Paddle Tires

Paddle Tires

Do you plan on playing in the sand with your off road toy?  If so you will need to get yourself a good set of paddle tires.  We have developed this page in order to help you understand exactly what paddle tires are, the variations they come in, and what set would be best for your purposes.

Paddle tires are tires that are specifically designed to be able to help your vehicle accelerate more rapidly in the sand.  They achieve this by having grooves or scoops that essentially force your tire to dig, in a forward direction, in to the sand.  These unique tires can help prevent your vehicle, dirtbike, or whatever toy you have, from becoming stuck in the middle of the sand dunes.

When looking for a good set of paddle tires there are a number of things to take in to account, as they come in many shapes and sizes.  The scoops can be larger, smaller, have special offset, or even unique shapes (such as a V as opposed to going straight across the tire).  One of the key things to remember is that the bigger the paddles the more traction you will generally get.  However, this comes with a caveat, if you have more traction (more digging power), you will also need more horsepower.  So, if you select tires that are too aggressive, you will end up bogging down your ride, and ultimately being disappointed.

Another common difference with paddle tires is the number of paddles on the tire itself.  For example, research has shown that, with the same size paddles on paddle tire, if you have 6 paddles on one and 9 paddles on the other, that the 9 paddle tire will generally do better off the line, but the 6 paddle tire will tire usually do better once you get up to speed.  This makes sense if you think about it logically.  With the 9 paddles you have more biting area to move sand, but the problem is that it also takes more power to move more sand, so when you hit top speed, you’re making the sacrifice of losing some of your speed to extra friction caused by the 9 paddle tires.

Another important consideration is the size and the weight.  As a general rule of thumb one pound of rotating mass is the equivalent to eight pounds of regular mass.  So, if you shed 1 pound of weight in your wheel/tire assembly it’s basically like losing eight pounds off your chassis.  So all other things equal when you are comparing your paddle tires make sure you pick the set that are lighter, as this will help you have a better horsepower to weight ratio, and ultimately will result in you have more power.

Regardless of which set of paddle tires you select, you will be much happier with them then regular dirt tires when it comes to playing in the sand.  One word of caution though, never run these tires on something hardpacked (like dirt road or asphalt), as you will not only have a bumpy ride, but you stand the risk of destroying your tires as well!