Are you still looking Greg?

Yesterday I finally got off my butt and got around to putting my spare truck tire back under the truck where it belongs and re-checking the pressure on all 5 tires. I checked the pressure on the 7 new trailer and ATV tires I had to buy too. I'm glad I didn't go for a ride without checking them first. I used a 20 psi tire gauge that came with my ATV to check those 4 tires. I had to let the air out of all of them for about 45 seconds each before it was even low enough to measure without maxing out the gauge. It took a long time to get them all down to 6 psi. Polaris said to put 5 psi in my stock tires, but I'll try 6 pounds on these. I can always let more air out. One of my friends used to put 7 psi in his front tires. I think he did that on his old quad that was only supposed to have 4 pounds. He said it made it a lot easier to turn the handlebars. It should, if only the center is making contact with the ground. There's a 12-ply rated tire that looks just like mine that still looks fully inflated even after you pull the cores out of the valve stems.

 

I was really only looking. I probably will buy tires at a local shop or dealer, I've honestly never bought tires online. I was going to for my previous truck. The tires did cost a little less than the tire shop but they charge extra to mount tires you didn't buy from them so I wouldn't have saved any money. The stock tires are in ok shape. And I honestly don't go through too much mud anymore, I really don't even use 4x4 that much even with the stock tires. Sometimes I use it just to make sure I don't spin the tires and make ruts.

 

When I asked the tire dealer I went to how much it would cost to mount my tires he said 5 bucks each. I was so stunned I couldn't say more than one word. When I looked online at Walmart I think they said a local store would charge $20 or $30 for each one to mount any tires they didn't sell me. FSpam wordSpam word Spam wordSpam word Spam wordSpam word Spam wordSpam word * Walmart. I don't buy anything there, and I'm not paying that much to mount my tires, especially when I can get all 4 done for $20.

ETA: I didn't have to pay a disposal fee for the 4 ATV tires and 3 trailer tires they got rid of for me.

 

Sounds like a good deal to me.

 

Any other time I got new tires I think I had to pay a disposal fee. I know I did for truck tires, but I'm not sure about trailer tires, and I never had to replace an ATV tire before. The garbage man won't take old tires and nobody else wants them. Maybe I could take them to a dump, but I'd have to pay for that too. I'd like to try out my new tires but it may not happen this weekend. My friends had an emergency come up, and I won't know until sometime Thursday or Friday if they're going up north or not. If they aren't, I can't stay at their place and won't be going anywhere. I don't even know if I should pack anything or not. I'm in a holding pattern for now.

 

interesting

 

Well, I got the news early in the afternoon. Some guy is going to start digging up my friends' yard Friday to fix the well, so we aren't going anywhere. It'll probably rain anyway. If it's not raining here we may have a barbecue in what's left of their yard. Hopefully we can all get away some weekend before it gets too cold for me to sleep in my tent. I still have zero miles on my tires. I haven't even moved my quad around in the driveway, but I'll probably turn it 90 degrees and park it again.

 

When they first mount ATV tires they'll usually inflate them to at least 20 PSI to seat the bead and then you need to drop the air pressure when you put them on your ATV.

I run 3.5 psi in my front tires and 3 psi in the rear.

They're radials and need to have that bulge in the sidewalls to get the benefit of radial tires. No bulge and they work like bias ply because too much air pressure and the sidewalls get too stiff.

When I had a set of STI Black Diamonds XTRs on my Rubicon I ran 2.5 psi in them all the way around due the stiff sidewalls.

 

After he seated the bead I saw one guy pumping up one of the tires even more as he watched a gauge. Maybe he thought they needed higher pressure and put 35 psi in them like my truck tires. I think I'm going to drop them down to 5 psi before I ride, instead of trying 6 first, then 5 for a comparison. I could tell fairly well on my old tires if the pressure was right by putting the ball of my foot on the middle of the tread and pushing in 2 or 3 times. I'll have to get a feel for my new ones so I don't have to use a gauge every time.

 

Each ATV tire has a recommended seating psi. Have to be careful going beyond it. One trick I've used is to put a ratchet strap around the whole tire to make it rest against the rim so seating is easier. Even did it after a crash where a tire got de-rimmed.