have it in low range. I guess its just the way the transmission is setup. It doesn't pull up steep stuff at all in high. In low, there isn't any problem at all.

As far as speed with the 27"'s on, I got 56 on flat pavement according to the speedometer (which will be more accurate now, it was 5mph fast according to the gps.) I hit 61 on a downgrade dirt road in 4wd though.

Well, after finding out that I will be using low range in the woods from now on, I decided to check the stability with the wider setup. One word, unbelievable! I would rate it as good if not better than my AC500 swingaxle in the sidehills. I was able to go in a couple of spots that the AC wouldn't. It never felt like it was going to flip either. The AC would probably go there too, but it was a sidehill with a sharp turn back up and thats where I had to lock it to get back out. The AC wouldn't have flipped but its differential would have left me in a tight spot here.

As far as ground clearance, here is what I got. Rear sway bar is not on the bike right now. Rear preloads at the middle setting, front preloads at the next to the stiffest setting. I measured 13" up front, 12.5 in the ***, and almost 12" in the middle. Pretty good. I don't see any need for anything else like a lift. I straddled a massive rock to get back out of this real craphole I found, and if I had a straight axle bike, I would have had to look for an alternative route.

It rides considerable rougher, but thats to be expected. I've got 6psi in the front and 4psi in the rear right now. I have to do that to make the tires even. Too bad I couldn't have a narrower front rim. That would make the fonts balloon out more and I could keep the pressures the same.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the quad. I ran it through some deep water again yesterday and not a hint of slippage or coughing. If I want to go into the crap, then I can use the Claws, and if I want to dust somebody's ***, I can put the stockers back on. All the bike needs now is some oxlites and a new skid plate whenever somebody makes them. I only put two pictures up so far, but I will try and take some more later on.

 

One more thing. The rear tires did rub a little when you hit a bump or squatted the suspension. (maybe more because I have the sway bar off). I took a little coping saw and cut a 3"x1/2" piece off the little splash guards and that problem is solved. Didn't make it look bad either.

 

Just curious, did you go with the steel chrome ITP's or chrome aluminum wheels? Did you use the 12x7 size all around? I'm shopping for wheels for my 2000 Kodiak and can't decide between the two.

 

ITP steel chrome. 12x7, same offset front and rear (same wheel). $220 shipped to NW Arkansas- 3 days delivery time. Same thing when I got the ones for my AC.

 

Man I wanted bigger tires but I dont want to loose performance that much and it looks like it did i dont know what to do now.

 

Going with the much lighter aluminum wheels, similar to the stock ones, should really help reduce this "loading effect". The bigger tires weight more and their larger diameters reduce the amount of thrust the tires can produce from the ground. Going with a heavier wheel really adds to this "effect". Not only does the engine have to move around a quad with increased mass with less effective "leverage", but you have to consider the increase in rotational mass as well. In another words, you could support the quad on stands and time the acceleration of the wheels spinning up to speed in the air, and measure a significant reduction of acceleration from the increased rotational mass load. On a much larger scale, think how much kinetic energy is in the axle/wheel assemblies of a freight train when it's running at speed. To stop, you not only have to slow down all of the train's mass but all of this momemtum as well.......

 

What he said. The stock wheels and tires are like paperweights. The Claws are pretty heavy, not as much so as some, but compared to the stockers, they feel about twice as heavy on the steel rims. Even with aluminum, you still get the difference in rotation with the larger circumference. My stockers measure almost 24" with 4psi. The Tri-Claws are about 26 2/3" with that same pressure. You might do a little better with a lighter tire like a mud bug or something, but you still will have a tire that measures about 26". I wasn't worried about the power loss myself. I can always put the stock back on for acceleration.

If you just wanted to widen it, you could go the Fourlix route and get some Douglas steel (or ITP Magnum if you have cash to spend) and stay with a 25" tire. That would offset the rear plenty, and probably wouldn't take away from the acceleration.

 

Andy,where did you buy your rims? $220 delivered sounds like a good price. I had planned to mount 27" 589's on aluminum Magnum
wheels but so far, no one I've talked to has the Magnum's in stock so I may have to go with the chrome steel rims. I like the looks and weight savings of the Magnum's, but don't like the high price and I also wonder how they would hold up. Has anyone tried the Magnum's? A few months ago, I saw an episode of ATV Television where Doug Meyers had a set of 27" Blackwaters mounted
on Magnum's on his 400 Prairie. I liked the way they looked and he seemed pleased with the performance although they were mostly riding in the desert.

 

The sport guys stay away from taller tires 'cause it screws up the handling, cornering, powersliding. If you are in the mud, I can see going with taller tires, but why else? So if you ride in mud and trees, go for the taller tires on stock wheels. If you don't have to deal with trees, but like mud, go for the biggest tire/wheel combo you can, but you will still screw up the gearing.
My old SP would climb a hill in high range that the Grizz insists on being in Low range for, even with 25" tires.
I can't see putting steel wheels on a Grizz, when so much effort was made to keep it light.
SuperSwampers or Spidertrax come in 25" tire height x 12" width on 12" diameter rims. Better cornering and powersliding can be had with these tires, mounted on outset wheels.

 

Andy: Thanks for the good info once again. Your comments on the power loss are good (well, good info - bad news) as they will help me in deciding whether I would go to a taller tire. I went to your photo site but couldn't find the Griz pics. I looked in all 3 albums. Am I missing something here? Where are the pics? I'd love to see the pics with the claws cause I've got claws on my Polaris and really love them and would consider them again if I get a Griz.