Roaring through the goop like King Kong up the Empire State Building

While there are riders out there who do their best to avoid puddles and occasional slop as they traverse their favorite trails, there are an equal number of individuals who deliberately seek out the nastiest, soupiest, muddiest pits the world has to offer to test their ATV’s prowess.  It’s these riders who seek tires with more meat than an average butcher’s shop, air intakes with snorkels that could make a skin-diver envious and suspension numbers that might seem more at home on a monster truck than on a quad!

It is also these kinds of riders that Gorilla Axle has made a name for itself in catering to with a full line of heavy-duty suspension and drive train components.  Enter the Silverback; the company’s first foray into the rough and tumble mud-specific tire arena.  We slapped a brand new set on our Can-Am Outlander 650 and headed straight to the nastiest mud pit we could find to do a little playing er testing as it were.

Fit

The Silverback is available in a variety of sizes from 27” on up to 32 with varying tread depth in accordance with the tire diameter: 27″ – 1.5″ 28″ – 1.75″ 30″ – 2″ 32″ – 2.5″.  In our case the 27 x 10 x 12 size was chosen (which just so happens to be the cheapest and smallest of the Silverback line) meaning our tread depth measured up at 1.5 inches.

Mount up was only slightly more difficult than a standard all-purpose tire swap thanks to that chunky tread mentioned above, which actually stiffens up the sidewalls even on down to the bead.  If you doubt your backyard abilities with a pair of tire irons, your dealer should be able to slap these babies on your OEM wheels or, if you want to run the Silverbacks only in mud but swap back to a more general purpose tire afterward, install them onto another set of rims for a few bucks.

Blast Off

Here’s the good and bad news: If you happen to be in a position that drops your ATV into a mud hole, prepare to be dazzled by the Silverbacks and the purity of their purpose.  Gorilla Axle has clearly designed this carcass to create traction where none should rightfully exist (like at the bottom of a festering slime pit for example.)

So drastic is the effect of the Silverback’s presence that it’s comparable in mud to what a paddle tire does in sand:  The ATV simply refuses to spin out or lose traction even when the operator gets a little overzealous with the throttle.

Additionally the big chunky lugs form a bit of a centerline once the tire’s in motion that the quad actually rides upon when the deep crevasses surrounding them aren’t needed.  What this means in English is that the tire continues clawing with authority over slippery rocks, slimy roots, gooey clay, or even loose sand and gravel.

Things get ugly fast the moment you hit intermediate terrain and only worsen on hard-pack.  Suddenly the carcass itself exhibits loads of unwelcome flex while the lugs stutter in rotation as if you were riding down a set of railroad tracks!  We do realize Gorilla Axle never claimed all-purpose performance out of the Silverbacks and can’t fault the tire for that specifically but do be aware of the fact that if you plan to run your quad on anything other than through mud pits, perhaps a more multi-purpose-friendly tire would better suit your needs.

Conclusions

The Gorilla Axle Silverbacks aren’t cheap tires (ranging in price from 5 – 8 apiece) especially for what boils down to a single-purpose tire.  However, like the old expression goes, you get what you pay for.  For its intended purpose, the 6-ply Silverbacks offer up unrivaled performance- in fact for true mud competition, this is a must-do modification as the traction gains over OEM tires are night and day!  However, and like most of the compromises riders are forced to make when entering the upper echelons of performance hop-ups, these tires do not pretend to do it all.  We hoped to be able to squeeze a little trail service out of ours but discovered that anything above first-gear crawling isn’t only a rough ride; it could be downright sketchy! The best bet for riders on the fence would be to have the Silverbacks mounted up to separate rims, making swaps a breeze.

Contact

For more information or to order directly:

http://www.gorilla-axle.com/product/77/Gorilla+Silverback+Mud+Tire.html