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It’s easy to get bogged down when doing research for a new set of ATV tires. Whether you’re digging through mud pits with your ATV or skating along a loose dirt trail, the options —and opinions — seem endless when trying to find the best tire option for your application. The ideal lug depth, tread pattern, and construction type changes from one terrain to the next.
If the wave of information makes you tempted to quit your search entirely, don’t. All the most passionate ATV enthusiasts swear by their tires for good reason — a solid set of rubber is one of the single biggest upgrades you can make on your ATV no matter the terrain you ride. To help get you up to speed in the world of ATV tires, we did the spec sheet scouring for you. These are our picks for the best ATV tires on the market today.
Summary List
- Best Overall: ITP Mud Lite II
- Best Value: Tusk Terraform
- Honorable Mention: Kenda Bear Claw K299
- Best Cross Country Tire: ITP Holeshot GNC
- Best Sand Tire: Sedona Cyclone
Our Methodology
ATV tires are a special case when it comes to product selection. Often more important than the exact model of the tire is the purpose it’s designed for, such as mud, hardpack, sand, etc. ATV enthusiasts have their brand loyalties, but there’s far from a consensus when it comes to the best tires. When it came time to make my picks for the tire models included here, I scoured forum threads, industry reviews, user feedback and, of course, employed The Drive’s review methodology to offer an array of tire options across brands and uses. I also tried to use the 25×10-12 option for each tire to better compare details such as weight. Alongside reading user experiences, I also made sure to account for relative weight differences, ply count, and durability when making the final selections.
Best ATV Tires Reviews & Recommendations
Best Overall
ITP Mud Lite II
Best Value
Tusk Terraform
Honorable Mention
Kenda Bear Claw K299
Best Cross Country Tire
ITP Holeshot GNC
Best Sand Tire
Sedona Cyclone
Our Verdict on the Best ATV Tires
The ITP Mud Lite II offers just about everything you could need across an array of terrains. But, if the price tag is a little beyond what you’re looking to spend, the Tusk Terraform offers amazing traction and durability at roughly three-quarters the price of the Mud Lite II.
Things to Consider Before Buying ATV Tires
Whether or not you end up going with any of the picks for best tires included here, there’s a handful of factors you want to consider while searching for the right ATV tire for you and your application.
Brand
There’s no shortage of quality tire companies out there for ATV enthusiasts. Everyone has their brand loyalties, but as long as you’re buying a tire model from a reasonably well-established company it’s hard to get a below-par tire. Although this is far from an exhaustive list, you can keep an eye out for a few enthusiast favorite brands as you shop, including ITP, Carlisle, Kenda, Maxxis, Sedona, and Tusk. Beyond brands, the more important consideration when researching and shopping for ATV tires is the type of terrain — be it sand, mud, or hardpack — that the tire is designed for.
Terrain Type
In the world of ATV tires, picking a set of rubber that’s been designed for the exact type of terrain you ride is the single most important factor to consider in your research. If you plan to take your ATV through deep mud, you need a tire with an aggressive tread design. That means tread depth of at least one inch and an open tread pattern for effective mud cleanout. But the same things that make a tire ideal for mud make it useless for something like cross country. If fast trail or cross country riding is your goal, then you want a lightweight tire with more shallow lugs and a much tighter overall tread pattern that allows for better stability at high speeds and snappy turning abilities. Regardless of the kind of terrain you want to ride, there’s a tire out there designed for it.
Construction
ATV tire construction can be broken down into two main categories: bias-ply or radial design. Bias-ply tires are far more common for ATVs due to their lower costs and their enhanced durability over their radial counterparts. All of the tires we chose have bias-ply construction, offering an effective balance between durability and performance. Some tires designed for applications like cross-country or sand will have 2- or 4-ply construction to reduce unsprung weight. The same rule applies to heavy-duty, 8-ply tires where durability is paramount.
Radial tires offer longer life spans than most bias-ply tires and smoother performance at high speeds on hard terrains. While they have their advantages over bias-ply tires, the increased costs and greater susceptibility to punctures make radial tires better catered to street usage than offroading applications.
ATV Tire Pricing
ATV tires can vary drastically in their price depending not only on the brand, but the size, the type of terrain they’re designed for, and their overall construction, bias-ply or radial. With that said, most ATV tires, including the ones I chose here, can range anywhere from $70 to $130 per tire. Because so much of the cost comes down to the terrain design, construction, and size, it’s important to be honest with yourself about the kind of riding you’re going to be doing on your ATV to make sure you’re not buying more–or less–rubber than you need.
FAQs
You’ve got questions. The Drive has answers.
A: If your tires are still in reasonably good condition, you can always try to sell them on the secondhand market. This reduces waste and makes you some money at the same time. If that’s not an option, consider donating them to a play park or zoo. Lastly, you can take them to your local recycling center. Just make sure to check local regulations about exactly how tire recycling works in your area.
A: Manufacturers include recommendations for how much you can change the tire size from their factory dimensions without severely compromising your ATV’s performance. Ideally, you want to stay within those ranges. But, ultimately, you can go as big as the clearance on your ATV allows, just know you’re sacrificing other kinds of performance by adding additional unsprung weight.
A: Balancing your ATV tires can help extend their life by evening out wear. But the answer to this largely depends on the kind of riding you intend to do. If you’re riding your ATV through slow, rocky or muddy paths then balancing isn’t necessary, but if you’ll be riding your ATV at high speeds (35+ mph), your tires would benefit from being properly balanced.
A: If you have non-directional tires, you can consider rotating your tires for more even wear. However, this is complicated by the fact that many ATVs have directional tires as well as different sizes for both front and rear tires. Through the combination of these two factors, a set of tires wouldn’t be able to be rotated side-to-side or front-to-back.
A: ATV tires do not come with a tube for good reason, Having a tube not only requires that you inflate your tire to a higher psi than is ideal for many offroading applications, it also poses a greater risk of leaks than tubeless tires. If a tube does develop a leak, it’s commonly more difficult to properly fix.
