More tire and wheel questions

Just to give you a visual, these are 26x9 fronts and 26x11 rears Mudlite XTRs with 1" spacers at all four corners. They will fit your rims without any issues as will 27" . But they are much heavier then stock tires (27" will be even heavier) and in my opinion our little 550s need clutch mods as they lack bottom end torque to start with aspecially compared to the same generation 700s. As fare as max width on stock rims some members run 10" front and 12" wide rear tires and seem to have no issues but I have no experience in that department.

As fare as tire makes and models, Zillas have the advantage of being lighter then most witch is good. First gen Bighorns are a very popular long lasting all purpose tires to. Bought my machine with these XTRs and they have been good to me. I think they have 7000kms on them and they still do a good job driving threw all kinds of steep hills, rocks, mud, stumps, fallen trees, swamps, sand, snow, skeg, etc....

I also strongly advise you utilizing your Low range when ever speeds are consistently under 15km/h. This can help prolong your CVT's components life span significantly.

Here are 26x9x12 fronts abdb26x12x12 maxis Big Horn originals on factory rims. 6 inch wide front room 7.5 inch wide rear rims.
The aftermarket tire companies such as ITP also make the aftermarket rims, so of course they’re going to tell you they need to be on a 7 inch rim. They will probably use this excuse to deny a warranty claim as well if it really came down to it.
However I have not had them ask me about rim size when I did my last tire warranty claim they did question me on tire pressure. my warranty claim was eight years ago on a set of ITP mud lights that wobble really bad. They sent me two new front tires, that wobble just as bad as the first. Big tires wobble I guess.




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The width of the wheel in proportion to the tire affects how much sidewall bulge you have and how well the bead seals.
Generally, 7" wheels are fine for up to about 12" tires. You want some sidewall bulge but you don't want it to look like a balloon.
I'd say 12" tires are too wide for a 6" wheel.

Another downside to narrow tire on wide wheel is that the rim of the wheel is unprotected, much more vulnerable to getting gouges, and pieces of wood stuck in the bead, etc.
The wheels in the pic below only have a few rides on them.