I am pretty happy with the geckos all around. I hear alot of people not liking them on a big bore quad. I do alot of duning and don't spend a lot of time hill shooting or drag racing. If you run them at 2-3 lbs of air, they seem to hook up pretty well. Maybe not as well in a straight line as a hauler, but much easier to slide quickly around a witches eye while carving up the big bowls.

 

Hey eRAPTOID,
What size are your Skat Traks?

2002 Raptor
Full Yosh pipe
Pro Design filter
Gytr Stuff

 

I like my geckos,Made it up everthing i needed to get up at glamis,China wall, the wall,Brawley slide, with no problem...Even whipped on some DS's at gecko RD on saturday on the flats....

 

I have 9 paddle edge's on my 01. love them great for all around riding. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I will agree with the King on the Geckos. You will be happier with the Skat-trak tires and they are lighter. [Lighter is better] Lowering the air pressure in the Geckos yea right those things dont seem to flatten out if you run 1 psi in them.

Maxxis Roosters fall in the same catagory as the Geckos. They look cool but the performance is lacking. My opinion is Buy the Haulers if ya like to shoot the hills or throw big roost Or get a set of sand Skate 2s for all around riding.

 

when i first got my raptor i ran sand skate 2,s and thought they performed well but i now run 8 paddle haulers and get much better traction when running in wet or dry sand.sliding with the haulers is not a problem just break them loose with a little throttle your good to go.my raptor is stock for now although i am getting it built to a 686 with a full fmf pipe and header system and pro design air filter so i may switch to a 10 paddle setup if the horsepower allows.in my experience sand skates just have to much wheelspin on an aggresive take off but to each his own.

 

i have some paddle masters. they seem to work fine for me but..........i also dont have just a ton of sand like you all have in the dunes either.

 

OK, I run Gecko tires. I'm don't, by any means, think they are the best tire for sand. But that's no reason to insult people who use them. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, there are some who feel, in thier OPINION, that they like the Gecko's.
I'm going to buy a set of Haulers for next season, with a set of new rims. NOW, why would I need new rims?, well I'll tell you why.
My rims are HAMMERED, the tires still look like new, and still hold air.
Say all you want about how much of a POS Gecko's are, but all of my friends, ALL OF THEM!, who ran Haulers are going to need new ones. They ride the same areas as I do, and thier Haulers have lost at least one paddle each. MY POS GECKO'S STILL LOOK LIKE NEW.
My Gecko's have never popped a bead, but I've seen Haulers do it.
I can run the stock tires on the front with my Gecko's, but most of the Hauler users have to run a ribbed front tire just to control thier quad.
This these trivial little things may not mean much to some duners. I thought it was worth mentioning.
So, KingRaptor, I respect your opinion. And I read a lot of your posts. But I wish you would just take a chill pill. Maybe two, (they are small you know).

 

My guess is your friends with torn paddles have the air pressure too low.
I run the Extremes & have seen many 100+ HP sand drag quads run Haulers for years witout losing a paddle
You must run at least 5 Psi in Haulers!! That would fix the popping off the bead problem too.
Any less & the caracass will deform under power & the twisting motion rips the paddles off.
Unlike most sand tires that need very low air pressure to hook up the haulers need 5 Psi to keep the paddle straight across & the whole paddle gripping.

Gecko's & Roosters are a compromise tire, they try to make a tire that hooks & slides & it's a hard thing to do.
High HP quads will spin them instead of hooking them up.
I've seen them on DS's & Raptors & they didn't work as well as Haulers but they weren't designed to.
They would probably work great on a lower Hp quad like a 300ex, 400EX, Warrior, ETC but not a big bore high HP quad.

You are right about needing the Mowhawks on the front, the Extremes hook up so hard that they need a little help to turn
With the Mowhawks & 3" wider in the rear I don't have any problems turning, It won't turn like a Vpaddle but I like the hooking power.

 

"Compromise" tire, I'd have to agree with you on that Moose. Kind of the type of quad I ride, my Raptor too is a compromise.
If I had bought and built a high horse power Banshee, I would of not even looked at the Geckos. It would of been Haulers all the way.
And I don't know what air pressure that all of my Hauler friends were running, but I think that they simply ran thier tires in places that they shouldn't have been, and spinning them in the process.
It still would be hard to convince me that Haulers are as durable as Geckos. That durability comes at a price though.