I've rode on a variety of surfaces trying to find the best spot out here in the desert. Grass fields became my favorite, until recently a pretty hard packed gravel parking lot was built that is never used and i have full permission to use it! Love sliding around on it, although falls hurt more.
I recently just wore through my first set of tires. I had a lot of time on these on the grass and i wish i had paid attention to the wear before i started using this lot so i could adequately gauge the wear.
Can anyone with more experience tell me how much more wear i can expect on the harder, rockier surface?
I know riding on asphalt will wear them down quick, but in my thinking i figured that since the gravel allowed me to slide with it would reduce the wear.. even though its a harder surface.

Think of the tire as your palm and you will have a good idea of the amount of what is hard on your hand is also hard on the tire.
granted the tire is much harder than your hand but it still works the same way. If it hurts to slide your hand across the surface of what ever, it will hurt your tire the same way. Stay on the grass or reduce the tempation to dig in the rocks.:D

Yay! Jeff is back!!!

I agree with the Jedi master ^^^ ... Especially since I have no experience with tire wear

Since this is in the the Kite ATB Landboarding section, I'll toss in some additional thoughts.

There will be more treadwear from abrasion than on grass, but less than asphalt. That may not be the biggest wear consideration to think about that.

Gravel comes in a variety of flavors. If the gravel is hard & sharp enough, your going to see more wear in the form of nicks and cuts. If you are running standard landboard tires, the nubs are going to see the worst of it.

4 ply tires will be heavier, but will deal with the abuse better than 2 ply tires.

When you side slide, there's a better that even chance that you are going to be throwing up a little rooster tails of gravel onto the underside of the board.

If the bottom of your board only has a decorative layer with a clear coat over it, make sure that the gravel doesn't chew through to any of the wood laminate layers. This would allow water/moisture to enter and lead to delamination.

If your board has a layer of PTEX (or Surlyn for MBS boards) just keep an eye that none of the dings get to the wood layer. If they do, just touch them up with a PTEX candle as you would a snowboard.



ATB,
Sam

most tires of this type are soft, like erasers almost, lotta grip, tarmac will eat a set in matter of couple hours esp. with decent wind and powersliding around. ..they actually tear and pop first if really ripping them
on hard pack sand wet pack, i usually get around 400-600hours or roughly 2+ sets of bearings by then tire is soft, thin in the middle, almost start showing some threads and bead failure at same time or at least signs of separation.

grass is deluxe, nice grip, softer for crashes , easy on the tires, bead failure before thread wear failure, if dry conditions---> very long time

and i do some heelside to toeside swapping if i'm stretching the goods, tires are quick and easy to change but a hassle when u r ready to roll, so ALways have ready a spare pumped, mounted with bearings for field repair

desert lake, hard textured stuff gives super grip and definitely can eat them quick if ripping hard. easy cruise and popping around is not rough them .

the 8" wear quicker than 9" and the tire pressure /ur weight all play into wear, also style of riding , if ur ripping for speed with long slides u gonna eat some tires