Unless you had a specific purpose for your ATV when you bought it, chances are you gave little thought to the tires that came with it. Older ATV’s that have been used for a while are more than likely going to need some new rubber in the near future.
The question now becomes, what type of tires do I need on my ATV? Keep these easy tips in mind when choosing the rubber that goes on your next ATV. Buying the wrong set of tires for your four wheeler can have bad results. Like spending a night out in the backwoods alone or paying for costly repairs.
If your budget is tight, and who’s isn’t these days, you may want to consider buying used ATV tires. These can generally be found any place that carries used ATV parts. The biggest mistake many ATV owners make is buying any set of tires they can find because they’re cheap.
Start off by giving some serious thought about where and how you use your ATV. There are tires designed to do one thing really well – like riding in sand, then there are tires that try and be all things to all riders – which means they won’t excel at one thing very good – like mud bogging. With today’s technology, an ATV owner can easily match tires to his or her type of riding for peak performance.
ATV sand tires are tires with paddles on them. They excel in loose sand because the paddles get traction by grabbing a large amount of sand as the wheel and tire turn. These tires are wider than normal and offer good traction in all types of sand terrain, whether it’s the beach or in the middle of the desert. The front tires on a 2 wheel drive ATV will have smooth tires to aid in steering in soft sand.
More than likely your used Kawasaki ATV came with general purpose tires. The manufacturers put these on new machines because they meet the needs of most riders. Although they do not exceed in any one type of terrain, they do offer the best all around performance for the casual off road ATV rider.
Next come the ATV mud tires. These tires are designed to dig deep into mud for traction while throwing chunks of mud off the tires as it turns – so it can displace more mud. Mud tires are a good choice if most of your riding is done in the wet stuff. Some believe that mud tires work well in sand. They don’t. Mud tires are not a good trade off for sand tires. General purpose tires even work better in sand than the aggressive treaded mud tires.
Now we get to the Sport and High Performance ATV Tires. These tires are meant for fast riding on hard surfaces. These differ from other types of ATV tires because of their lower profile. Some will have taller and wider wheels. The tread is generally small knobs in an X pattern.
Stopping to think about where it is that you’ll be using your ATV is a critical step in choosing the right set of rubber for your four wheeler. So before you run out and plunk your money down for any old set of tires, give it a little thought and get the right ones for the job.































