Recently purchased a 2011 Polaris Sportsman 550 to aid in the tree farm gig. In typical adolescent fashion, I couldn’t wait to start modding the thing. I thought the wheels were pretty decent for stock, but there was something about them that wasn’t blowing up my skirt. Long story short, ordered a set of aftermarket pimped out wheels from ebay. Decent price, pretty much the look I wanted. Arrived today, well packaged, no damage, etc. with one little hitch. They weren’t the size listed and three of them didn’t match the fourth. I contacted the seller and am waiting for a response. Here’s my quandry.
They were listed as 14 x 7 and 14 x 8 (front and rear). What I got were 14 x 8 and 14 x 9. OEM tires are 26 x 8-14 and 26 x 10-14. Without being too much of an expert (at all) on ATV’s and tires, would the OEM tires work on the 8 and 9 inch wheels I got? Any issues, benefits, etc.?
If you look closely, the right most one has a silver and clearcoat finish on the recessed portions at the edge, which looks orgasmic. The others are a grey, rough, unfinished looking color and I’m not happy.
Grey rough finish I don’t like:
Clearcoated silver finish me do likey:
What I need to know is, should I ask them to just send the the three correct wheels to match the one I like, or, should I ask that they get the sizing right when they address the finish issue? Confused yet? Any help is appreciated as I want to respond intelligently to this guy when he gets back to me.
Oh, P.S.-The “stockers” in the photo will be going up for sale, with or without tires. I like the rubber, but if it makes sense to sell them with the wheels, so be it. The wheels and skins have about 30 hrs. use on them. They are flawless.
You can run them, just like a car tire they will be a bit stretched.
Those tires won’t be all that great for year round stuff, I really like the big horns. I have the kenda bear claws and they are a hard compound. I can’t crawl over things as easily.
Also do yourself a favor and get heated hand grips and a thumb warmer.
The seller did respond and I think I was measuring outside of bead and not inside so they would be what he listed. I don’t think he’s happy about the fact I’m not pleased with the grey wheels. He said the silver one was mis-shipped but the listing was for the silver. No response back yet. Wonder if he’s going to stand behind his 100% customer satisfaction credo.
Not really too concerned with winter performance. We’re pretty much done with the tree planting so it’s going to spend the winter in the shop getting pimped out. Planning on some stick on carbon fiber scratch protection for the high wear areas. For stock tires, they seemed to so as well as they need to. If I hook up with anyone that wants to do any trail riding, I’ll see how they perform. Those tires look pretty gnarly. Saw some others that look like they could shred steel.
Got a response from the ebayer (Jeds Wholesale Tires). He responded immediately and his promise is to send out the wheels with the correct finish. Already got a tracking number and should see them in about 7 days. If he comes through I’ll be impressed with his business ethics. It was more than I expected and is nice to see there are some people who “do the right thing” in a faceless internet world. Update next week.
