Polaris RZR 800 Sand Dune Tires Review

Posted on November 17, 2013

By Jon Crowley

We traveled to Gordons Well in the Imperial Sand Dunes to do a sand tire test utilizing our long travel Polaris RZR 800.

The Lineup:

Front Tires (mohawk with paddles on the left, mohawk on right)

Rear Tires – Paddle Tires (8 paddle on the left, 7 paddle on the right)

Information:

Since current UTVs all suffer from lack of power in the dunes, we have decided to take a hard look at what performance gains can be had with different tire scenarios.

There are a few principles that we will look at:

Tire + wheel weight: Plain and simple – weight robs power. The lighter the rotating mass, the less power it takes to make them spin.
Float: Tires need a large enough footprint to stay on top of the sand. A narrow tire will dig in and be less effective.
Traction: Sand cars and high performance ATVs both benefit from paddle tires in the sand. But UTVs weigh a lot more than their ATV cousins, and don’t really have much, if any more power. If there is enough power to spin a paddle tire and stay in the power band, it will help climbing and acceleration.

Fullerton Sand Sports has 12 x 10 Douglas Wheels specially made for this application to increase the contact patch of the tire to the sand.

Specifications:

Tire	Position	Weight	Width	Increase in Track Width
Stock Tire & Wheel	Front	27.8 lbs.	7 1/2″	0″
Maxxis Bighorn on OMF Beadlock (26x9x12)	Front	35.4 lbs.
mohawk	Front	24.2 lbs.	9 1/2″	2 1/4″ wider per side
mohawk w/ opposing “paddles”	Front	26.4 lbs.	9 1/2″	2 1/4″ wider per side
Stock Tire & Wheel	Rear	32.0 lbs.	9 1/2″	0″
Carlisle 489 on ITP (25 x11x12)	Rear	27.2 lbs.
Maxxis Bighorn on OMF Beadlock (26x12x12)	Rear	41.2 lbs
7 Paddle	Rear	22.2 lbs.	12 1/4″	4 1/2″ wider per side
8 Paddle	Rear	22.2 lbs.	12 1/4″	4 1/2″ wider per side

Testing:

Our “Test Mule” – Polaris RZR with stock engine, exhaust, intake and fuel controller (ECU).

We used Test Hill near Gordon’s Well for our hill climb test.

We cycled through several combinations of front and rear tires for our tests.

For all the tires we tested, two wheel drive will get you most everywhere except the steepest hills. For hill climbing, All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) is much more effective and necessary for the steep stuff.

For normal dune rides, I prefer two wheel drive over AWD. In two wheel drive, the rear end will break free and power slides are tons of fun.

1. Front – Stock, Rear – Stock

Stock wheels and tires do pretty well in the dunes. Our Polaris RZR could go pretty much everywhere except some of the steep hills. The benefit to a knobby tire is durability and the ability to handle dual purpose terrain (dune & dirt).

If you are in the dunes for any period of time, and want better performance in the sand, paddle tires can help.

Hill Climb – I was unable to climb Test Hill with stock tires. I made it almost to the top, but just couldn’t pull the last 20 feet. Air pressure was set to 4psi front and rear and the RZR was in AWD.

2. Rear 8 Paddle

We quickly determined that our “Test Mule” didn’t have the power to properly spin the 8 paddle rear tires. This tire is most likely a good choice once you have added exhaust, intake and fuel controller or done more significant engine work.

RPM was lowered in comparison to OEM tires and 7 paddle tires. The 8 paddle tire definitely adds some climbing ability over stock, but we felt the 7 paddle was better for a stock RZR.

Hill Climb – I was able to climb Test Hill with 8 paddle rear tires in AWD.

2. Front – Stock, Rear 7 Paddle

Hill Climb – I was able to climb Test Hill with 7 paddle rear tires and stock front tires in AWD.

3. Front – mohawk with paddles, Rear – 7 Paddle

Hill Climb – I was able to climb Test Hill with 7 paddle rear tires and mohawk/paddle front tires in AWD. This combo felt like it had the most “climbing” power.

For normal dune rides, I did not like the feel of the paddles up front.

4. Front – mohawk, Rear – 7 Paddle

Hill Climb – I was able to climb Test Hill with 7 paddle rear tires and mohawk front tires in AWD. Speed at the top of Test Hill was just under 10mph on the GPS (slightly lower than the mohawk/paddle combo).

Our Favorite:

mohawk and 7 Paddle

This combination looks great and performs well. Hill climbing is much improved over stock. Two wheel drive is a lot of fun. The rear end breaks free pretty easy and the front mohawks help keep the front end tracking. The extra track width definitely increases stability, even with a long travel kit.