If you are consistently using your UTV on rough terrain, it is important to maintain your tires at all times. Purchasing new tires is a solution, albeit a temporary one, for ensuring the safety of those using this vehicle. The tire life of any UTV can be extended by using the proper maintenance and care tactics.
By doing these five simple things, you can extend the life of your UTV tires for many months, or perhaps even years, depending upon how much you take it out on the open terrain.
1. Check Your Pressure Regularly
On most UTVs that are using standard all-terrain tires, you will want to have between 12 and 15 psi. On much of the terrain that you will go on that is rugged, you can easily avoid pinch flats
which can occur as you are going over multiple obstacles. The only variation to this is when you are going rock crawling which is a slow and tedious process where having a lower pressure will be advantageous, usually around 8 psi.
2. Inspect Your Tires
Although this should be common sense, you will want to check on the condition of your tires before going out on the road. If there are any problems noted, such as low pressure, or perhaps something embedded in the tires, you will want to fix that as soon as possible.
3. Always Rotate Your Tires
Tire rotation is probably the best way to extend the life of ATV tires, not to mention any tires that you have on trucks or cars. By rotating them, you can minimize the amount of damage that occurs to the tires, making sure that the wear and tear is completely balanced.
4. Never Overload Your Vehicle
Although ATV tires do look extremely durable, they can only withstand a certain amount of weight. Combine that with traveling with a higher weight capacity than normal, over rough terrain, and you are looking at a potential blowout.
5. Install Matching Tires
One of the worst decisions that a person can make when getting new tires is to not replace all four of them. Although they may look similar, there will be slight variations, which can lead to significant wear and tear later on. Therefore, if you have not been rotating your tires, and you need to replace the front two, get the same exact tires that you currently have. This will make it easier to control your ATV and minimize potential blowouts and degradation of the tires themselves.
Additional Safety Tips
There are three additional safety tips that you should always consider to ensure that everyone is as safe as possible. First, never use your ATV tires until the very last moment. That will invite blowouts at any time as the rubber becomes more degraded. Second, if you are going to do any type of maneuvering on the mud, make sure they are slightly deflated. 10 psi is recommended for any activity on mud. Finally, use a local company to rotate your tires for you. Even if you can do this yourself, they will notice problems with your ATV that you may not see. This can help you avoid potential problems that may not even be related to your tires that can keep everyone safe.
By using these five simple tips for maintaining the tires on your UTV, you can see many months of additional use. It will also improve the safety levels for those that are using these vehicles, especially on rougher terrain. Remember to check your tires regularly for potential problems and always replace tires with the exact same ones. This will ensure that they will last longer and give you more control on the open terrain as you have fun.
