bigcountry78

I hadn’t even thought about plastidip. That looks like a dead match from what I can see.

Thanks, I’ll try the grease trick. Two of my mud lites have tubes, and I’d like to avoid that with these tires. I don’t like tubes at all. I’m not looking forward to breaking them down either. That’s one reason I went ahead and started on these yesterday instead of breaking down all four 589’s. I figured out last time that the mud lite beads are really easy to break loose compared to the maxxis tires I messed with last time.

Well, started breaking down tires again today. I said I wouldn’t do it again, but here I am. As I posted in the tire section, I found a set of 25x8x12 and 25x10x12 Bridgestone dirt hooks, in like new condition. Of course I now have stock rims, 12 in front and 11 in rear. I broke down the front 2 wheels and got one tire mounted, but of course I’m having trouble getting the bead to seat yet again. I got the other side broke down and pulled the tube out, but I have to put a new valve stem in before I can mount that tire. For the rear, I’ve got a set of 12” rims but they’re at my dad’s house in SC, so it’ll be Saturday before I can get them. I’ll have to break down the Titan 589’s on them and then mount the dirt hooks. The rims I’m getting are painted black, and I would like to paint them the factory silver to match the front wheels I have now. Does anyone know what color that is exactly? Silver? Grey? While I’ve got the rear wheels off, I’ll pull the axle apart and pack the bearings. Hopefully that’s the last time I’ll have to take the rear apart for a while.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease. I made the trip and picked them up for $100. They look practically new to me, no torn beads like my current tires and I’ve only found one old plug in a front tire but I’m not too worried about that. I feel like I did alright on these. Pictures don’t really do them justice, they really show almost no visible wear.

Would it be worth the jump to 25” tires? I found a like new set of Bridgestone dirt hooks nearby, but they’re 25x8-12 and 25x10-12. I have a spare set of 12” rims available to me. Would it be worth the jump, and would I really see any negatives on my 350 rancher?

I ended up going with the original dewalt box. I moved the gun rack back to the next set of bars, and the way the front rack and fenders are designed it’s still usable. The box is small, but I only need it to hold a drill, some hand tools, or a couple boxes of ammo depending on what I’m doing at the time. Probably gonna hit it with some black paint when I’m done, but this was all I had time for. Totally free too, already had the u bolts.

Makes me want to buy it just to have the floorboards lol.

I saw these floorboards on a 450S for sale locally and thought of this thread. Has anyone ever seen a set like this? Maybe Honda made? I got the best pics I could from the marketplace ad.

I understand wanting to tweak things, but the older I get the less time I have to tweak things lol. Yea I’m looking at my options, including just seeing if my current universal plate is wide enough to sit on the frame bars. If it is I’ll drill and bolt it down and then find a plate for the fairlead.

I’m curious, why did you want to push it back towards the harness? Seems like a good bit of extra work for a small gain, but to each his own. Anyway, I thought about trying to bend it back but I hate to go bending on a new piece. When I got my 2000 model in late ‘99, we put a 1500 pound superwinch on it and due to it being so new, we had to modify a foreman 400 mount since there were no rancher mounts on the market. I think all we had to do was notch the plate to fit around the headlight supports. Anyway, that kit had a flat piece of steel that bolted to the bumper that held the fairlead. Looked cleaner in my opinion than the way KFI did it. I’d like to make it look as clean as possible. So, I’ll continue researching. Edit, something like this, but 25 years ago so I’m sure the design has changed some.

Well, maybe they have different part numbers for the different generations. When I google searched some Images, I saw the angled ones on both models. Maybe those people were using the wrong ones. I guess I could call and ask lol.

Honestly, it’s an aesthetic thing. I just think it looks funny if the fairlead is angled lol.

Sold locally.

Casually shopping for winch mounts for my 2001 rancher. I know everyone says to go with KFI, but it seems like the mount angles the fairlead down. I guess it matches the 04-06 bumper profile, but it looks weird on the 00-03 bumper. Can anyone confirm that? Is there a way to tweak it so that the fairlead sits vertically like it should? I’m thinking about making my own, but I like the way the KFI ties into several frame points. It looks like it would spread the load better. Are there similar designed mounts that fit my generation better?

Been thinking back to the rear end disassembly, do I need to pack the rear wheel bearings like I do on a truck or car? I ask because the one side was a bit gritty so I sprayed it with some carb cleaner and it smoothed out, then I put it all back together. Should I take it back out and throw some bearing grease in?

I tried the string method and it seems to have worked out well. I guess when I made the initial adjustments with the tires in the air, the suspension compressing pulled the alignment in. One tire was pretty close to straight, but the other tire was toed out. They are now both straight, and to me that feels the best.

New in the box lug nuts, set of 16. I don’t need them, $20 or trade me something. Located in Hickory NC.

Got the shield on today. I only mention it because I wanted to give a shoutout to the guy that sold it to me. He definitely put the bolts in his old weed bag and shipped it to me. I pictured him smoking it while he unbolted it from the muffler, looking around, and saying screw it and throwing the bolts in the bag haha. It reeked of weed when I opened it.

Yea I had a buddy that had a horse eat the seat completely off his rancher. Not sure what the attraction is with horses. Nice looking box.

Closed the deal on the muffler shield, it’s been paid for and is on the way. I thought $60 shipped was good for the shield and all the attachment screws. I’m going to order the 4x4 sticker that goes in front of the handlebars next I think.

Got the grips, and air filter installed today. The starter cover won’t be here until February. I also ordered a new toolkit, since mine was missing. Currently trying to work out a deal on a used muffler shield, and then I think I’ll have it where I want it. It needs some new vent lines and the the alignment tweaked, but the expensive stuff is just about done. This one is strange, with the fender stay and exhaust shield missing, it seems like they never got installed in the first place.

Placed an Amazon order last night for the recoil starter cover, some new grips, and an air filter. Sold some tires today so now I have enough cash to order a muffler shield from partzilla. They run about $75 plus shipping, but what’s the purpose of the shield? I’ll probably still order one just because it’s a factory piece thats missing, and because I’m picky about that stuff. But what does it do? The brakes are still making that noise, but only when I push the thing around. It’s fine if I’m just riding, so it’s probably going to get ignored for a while.

Yes, weight distribution hitch. Looks like it might have belonged to Moses. Anyway, it’s missing some parts, but that’s the base of it. There’s a sliding tension bar that attaches to that ball on the side. The other end attaches to a similar ball on the trailer tounge. The bar has an outer section and an inner section that slides through as the trailer turns. There’s a knob that you can use to adjust the tightness and how easily the bar slides, thus controlling trailer sway. The cups on either side have bars that fit into them. Those bars have chains on the trailer end that attach to a hinged hook. Place the chain on the hook that’s in the down position, then take a handle and lift the hook into the up position. As you do that, the tounge lifts up and the bars/hitch take some of the weight off of the truck springs. I hope that explanation makes some sense lol.

Battery tools have come a long way in recent years. I’m leaning towards the kobalt, twice the power in theory and it’ll give me an extra battery for my weed eater and blower.

lol I think it has slides, I’ll have to double check.