Tire Recommendations

I'm looking to update my tires from turf tires.  I want a rather aggressive tread but I don't want to break my tranny.  I have an open diff and am using the stock rims.  The biggest I will go is 22-inch tires.  

It's not going to see too much mud, but I want it to be capable. It will mostly see gravel, caliche, soft dirt, sand, rock, and muck Any suggestions?

What’s your rim size man? 8,10 or 12”?

Sorry, 8".

Really? I would have thought the bear claws and the mud lites would hurt my tranny. RedneckComputerGeek runs bear claws and he's busted his locker a dozen times.

Yeah this is one of the big debates going on right now. Those tires are pretty aggressive enough to the point where you don’t really need a locker. I run great unlocked as do many others. I think when you’re running really aggressive tires and a locked diff and you’re not getting enough wheel slip in certain off-road situations, it’s puts a big torque on the axles and case and something breaks. If you are locked I’d go with my first recommendation. They’re cheap too. I’d like to see what other members thoughts are on this.

Oh okay. I was worried that it would break the spider gears. Should I not be worried?

I’m not sure if you should be worried or not. A lot of guys break or bend axles and crack their case when they lock their diff. I prefer to keep mine open and run aggressive tires, so there’s less stress on the tranny. Only time will tell what the fate of my transaxles will be. If you’re a heavy guy that romps hard and likes to go off jumps ,you’re going to break something eventually. It comes down to what kind of handling, capability, and maintenance headaches are you comfortable with on your tractor.

I'm 5' 8", 140lbs, I have jumped it once or twice, but you could hardly put a pencil under the tires. Shouldn't be too big of an issue. I change the oil in the tranny regularly. I guess I'll be fine....

The Duro's on my MTD are great mud tires, and at low PSI can still conform to objects for crawling and stuff. They're not too aggressive though if you're worried about hurting a transaxle.

Yeah I've seen those. But I want to keep the stock rims and want something more aggressive than that. And anyway, we don't get too much mud here in Texas, just wet clay. The only thing here that you can call a mudhole are creeks and ditches after a rain.

Well all things considered I’d get the mud lites. They’re reasonably priced, perform well, and look cool.

IDK, I think I'm gonna go with the Bear Claws, I found some for $57 a head, and they are the exact size as my turfs right now, except they are 2" taller.

https://www.2wheel.com/kenda-k299-bear-claw-front-rear-tire.html?sku=285070&gclid=CjwKCAiA4ILSBRA0EiwAsuuBLcVoHxJa0sHXSpjrU521oiiFIjcxPwVQvFsx6J2Sb-JXxCDeSITuhBoC9RIQAvD_BwE

It goes without saying that I love bearclaws lol. I think those tires you found are for 8” rims unfortunately. I think those are 22x8-10

Yeah I realized that. Stupid redeck.

They are $76 a head, so it's about the same as the ones you mentioned, except they will be here 3 days from now instead of a week. I might look up the mud lights and see the price on them because the tread looks better.

I love my duro knobbies. Perform great, very soft and give a good ride, and we’re 40 apiece. Then 5 each to mount at Walmart. Just my 2 cents

Eh, I'm not locked so I want something more aggressive than that. Also I can afford them.

I love my mud lites, theres no need to be locked with them . I have had them on locked and unlocked trannys and the locked onesblew up very badly and the unlocked have had no diff problems or gears issues , but the spicer i had them on that was unlocked wore out the imput bearings but otherwise handled them just as well as my peerless mst 205 does

...I have a Spicer.

The spicer that i had with them on was just old and low on grease with a higher pulley ratio and ungoverned engine . i think it went 28 mph with 22 inch tires and i ran it like that for quite awhile before the bearings wore out .

Okay. With 20 inch tires it goes 23 mph. Hope it'll be alright. I'm ungoverned too.

ifit never makes a grinding noise while it starts hopping a bit , dont drive it cause the imput gear can wreck the drive gear and wear out the aluminium recess for the needle imput bearings . thats why my tranny died

Okay.  It does make a lot of noise!  I put oil in it instead of grease because it was getting hot and afterward it quit getting so hot and it is a bit quieter and just sounds happier like that.

I've decided on the mud lites.  Do you have any recommendations on the front tires to fit onto 7" rims?  I want them to be 17" tall.