Been there dozens of times and have used every type of tire on the market. I have been told such and such is the best. Is it?

My opinion considers how long the tires last along with rolling resistance, traction and directional stability.
The best I've ever used are the Heidenau motorcycle tires on the Landseglers. They track very straight and have low rolling resistance on newer tires. Traction goes up as the tires start to wear. I can get a thousand miles or so from a set. The larger diameter adds lots of rubber to contact and spread the wear.

The commonly found smoothies might not offer any advantage over the ribbed tires other than longer wear. But they balance traction, tracking, rolling resistance.

Others have used trailer tires with a tread. They seem to wear forever, have great traction, and probably do a good job in every way other than rolling resistance.

Having never been to Ivanpah and planning for the trip next year the issue of tires came up.

I was told that the surface was like sand paper and that smooth Big Foots would only last a couple of sessions.

The tire that I was told that was supposed to be the "right one" was a grooved 4 ply barrow
or even a grooved lite bigfoot???? A 4.80-8 or even a PL "fat tire" :puzzled::puzzled::puzzled:

How do you determine which tire is right? Lot's of factors for sure, such as riding style, type of buggy, size of the pilot, condition of the surface, etc etc and number of beers consumed. :D

Those of you that have been there tell us what your choice of tire was/is and why please.

Davis, you are going to wear any tire you use but it's how hard you ride and slide that will determine how fast you wear those. If you take nice easy curves to slow down and don't ride overpowered to slide then you can easily make a set tires last your whole week there. But if you ride hard then they will wear fast. The worst I ever did for wear was burn through a new set of ribbed barrows on the first day in maybe 4 hrs of harder riding. If you are riding with tubes you don't want to wear them to blow a tire then you'll need to replace both tube and tire. For me I've found the smoothies (4 ply) last a lot longer than the ribbed barrows. I don't think I'd run a set of Bigfoot lites because they are 2 ply and even if you ride them easy they will still have some wear and you are getting closer to replacing a costly tire vs buying a set of tires that you can use as playa tires. Flying down it was less weight to come without ribbed beach tires and buy a set of smoothies down in Vegas through one of the exceptional shops and then ride harder at the end of the week to wear them right down and trash them at weeks end. I have also brought tires home and now have sets mounted on hubs for the playa, for the beach etc. I'd love to run Bobby's set up that's the cat's a55

Mark makes an important point. Simply running on the Playa's gritty surface doesn't eat up your tires. It's sliding that does.

If you are new to the Playa you aren't that likely to be pushing the limits to scrub force as quick as you may think. I am not an aggressive rider and found tire wear wasn't as big an issue for me. Strangely enough the only tire I have ever worn out on the Playa was my front tire? My buggy has very poor seat symmetry.

Tire wear is a REAL issue but far more for those who spend a LOT of time scrubbing high speeds. Definitely a worth while discussion but more important to those who really push it.

I myself have never been to Ivanpah either. But I think I would just find the cheapest most readily available option. Then use them, abuse them, then throw them away! Or save them for the next playa. While that might just be lack of buggy experience talking. Life experience has taught me to try to not over analyze it, and/or over engineer it. Keep it simple. It's a tire.

Most lakebed newbies don't ride aggressively enough to trash tires their first week unless you arrive with 2 ply ribbed tires. So lakebed tires aren't likely an every year expense if you're just coming for IBX.

I agree, smoothies 4 ply are the best for wear. If you take care of them they will last a very long time. I have had a set last for 2-3 months with several visits. When riding hard, I have burnt through a set in 2 days.

While supporting the European team riders for PKD at NABX the main goal was to break the speed record. One of my jobs was to supply enough tires and wheels.
Will 8 sets of smoothies be enough? Seriously? Let's see, Portland, San Francisco, Bakersfield, any tire shop with a phone. Picked up another 5 sets on the way down.
I had 2 tires left over at the end of the trip that year.
First to go is the front tire, replace that and by the time that one was ready to go the back needed to be replace. The first thing I noticed was the tire type that came on one buggy. The second thing was the size.
"Not to exceed 100 kilometers", what the ? Ok, let's start at the beginning. These guys had one goal in mind and that was to go faster than anyone has ever gone. The faster you turn around and get back to the starting point of your run the better your shot at the record.
Zero to 70mph to zero, turn, zero to 50mph, turn, over and over again and again. One day I replaced 8 tires on 1 buggy.
Smoothies don't last long with this type of use. A trip into Las Vegas for a chit chat at Les Schwab got me some much needed help. Road tires with some tread my truck would be jealous of and they were 8 inch to fit the PL wheels. They only cost $12.00 per tire. They were 6 ply hiway tires for a small trailer. Harder than heck to put on the wheels. They lasted 2 1/2 days. Woo hoo, Yeehaw. Wish I would have know this earlier, would have saved my a few hundred bucks.

I have used moped tires on my 17 inch Sysmic wheels, 18 inch 1300 Kawasaki street bike wheels/tires, 21x12 beach racers, cheap barrows, Charlisle smoothies, knobby and street tread barrows, cambered or not, it all comes down to how hard you play and how much you want to spend. It doesn't matter the type, size, tread configuration, or your ego. You can wear them out, or use them over and over and over again year after year. It's up to you.
From talking to a lot of guys here and in Europe, team riders and regular guys, a tire is a tire. If they are the ones footing the bill for the replacements, guess what? Cheap is good.

Jeepersjoey was running a set of trailer tires on his libre that were a few years old but still looks brand new. He said itt took a tire shop to get them mounted because of the difficulty though. Was going to get a set but worried that they would bugger up my new aluminum rims putting them on.

I'm no expert but...
I buggy on nearby dry lakes but I'm not a speed demon and don't like to be overpowered so I don't put much stress on the tires.
I have always used 4 ply ribbed barrow tires with no issues, the kind that come standard with most buggies.
They are light so less weight overall as long as I stay away from the tacos and burritos.
Plus it makes it easier to hang the buggies in the garage.
In my case the front wheel will wear first.
I usually bring a couple of extra mounted wheel/tire combos in case I get a thorn from running too close to the bushes at El Mirage.
YMMV

Did the fast guys comment on how the trailer tires tracked and possible rolling resistance differences? I'm certain they would wear forever. I only ever questioned how much drag they might have and I'm curious about how they hold a line.

Crewl that's good if you are getting good service from the barrow ribbed tires, but from what I've seen, they wear faster than any other tire. They are half way to the threads when you wear the ribs off.

My first nabx I went to I had the extra wide ribbed tires. I put 150 miles on them and could barely see a difference in the tires. So riding style can have much more impact on tire life than tire choice. This discussion really only comes into play if tire wear becomes an inconvenience.

This year was my first time at Ivanpah so I asked a lot of the same questions. Turns out a few days of riding underpowered at maybe 35 mph tops and I couldn't tell any extra wear on my ribbed tires. Then on one of the higher wind days I watched a friend from the UK burn up a brand new set of tires in about 30 mins. Not sure what brand they were but he was doing speed runs at 55+.

I'll have to agree with most of the above posts that how you ride has a big impact on tire life even on the playa.

The playa on a heavy buggy with well balanced tires is on my bucket list.

Another factor in tire wear is a tuned buggy. A tuned buggy will handle better at high speeds than one that's not tuned. A tuned buggy will wear tires in a more uniform evenness. In simpler terms, it means the front tire will wear out 100% while the rear tires wear out at 90% at the same time.
If your front tire or your rear tires show greater wear than the others, your buggy isn't tuned. A non tuned or out of tune buggy doesn't handle well at high speed or when powered up.