Another thought, weight. The 28" Tensor tire is listed as 28 lbs. The Terrabite 28" is listed as 33 lbs. With my Tensor's I can feel the heavier weight, a bit more sluggish starts, more braking to stop, IMO well worth it for a 'tank' tire. But I wouldn't want anything heavier like 5 lbs more each tire for the Terrabite. I get a little concerned with the heavier Tensor's causing a bit more Commander belt wear on startup from stop, but not much concern on a Honda Pioneer with gear transmission?
True and good point about slip in either system. I'm probably splitting hairs with total extra tire weight of maybe 25 lbs. over stock tires? I usually ride alone, and that might be like putting 25 extra lbs. in the passenger seat, but then again putting heavier tires as rotational mass getting in motion from a stop might take more effort than that same weight just sitting on the machine? I've read and been told by qualified people that when you start from stop especially with drive belts, don't ease throttle into it slowly, give it a decent blip of throttle to engage things quickly for less slip, then can ease throttle if desired, makes good sense to me. And of course use low range properly, and don't let the machine idle in drive for long like getting off to open a gate, put in neutral to release any possible friction, probably applies much more to drive belts. My P-500 idles fine in gear, takes some RPM above idle to start engaging.
After more research I have slightly revised tire weights (tough to find them) Since the P-1000 uses 12" rims (1000-5 Deluxe uses 14" rims)
Great points. IMO the larger diameter the tire, the more driveline stress (takes more effort & energy to get rolling) I don't drink lite beer, drink full flavor, even more driveline stress when I pick up a couple cases at a time in my P-500 or Commander
Hold on I didn't say it makes much difference but to a degree it does. You're probably right about 5 pounds not being a big deal but weight is being added before that 5 pounds as well. Rolling weight is a lot different then chassis weight. To get that weight spinning is a whole different deal. The further that weight is out by far the worse it is. Do I think it's going to be drastic no. I suppose if you drove it really hard then maybe a lot more. This is a very heavy vehicle we're talking about here so Itll definitely make less difference. But let's say the clutches or a belt were already close to their maximum weight with passengers and cargo and you added 10 pounds to each wheel then that's a lot. I actually wanted to use big truck tires on my machine until my first clutch failure but after im looking around just a bit more. I'm not going to drive it differently but I will purposely watch a few things. I don't want to go much heavier or much wider and especially much taller but that's me and everyone rides differently I just don't want to add a ton more load on the clutches then I already am. Most people though don't carry the weight or load that we do.
