ATV Connection Magazine

Question on Tire Weight

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Posted by: reconranger

If you were a bicycle rider, you would truely appreciate the value of light wheels!

The effect of extra weight on a wheel is huge! It takes more energy to get it turning, and more braking to get it stopped. Go as light as you can, without sacrificing durability. Get some lighter rims too!

Posted by: 22Hornet

I've been looking at tires till my brain is almost fried. I see tire weights from 16 to 23 pounds and even more.

How much difference will the weight of the tire make?

If it doesn't really make that much difference, then I'm ok with that but if it is going to cost me on top end speed or out of the hole, then I want to put that into the equation on purchase.

These will go on my stock Ozark. 22x11x9

Posted by: 22Hornet

Grnxnham, My first post was about which tires and checking out responses to that question I learned of the weight differences and decided I needed to know more about the impact of weight so I posted the second question.

You are right on the stock size too. I double checked the specs and the actual tire size on my Ozark and they are 22X10-9. Thanks

Posted by: GrnXnham

I see you posted a similar question about two posts up.

We have 2 Ozarks.

We just replaced the rear tires on both. On one we put the Kenda Bear claws in the 22x12-9 size. These tires have good all around traction but they are heavier than the stock tires by about 7lbs per tire. For general purpose riding, you can't see much difference but on the sand for example, where you need every ounce of HP that you can get, the Bear Claws suck. We got some Sand Snake tires (20x11-10) for the other Ozark for sand riding only and now it it is much faster than the Ozark with the Bear Claws on the sand.

Like in the other post, I'd recommend the Maxxis Sur Trak tires in 22x11-9. (Stock is 22x10-9 BTW) The Sur Traks weight about 3.5lbs each more than stock. This is not noticeable in most situations.

Bottom line:

Weight DOES make a difference so don't go too much heavier than stock or you will notice a loss of acceleration.

Posted by: GrnXnham

I understand that.

Let me know if you want me to email you some pics of the two different tires on an Ozark.

Posted by: TLC

I imagine the heavier ones are 6 ply or larger in diameter. The lighter the better for drive train stress I would think. Thats why Mud Lites are such a big seller they are still 6ply yet weigh the same as most stock 2ply tires.

Posted by: tamiyacrawler

I had sur traks on my sport quad and damn they are heavy, at least 8lb more than stock and the same size. They NEVER get stuck but they make the quad unbalanced for jumping and even with alot of mods I havent noticed much increase in power. I'm now buying lighter tires and aluminum rims hoping to cure the problem. They should be here in about a week so I'll tell you how they do.

Posted by: sjbr549

simply put ,lighter wheel/tire package make hp// heavier packages take hp