New tires

I'd take the last two tires off your short list, there are better options out there for similar money. The Big Horns and Reapers both get great reviews and are regarded as some of the top trail tires. The Pitbulls are undoubtedly going to be the toughest but also by far the heaviest, so if your not looking at clutching your machine you would likely experience a noticeable power loss with those, especially in 28". One tire you left off the list that you should strongly consider based on the terrain you listed is the Bearclaw HTR, few guys I ride with run them, great radial tire that perform well in all terrain.

I'm currently running Bighorns , and for the riding style your describing ,you would be hard pressed to beat Bighorns. The tires wear like iron , climb rocks well, smooth on trails , and handle some mud not too bad.
I currently have aprox. 3000kms on mine and they still look pretty new,

The Pitbulls are a solid tire but as mentioned above , they are heavy.
jus my 2 cents

I am watching a set of Maxxis Big Horns with bead locks on ebay brand new take offs from a Commander, would they fit? They are 27's. What would be a good price to pay for the tires and wheels shipped? If I buy new, I will probably try the pit bulls in 27 or 28. I ride easy on trails, but some of the trails I ride are very steep and rough. When the snow gets deep, I put on the tracks.

Pitbulls are sick tires but way way way to heavy, I was looking at those awhile back due to their durability and tread pattern, but as soon as I saw how much they weighed I immediately looked elsewhere. Now if you had set of those and you did some clutch work then maybe they would be ok.

Big Horns or Zillas would be a good choice for all around riding, and they are fairly light compared to others.

If you're in any mud the BH's clog up & get nasty, hard to clean out & don't self-clean that well on the trail in my experience with riders in my past groups. I had the Interco Reptiles on my Grizzly they were awesome, very aggressive tread pattern, wore well, I got around small mud holes, gravel, hard pack, rocks etc & never left me stranded. I never had an issue with them & not too heavy, I have the ITP Blackwater Evo's on the Rene now & they are awesome for the riding I do here, lighter than the Reptiles & they're an 8 ply so its always reassuring, no issues. Zilla's are nice but being a bias ply tire they can puncture easily if your on the rocks or hit something the wrong way, I'd be always being worried when/if something is gonna puncture them. Just my $.02 Tires are always a tough choice brother, G/L

Well, I think I have my stockers sold, so I order up a set of Carlisle ACT HD's in 26x9 and 26x11. They are 6 ply and have a 31/32nd tread depth and were in stock at my tire distributor (I get to cheat since I sell tires) I would have went with the 27's, but they weren't in stock and I didn't want to wait. I really wanted to try the pit bulls, but they would have taken several more days to get here and cost quite a bit more. I don't ride in a lot of mud, some snow and lots of desert and when the snow gets deep, the tracks go on. So, I am looking forward to seeing how these perform.

Big Horn's get my vote also. They are one of the best all around trail tires I've tried.

nuffsaid said:

Well, I think I have my stockers sold, so I order up a set of Carlisle ACT HD's in 26x9 and 26x11. They are 6 ply and have a 31/32nd tread depth and were in stock at my tire distributor (I get to cheat since I sell tires) I would have went with the 27's, but they weren't in stock and I didn't want to wait. I really wanted to try the pit bulls, but they would have taken several more days to get here and cost quite a bit more. I don't ride in a lot of mud, some snow and lots of desert and when the snow gets deep, the tracks go on. So, I am looking forward to seeing how these perform.

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After riding on Pitbull Rockers for three years, I came to the conclusion that they are over hyped and over priced. They are the "look at me tire" that never took me anywhere that I didn't go before on Bighorns, and didn't work as well as the BH's on the slick rock of Moab. Best thing about them was the resale value. Three years old with 2,500 miles on them, and they sold for $200 over night. Could have gotten more it would seem. Replaced them with a set of Bearclaw HTR's, which I think are an even better tire than the Bighorns.