180 tire on 97 Softail

[N-gin]

Friend of mine is looking to put a 180 tire on him '97 Fatboy.
What needs to be done?
We are going to chain drive also.
I'm thinking a fender, wheel, struts, will need changed.. Any kits recamended ?

[biggzed]

Heartland USA comes to mind. I know they make a kit for your year, but IIRC it wasn't cheap. $1500 or so and included a fender, struts, seat, maybe some other stuff. Seemed steep.

Zach

[N-gin]

Wow 1600 for struts a basic fender and a solo pad...

Well ok , so according to that kit some struts a fender maybe a seat. I talked to my dude the other day he really wants to change the fender for a longer one than what he has now. I'll have to locate one that will work with the wider struts. Any ideas?

[biggzed]

Baddad makes some stuff for softails. Might try them.

Zach

[Hossamania]

Does the Hartland kit include a swingarm?

[N-gin]

Does the Hartland kit include a swingarm?

No it doesn't.

From what I gather. You can actually use the stock swingarm up to 180 maybe 200 tire if converting to chain. If you want to reuse the belt it will need a swingarm that surrounds the belt, no matter what size tire over stock.

[N-gin]

So far I'm thinking chain conversion, fender, fender struts, tire and wheel.

So far its under the expected price.


There are other kits out there that have spacers for the primary, and include stub shaft for compensator and tranny, but that just doesn't seem right, adding a bunch of spacers and making the drive axles longer.

[trickytree]

Just something to consider, I'm doing some work on my FXR and am converting to chain. Well, a good x-ring chain is 1" wide so why not just use a thinner belt?
At the moment I'm running a 160 tyre with a 1-1/8" belt with good tyre clearance. Don't want to get into the whole belt/chain debate but if it's just wide tyre you're after you can do it without going chain drive if you want to. Look at the big tourers, lugging all that weight with a belt only 20mm wide.

[N-gin]

Just something to consider, I'm doing some work on my FXR and am converting to chain. Well, a good x-ring chain is 1" wide so why not just use a thinner belt?
At the moment I'm running a 160 tyre with a 1-1/8" belt with good tyre clearance. Don't want to get into the whole belt/chain debate but if it's just wide tyre you're after you can do it without going chain drive if you want to. Look at the big tourers, lugging all that weight with a belt only 20mm wide.

OK that sounds even better. Im guessing I could reuse the front pulley and just get a thinner belt and rear sprocket..right?

[trickytree]

Yeah, think your going to need a 20mm belt, it's a bit tighter in there than the FXR/tourers and there pretty tight if you want to avoid moving the rear wheel over.  TC bikes have slightly longer swing arms and some motor offset to get 200 tyres to fit so double check rear pulley size and belt length. I would imagine there's enough aftermarket stuff out there to sort something out.
One last thing, as it's all so tight in there don't assume that all 180 tyres are 180 wide, check the manufacturers website first.....I know Avon have widths listed for all there tyres.
As for modding the swing arm and fender on a Softail I havnt a clue!