Aluminum wheel plan

[cclingma]

I need tires for my Hustler 980 and can't hardly pass up these cheap Rawhide IIIs. Of course my wheels are 12" and the Rawhides are 9". My plan.......come up with six Aluminum stock rear wheels from about any Honda sport ATV and redrill my axles to match the bolt pattern. These wheels look decent, have a very heavy bead, and are 9" wide. I believe them to be 3+6 backspacing so I think that means they would be one inch narrower than my stock Hustler wheels and would have one more inch of wheel outside the hub due to that spacing. I'm thinking that 1 inch wouldn't be that big of a deal as the Rawhide is a little narrower than my old Terras. Somebody talk me out of this if it's a terrible idea.

[hydromike]

I don't think it's a bad idea at all. Redrilling the axles might be a bit of a pain, but if you draw up a template based on the 5-lug template here on the Site, it shouldn't be too hard to just slide the template (make it out of stiff paperboard) onto the 5-lug pattern, and see if you can logically redrill for 4-lug before you jump headlong into the project. You can hammer out the old studs, and drive the new ones into your new holes, and still have six extra studs! The Rawhide IIIs are a decent tire, and they look pretty good on the 980. If they're only going to stick out an inch or so further than the Terra's, I think it'd be OK....

I'd love to be able to talk you out of your 12" rims, as nobody around here (WNY) seems to be offering them, and I'd like to shy away from getting brand new ones at RI.

EDIT:: I just adapted the 3 to 5 lug adapter template to be able to drill the wheel hubs for the more common 4on4" bolt circle. I'll see if Mike can post the .pdf of it for anybody that wants it, but in the meantime, I attempted to post it as a .jpg in my misc. gallery.... . It's not uploading correctly; might be too big....

[cclingma]

Your vote of confidence has me thinking for sure. About those 12" wheels. Do you know of a 25 or 26" proven swimmer that's readily available? The Duro bar lug is about the closest thing I've seen and I hear they ride very rough. There's the Vampire ASX too but I fear Interco won't start making those again now that they have a purpose built AATV tire....again 9" rim required.

[hydromike]

Do you know of a 25 or 26" proven swimmer that's readily available?

Oh goodness.... Proven on a 980? Racerone3 is running the Swamp Fox Plus tires (27x12-12) on his 980, and I'm running the Kenda Executioners (27x12-12) on mine.
Mine swim very, very slowly at very low rpm (under 1800, I'd guess), and Race's seem to do pretty well. They certainly outperform my Kendas. I was just watching the video of CBass' Max II swimming with (what look like) 25x12-9 GBC Dirt Devil X/Ts, and they did great on his machine. They're available in 26x12-12 flavor, but I wouldn't wager that they'd do as well on a 980. Not that I don't think they would; just that there are two many variables to consider.

Both the Kendas and the Swamp Fox tires have skyrocketed in price over the past two months (up nearly 30%) for whatever reason. Perhaps it's because "ATV Season" is in full swing....

[Obsessed]

If the offset is going to b to far out now anyway, what about just cutting the old hub off and welding a new hub with the correct pattern on? It would b pretty easy to make and would be very true and factory looking when finished.
About the wheels and tires, its pretty hard to beat a 9x10 rim and 25x12x9 goodyear rawhides for bang for the buck rebuilds...and if you want to save some cash there are a few sets of factory Bigfoot 6x6 take offs out there that can be bought complete for less than a set of most new atv tires that are not really very good in the water

[racerone3]

I'm really happy with the swamp fox plus on my bigfoot. That said, they weren't that impressive with the stock 18 Briggs. It felt like the tires would load up with mud and the engine didn't have enough to turn them. Currently my bigfoot is in the 40hp range and has no trouble getting the big tires to spin they aren't fantastic swimmers, but they will get you over the pond... just don't be looking for any speed records.

As for the aluminum rims, my only fear would be bending them. I had the entire fleet out today and found at least one bent (steel) rim on 4 of 5 machines.

[cclingma]

About the wheels and tires, its pretty hard to beat a 9x10 rim and 25x12x9 goodyear rawhides for bang for the buck rebuilds...and if you want to save some cash there are a few sets of factory Bigfoot 6x6 take offs out there that can be bought complete for less than a set of most new atv tires that are not really very good in the water

This is what I would really like to do. I thought I would be able to find the used Honda wheels dirt cheap but they aren't. A set of take offs would be awesome.

[Obsessed]

aluminum wheels are so cool...its to bad that there are not more options for fancy wheels for our machines

[Stonewall]

Just using a 4 on 110 bolt pattern would open up hundreds of rim options, both aluminum and steel.....