new tires for 300trx 4 x 4

[Gadgetman]

I need a little help picking out new tires for my '98 Honda 300 4x4. Finally managed to wear out the stock tires and am now looking for replacements. I'm wondering if any of you guys have put larger tires on this machine than the ones that came stock on it. It came with 23x8x11 front and 24x9x11 rear. I dont do much trail riding. The machine is used mostly for ice fishing, plowing my long driveway and dragging deer. I am kind of interested in maybe trying a smaller 24" tire on the front and a smaller 25" tire on the back. I have talked with a couple dealers who have told me that they thought that a "take off" tire from a foreman would probably be a reasonable upgrade and wouldnt be too much for my small machine to turn.The reason I am interested in a larger tire is mostly for increased ground clearance, to help with snow driving and deer hauling. I am not interested in doing the whole aluminium rim kit routine. This is pretty much a utility machine. Thanks for any advice

[Macgyver55]

Back in 88 when I got my 300, I put the rears 24x9x11 on the front rims and then got some 25x12x11 for the rears. It worked out well and I had no clearance problems. It did rob a little power but they are geared low enough so it didnt really bother me. If you are doing it just for clearance you really only gain maybe a 1/2 inch if the tires are true to size. Some are not. The advertised size is sometimes slightly smaller than they say so watch for that. It is important to keep the 1 inch offset between front and rear though. On my 95 I put 26x12x12 on all 4 and at higher speeds it felt a little squirly and the fronts would rub just a little in extreme cases.

[luckyc]

I put 25 inch tractor lug tires all the way around on my 300, I use it almost exclusivly for plowing and ice fishing. The couple times I took it trail riding I put 5 psi in the back and 2 psi in front to get that seperation in size they talk about. After a 100 miles I swear my arms doubled in size and shoe leather callous on my behind. These are strictly a utility tire. Going back to orignals if I go trail riding again. Awsume plowing machine though, and can pull a double wide trailer with fish house and all fishing gear without any problem.

[Gadgetman]

luckyc, what brand tires are you running? I assume they are a 6 ply? If it werent for trail riding on them would you be totally happy, and would you do it again. Do you feel that you sacrificed a lot of power? Sorry for so many questions but hate to spend hundreds of dollars and not be happy with the results

[luckyc]

The tires that I have are actually 26x12x12 Goodyear Super Terra Tires 2 ply, I love them, I bought them from a fella employee , $300 for four mounted on steel wheels. They seem to have stiff sidewalls, I think you could run them with 1 psi of pressure with no problem. All four were the same size, so I run a little more pressure in the back than the front to bring that diameter closer to the difference of the factory tires. I don't really notice any loss of power, of course I got them a week after I bought the 300 in 95 and have never took them off. My new factory tires sit in the shed, still new. I use it for plowing and they are great, more than enough power. And for icefishing I load everything onto the trailer with two or three guys on besides and fly along in second or third gear. For me I'd buy another set in a heart beat, but these have not lost much thread at all, maybe 10%. As for that trail ride, I'm not sure if I would'nt of felt that way with the factory tires. I tried to keep up with a bunch of the younger riders. I did have to fight the handlebars a lot more in the turns and having more pressure in the rear caused a rougher ride.

[Dave]

luckyc, 12-inch wide tires on the front at 2psi; no wonder why your arms get a work out.

[luckyc]

Yup, at 2 psi these tires are only putting about 5 inches of thread on the ground. The sidewalls are very stiff, I've actually ran one without air and it didn't even appear flat, just pulled to the left some. But get these big boys in mud or snow and they sure perform well. I might bump up the pressure to 5 in front and 10 in back (max pressure for this tire)and see how the arms feel. Truthfully I think it was more this 58 year old body trying to keep up with those 20 year olds that caused all the pain, plus the 100+ miles in one day.