Nicholas Fluhart

I recently ran across a deal on a set of tires I’ve been wanting to try for a while now. They are Maxxis brand OEM tires for the Kawasaki Teryx side by side. They are brand new dealer take-offs. What caught my eye is that they are 26″ tall, which is somewhat taller than most OEM style tires, and that’s the exact height I want on my Foreman. Also, the tread is fairly aggressive for a stock tire yet they offer a much smoother ride than my Dirt Devil XT’s.

While I’m at it on the tires, I decided to fix a slight problem that’s been long over due. After almost 16,000 miles, the rear shock springs began to get weak. At times when the rear suspension would compress, the springs weren’t quite strong enough to bring it back up. And when carrying a passenger, I noticed it setting low in the back. I could replace the shocks with a factory set, but given that I’m always winching, pulling, and hauling with this thing, I decided to take a different approach. I chose to install a set of STI lift springs on my factory shocks. Not really looking for an actual lift as much as added capacity, I chose the 100 pound added capacity spring, which advertises 1 or 2 inches of lift. I used my homemade spring compressor to install the new springs on my shocks.

Here’s the finished product with the new tires and springs.

In conclusion, the tires worked out great. I was able to shave 35 lbs of weight from the factory setup by using these tires with my aluminum rims. It has a very smooth ride as well. Performance in mud and soft terrain really wasn’t hurt. These tires bite good in mud and do well in wet sand when climbing out of creek banks. So far, I’ve been able to go everywhere I went with the XT’s. Overall, I’m very happy with these and will probably run them on this quad for the duration.

The lift springs solved my squatting problem. It maintains the proper ride height, and from what I can tell, they didn’t compromise the ride quality.

Until next time…