Top 5 – ATV Tire Talk

5 year Graph of “ATV Alignment issues” searches 

Powersports tires are one of the most commonly purchased aftermarket items.

Duh! With the right set up, your 4-wheeler and 3-wheeler can perform perfectly, BUT with the wrong set up, your ride will be awkward and costly. Many Three Wheelers are out of alignment as they come off the manufacturing line.

Nothing can save you money, improve acceleration or performance, better than the correct wheel and tire spin. Nothing can save your tires like the right alignment setup.

The Top 5

1. The right tire
2. The right wheel
3. The right suspension
4. The right wheel alignment – These make your ATV/UTV/Side by Side and Quad perform

That’s only 4? You’re thinking. Number 5 should be the easiest to keep the dollars in your pocket and that is

The big ol’ 5 – Preventative maintenance!

One of my customers gets his fleet delivered directly from the dealer and 60% of them are misaligned fresh off the truck!!!

Now, I’m not saying they did that on purpose, but something went wrong somewhere. When we say preventative maintenance, it starts on day 1.

After a fun ride on rough terrain, your toe alignment may look like this.

It’s not always visible to the naked eye and that’s where you need to spend 5 minutes checking before the next ride.

DIY or QuickTrick Alignment

A really good DIY check can be found here:  DIY QUAD ALIGNMENT  There are also quite a few DIY wheel alignment tutorials on YouTube. If you want something preset and a little easier to use, check out the new QuickTrick systems in the shop.

Most 4-wheeler owners’ manuals will come with DIY alignment information in the back of the book. It’s brief and always refers you to a dealership, but who has time to go to a dealership after every ride? We want to play hard and keep our money.

Use a DIY at home check or a QuickTrick. We love sales, but we also believe in everyone managing their vehicles. Whether it’s an ATV, UTV, CanAm or a car, truck, or RV; you can extend the life and enjoy the ride longer by doing your own preventative maintenance.

Additional 411

Simply making sure your tire set up is correct will immediately improve performance at slow speeds and high speeds, on rough terrain and on smooth, hard surfaces.

Moving from a bias-style construction to a radial can make turn-in much sharper at higher speeds and help the tire grip better in low-traction situations, but only if the set up is correct.

A healthy tire can grab faster and cut stopping distances. It might save your life.

Fact is, the majority of tires installed by the factory on your spanking new vehicle are no-frills, basic rubber; good but not great. Some OEMs are really getting into the tire value consumers hunger for by offering upgrades and special packages that highlight better tires.

It may not be enough, though, depending on how you use your 4-wheeler. For instance, if you ride rocks and hard surfaces a lot, a mud tire, although it looks super-cool may not be the best for you.  

Likewise, if your lugs are worn off, you’re going to be wrestling in greasy mud – it’s just a no-brainer.

Try to find the aftermarket tire, wheel and suspension that suits the places you ride and your local weather conditions best.

Especially with 4×4 ATVs, it’s important that the tires all match in height and lug pattern, are closely inflated and have about the same wear on them. With CANAM and other 3 wheelers, you need to be especially diligent with alignment. These are notorious for being out of whack.

Most Powersports equipment will have toe adjustments only. More and more of the side by sides and any two seaters are getting closer to a standard vehicle chassis and will have camber adjustments.

Summary

In closing, the right tires, 4 wheeler alignment, suspension and preventative maintenance make such a big difference you’ll probably fall in love all over again with your 4-wheeler. If you are not mechanically inclined, that’s fine. You can still save money and time by checking your alignment and knowing if your ride needs attention at the shop or not, before components and struts get damaged.

If you want to check out the new QuickTrick 4-wheeler system for ATV, UTV and others, check out our build your own model here: QuickTrick 4 Wheeler BYO Kit

After building custom kits for 4 years, we finally set up the CNC to manage the smaller pieces. Made in the USA and always guaranteed to please!

Have a great time and be safe!