I've been through a lot of tires. I like running tubeless tires and no Slime.

The OE tires were Deli brand and made in Indonesia. I really liked those tires. Then I had 2 sets of no name China tires. Heavy, wore down fast, and all were easily punctured by stickers/thorns. Not to mention they weren't very round. Then I had a set of Nanco slicks; made in Indonesia. I really liked those tires. They slowly leaked down every few days from the time they were new. 3 years later; when the buggy was particularly dirty and I was cleaning it up; I discovered the source of the leak. The right side "screw" imprint from where the nameplate in the tire mold goes. Same spot on every tire including the spare! I contacted the company who imports those tires and he wanted those tires back. Tire Easy also wanted them back. They wound up refunding the tires 60% of cost. Not bad after 3 years of use. All I wanted was the tire issue fixed so if in the future I buy more; they won't leak like that. You can bet if I ever have another of the same brand; I will leak check them when I first put air in them. I'd still be riding those tires had they not leaked.

So now I currently have a set of Carlisle's; made in China no less; but they seem to be really nice. Hold air better than any.

I got ribbed tires this time to change things up. After being on those slicks for so long and slip sliding around; the grooves in these are actually nice for a change. If you ride on grass and you want your buggy to slide around easier; definitely look into some smooth tires.

That brings me to the subject of 2 ply and 4 ply. I did some searching around and someone asked the same question for a different application. The response was "how much load carrying capacity do you need?". I looked into some more. The tread cap is the exact same on a 2 ply or a 4 ply. The extra plys are in the tire casing. When you burn through the tread and cords are showing; how much further do you continue to go?

2 plys weigh less and are less expensive. 4 ply; more weight, more money.

I've had both numerous times and for my application I just run 2 plys. I found the 4 plys to last no longer, nor be more puncture resistant.

So if on your next set of tires; if you want to save weight/money; consider the 2 plys.

That's just my take on the matter.

I've got a set of "bigfoot lites". Ran them for a little while. Made the buggy feel like a monster truck. Also made it feel like a tank. Really ate up a lot of power trying to get around. A must have though on certain beaches though(why I originally got them).

I have yet to experience the midi tires though. Someone here has them and does 360's on the grass and said they slide easier.


Here's the Nanco's with some tire mounting solution on them so the leak point would foam up:






And when it was a monster truck:

I just ended up buying 3 new tires about a week and a half ago and was contemplating whether to pay the extra money and get 4 ply or just get the 2 ply.

I decided to get the 4 ply because I am consistently doing power slides on hard dirt so I just assumed the 4 ply would last longer.

Maybe I'll have to give the 2 ply a try and see how it goes.

In the past I bought the 4 ply Carlisle's which are really well made. I've never had problems with them and they last a long, long time.

However, this time I wanted to save some money and decided to buy these other 4 ply tires. I thought, well what difference does it make, a 4 ply tire is a 4 ply tire. Well I received those tires a few days ago and there seems to be a big difference in quality. I might have made a mistake. It will be very interesting to see how much life I get out of them.

Last year, I was thinking about tires myself, and I went to a golf cart repair shop and got 2 barely used tires (Golf Pro). They are treaded unlike most buggy tires, but essentially bare (or slick) in the middle. I don't ride as hard as most, but these are big and pretty substantial. They kinda seem like they will last forever in this application. They are 8.5x18-8 so once you put them on the 2.5" buggy wheels they end up being pretty big, somewhere between Midis and BF's. They were too big for my front fork so I ordered a Nanco 6.5x16-8 ribbed.



Altogether I think I spent like $26 changing g out all my tires. Only thing is, I'm starting to think the Golf Pro tires are a little heavy.

On the dry lakes, the smooth barrows are the best economical solution. Using the ribbed tires here will burn through them twice as fast as with the smoothies. The ribs just grind off and then there isn't much left.

2 ply certainly have less friction. The casing walls flex easier and burn less power to roll them along.
Agree with Bob they scrub more though.

I've looked at the Nanco ATV slicks on eBay as spare/replacement/emergency, and the price is almost a 3rd of Bigfoot tires available from kite buggy dealers.

See:tires

I mean, 3 tires can cost almost what I paid for my whole used Bigfoot buggy.




So this is disappointing about the quality. May be a bad batch or a whole design run of them?

The big tires are fine. I had some slick Nanco barrow tires that had the defective sidewall leak. The smooth Nanco barrows are only $8 each and some change. The bigfoots are about $30 each from tires-easy. They sometimes run sales and free shipping.

I'm sure this has been covered before, but since it was brought up, I have 3 standard tires, all have been plugged a couple times and 1 won't hold air which I assume I have another hole to plug. But, should I slime or should I install tubes or should I replace tires??

Sean, I like tubes... I just always feel like they make things a little easier.

Thanks Spencer, I was leaning that way. Do the hardware stores carry the size needed?

Yeah probably, I usually get them at places like Northern Tool & Equipment or Tractor supply.

I like tubes as well. I had lots of slow leak problems when I ran tubeless. I've since read that a batch of plastic rims had larger than normal ridges from the molding process. This caused poor seating of the bead. Apparently sanding the ridges solves that problem. I've since moved over to tubes and find them really to quick to fit and replace.

I was in a hurry since wind was good yesterday so I slime-a-dime-a-dingdonged them. Easy cheap and is working well so far.