MaxII with mudbug tires

[mightymaxIV]

A few days ago David had the chance to go to an atv park in east Texas with forum member Noel and got a chance to see for himself what Noel's Mud Bug (25x9x12) equipped MaxII was capable of. David said the machine was unstoppable and went through several mud holes where he got stuck. He also said that the light machine floated high in the water and would swim about two MPH with tires facing forward, back, forward. David was very impressed with the machine and said it had better ground clearance than his maxIV and outstanding weight distribution. I have always thought that a MAXII fitted with mud tires that could swim would be the KING in mud situations and this pretty much confirms what i already suspected. Congradulations Noel, Eddie will soon follow your lead with his mudbug equipped MAXII. I wonder to myself if a MAXII could fix a set of the new Argo 25 inch swimming tires. That would have to be the ultimate combination.

[Roger S]

I'm curious to see the HDI tires on other vehicles, too, Dan. Dave thinks they're worthless, for his "special mud" , I'll withhold judgement 'till I see it. Maybe Lewis will bring air tools and jacks to the next ride and let his buds try them out. Still have to get the dismounting problem solved. A lightweight max II would need to run around at abut 0 psi with the big tires. I think it'd be fun for guys like us with big heavy machines to have a lightweight play toy. It might take tub work, re gearing, mud flaps, and wheel spacers though.

[mightymaxIV]

Roger-I have been considering the 25 inch Argo tires for my MaxIV but I have decided to wait until the new 6x6 Frontier HDI is released. I think the tires would be the best ALL around AATV tire giving up just a little in thick mud, however it they would fit on a MaxII I think you would have a dominate machine. Right now I want a Frontier HDI 6x6 and I will wait for the improvements. When I get this machine I can try the ASX tires on the Frontier (Awesome!) and the swimming tires on the Max. My observation of the 24" Frontier tires is they are superior in the swamp and log conditions but give up a little of what you need in thick mud. These observations were made while running with Heaths Frontier in some treacherous swamp conditions down here in Savannah. (I will never go back into that area without a couple of AATV's with me-very bad stuff) If I could get a 6x6 HDI now i would start making plans to go to the Marengo swamp run. (Argo are you hearing this? Good test for your machine!)

[Noel Woods]

Dan:
Thanks for the praise on the Max2. Dave also should be applauded. His Max4 did very well in the slop as well. We had a great time wheeling that day. Dave had his suspension seat operational too, and I was very impressed with what he had done. His Max4 rode more like a 4 wheeler than a six wheeler.
As for my Max 2, its only taken me 15 years to get it to this point. I don't see much more engineering will be needed for that machine, In my opinion it does everything I need it to do, and all in a pint-sized package.
Soon I'll intorduce my modified Super Swamp Fox to the forum. It'll have some interesting features as well, and it started out life like a 1.5 size big brother of a Max2. I'm working on a suspension seat that will operate off four motorcycle seat springs for the large seat and engine cover assembly. I think I've got a belt tensioning device just about sorted out as well. The thing I like about this machine is that everything is easy to access for service. More to come soon.

Noel

[Eldon]

Noel,how did you ever get clearance for the 25 inch tires? I backed out f Argo Frontier tires as I was certain they would not clear and I'm not aware of any significant body sag.

[Noel Woods]

It was actually fairly easy to do. The rear tires fit on the Max2 without any problems after I switched to the internal muffler. Then I removed one wheel per side and used a heat gun to get the fender wells warm & pliable, then used a 1"x8" board and leveraged off the other tires and pushed the body up a bit for the front 4 wheels. Looking at the machine from the top you can't even tell the body was modified at all. Looking from the wheel wells you can see that the body has been modified a bit. I worked a total of about 4 hours total. The end result was squeezing the beefy tires under a small machine. I use Matt O's 9" wheels and run the tires with 3 psi, I have adequate clearance all around, better stance, superior mudding ability, and it looks bad as well. The ride is far superior with the beefier tires too, and that was an unexpected plus. The Mudbug in 25" actually measures just a tad over 24" at 3 psi on the bigger wheel. The tires swim fairly decently, it took me a long time experimenting with tire direction, but 2 mph isn't bad. If you are concerned about clearance, the Gator tire is the same as the Mudbug, but the cleats are about 1/8" or so shorter, so a set of Gators might fit without tub modification. You can find Gators reasonably priced all over the internet.

[mightymaxIV]

Noel-I have seen the gators and the Mud Bugs in the Mud (Lees Argo frontier) and the Mud Bugs are a much better performing tire. The mud bugs are out standing in Mud without water and clean out very well in bad mud. Except for water speed the mud bugs on lees Argo were outstanding!

Noel so you think the new Argo 25" tire would fit on a MAxII?