[jfk]

It has been said that snowmobiles loose alot of horsepower between the
engine and the track. Big wheels supposedly lower the rolling resistance
and therefore free up some hoesepower thus making the sled's drivetrain more efficient.Has anyone tried this?There are alot of aftermarket expensive billet wheels out there.Has anyone found an OEM style replacement lager plastic wheel and bearing kit? I have a polaris 2004 switchback with a 144 inch track.Also would I have to make any other mods to the rear suspension to accomodate the larger rear wheels or could I swap out the origional ones (6.25"dia.) for larger ones? How large could I go without modding anything else and still get a performance increase? Also any links to a supplier of wheels would be great.
Thanks JFK

 

[SkiDoo55X]

The larger than stock wheels do lessen the rolling resistance on the track but I dont think they have a real large power gain at the track. Hi-Performance-Engineering, www.hpe.com has big wheel kits. They have aluminum or plastic wheels. Yes with the 8 inch wheels you will need and offset rear axle, and they have them to. I am not sure how much bigger of a wheel you can get without changing the rear axle. Check them out. The plastic wheels are only like $20 each compared to $100 for billet.

 

[2000TCMC]

When I changed out my 2000 136 rails and went to 2001 144's I had to go with 7.125" Wheels because that is what was stock in 2001. Unless you do something similar you are going to have to buy the axle to go with bigger wheels. There are kits out there that have you modify the rail instead of buying a new axle but I like the new axle idea a lot better.

 

[Flange]

AC claims additional 2-3hp at the track with big wheels on the 04 King Cats.

 

[Alaskangold]

IMO opinion who don't get really any horsepower, what I have alway heard is that with bigwheels you free up a couple more mph out of the sled, like 3 or 4 mph at the track. That a little more believable IMHO.