Grizzly 700 tire recommendations

[icefisherman]

 

This works great for aggressive tires and those with directional tread as most are designed to dig down through soft material to reach solid ground for traction. This is exactly what you don't want when riding in snow or sand. You need a tread design which propels you forwards rather than digging. The Big Horn 2.0's are awesome all around tires and propel more than dig.

 

 

Tires are by far the most important factor on an ATV. It's ludicrous to suggest certain tires don't give a huge advantage over others. There's a reason why some guys can rip around everywhere in deep snow without getting stuck while others sharing your opinion get stuck in every drift or slush pocket around.

 

 

Yep. But, this only works with tires that have directional tread and is a complete waste of time doing so with unidirectional tread.

 

 

My lord, please do not take anymore advice from whoever told you the smaller front tires are a mismatch as 95% of ATV's sold will have a narrower front tire. Why? The narrower front tires are easier for the machine to push through material which then creates a tire track for the wider rears to follow which makes it easier to get around. Narrower front tires are also much easier to steer and provide better handling.

 

However, some people will switch to skinny/skinny or wide/wide combinations rather than the standard skinny front/wide rear configuration.

 

skinny/skinny - mudders do this as it makes it easier for the tires to dig down to solid ground for traction

wide/wide - sand/powder snow as it provides better flotation

skinny front/wide rear - best overall performance

 

 

Stock tires are a joke and are best for those who ride paved trails

 

OK, so do you recommend changing my current tires with say:

Duro Power Grips Radials 26x9xR12 - front

and 26x11xR12 - rear ?

On original rims....

 

Considering the way I'll be using the ATV - i.e. mostly ice fishing and limited hunting.

 

Cheers,

Ice Fisherman

[vance]

The whole tire size thing boils down to different sizes have different diameters.Your atv was designed with certain tires sizes to match the front and rear gear ratios. If the front and rears dont match one will be be trying to go ether faster or slow than the other. this puts strain on the drive line and extra wear on the tires.Snow and ice thats not much of a problem but on hard gravel and pavement it is a real tire killer.

 

vance

[Fisherman]

X2

[Terry]

Only when in 4 wheel drive. On hard surfaces.

In 2 wheel drive it makes no difference what the sizes are

[icefisherman]

OK Guys,

 

I can understand how huge deviation in tire size from original could cause problems in 4x4 on hard surface.

But just about everyone (including tire dealers) tells you going one size up or down does not affect you negatively and is acceptable with no need to change anything else. Hence going from 25" to 26" tires should not be the same as going to say...30".

As I mentioned before I will not be putting thousands of km on "hard surfaces", barely any in fact.

 

Cheers,

Ice Fisherman

[vance]

The overall size doesnt matter,from stock the fronts are smaller and they should remain that way because of the gear ratios in the axles account for the fact that they turn faster. If you want bigger tires you should maintain the size differences between fronts and rears.

 

vance

[icefisherman]

The overall size doesnt matter,from stock the fronts are smaller and they should remain that way because of the gear ratios in the axles account for the fact that they turn faster. If you want bigger tires you should maintain the size differences between fronts and rears.

 

vance

 

Agree,

Hence I am planing to buy 26x9xR12 front and 26x11xR12 for back.

 

Instead of the current 25x8x12 front and 25x12x12 back (which are mismatched as already mentioned above and are likely not original tires). Original should have been 25x8x12 front and 25x10x12 back.

 

So size difference remains the same as original.

 

Cheers,

Ice Fisherman

[G.mech]

The stock front and rear tires on Yamaha's (and most others) are the same height front to back. Yamaha ATVs are almost all 25x8x12 front and 25x10x12 rear from the factory, in fact even the Rhino UTV tires fit a 350 Grizz. The first number is the height in inches, the second number is the tread width, and the third number is the rim diameter. The key is that you don't want to change the front to rear tire height or it will cause stress on your machine when in 4WD especially on hard surfaces. If you go to 26's on the back, go to 26's on the front. You can play with widths a bit too but the machines are intended to have a slightly narrower tread on the front than on the rear. They can get crazy at high speeds with wider tires on the front as they don't steer properly (this is the alleged cause of a fatality in Flamborough this winter).

[icefisherman]

Thanks Greg.

With all this said I should be perfectly fine with buying 4 new radials 26x9xR12 front and 26x11xR12 ?

 

Only one size up from stock and still keeping the difference between front and rear.

 

Cheers,

Ice Fisherman

Edited February 3, 2016 by icefisherman

[G.mech]

In my opinion, you should be fine Emil.....but that's just me. The way things are going you maybe should trade the grizz in for an Argo...

[icefisherman]

Hahaha Greg,

 

I've got 2 boats in the garage both ready to go with zero advance notice...wish this weather decides which way it is going...either freeze at leas 4"-5" of ice of wind blows it all out so I can launch one of the boats. Either way works for me.

 

Cheers,

Ice Fisherman

Edited February 3, 2016 by icefisherman

[ch312]

OK Guys,

 

I can understand how huge deviation in tire size from original could cause problems in 4x4 on hard surface.

But just about everyone (including tire dealers) tells you going one size up or down does not affect you negatively and is acceptable with no need to change anything else. Hence going from 25" to 26" tires should not be the same as going to say...30".

As I mentioned before I will not be putting thousands of km on "hard surfaces", barely any in fact.

 

Cheers,

Ice Fisherman

 

Tire diameter, width and weight are huge factors when deciding on rubber. I have 26 Mud Lite XTR on my 700, but they're radials which makes them heavier and give better traction due to increased footprint over non radial. This means the machine needs to work harder to turn them and clutch mods bring back the power. There is a noticeable difference going from light 6 ply tires like Zilla's to the heavy XTR's even though the diameter is the same. You can't beat the XTR's for overall traction and they wear like iron. Plus because of they're stiff sidewall you can run them at 1-2 psi on the ice for better ice traction and the bead is super hard so no worries of popping a bead at low psi. I have fun them at 0 psi with no issues. You definitely get what you pay for with them and they're worth every penny.

 

Just changing the clutch weights to lighter ones will shorten the curve to increase low end torque, but you'll lose some top speed. 20 gram (stock) to 18 gram my top speed dropped from 107 km/h to 100 km/h and 16 gram took it down in the low 90's I believe, but wheelies were super easy and the trail riding was great as it accelerated so quickly. It's super easy and less than two hours to change the weights and deglaze the clutch. Add an hour if you're messing with the springs and shims.

 

 

I used my Tread Doctor on the XTR's to recut the treads after putting 5000 kms on them and should get another 3000 kms or more. With the XTR's and tread doctor you'll get 2-3 the life of cheap or even just 6 ply tires.