Sticky tire talk.

Mac5005

Mac5005

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Location
Rocky Mount
I just bought and installed 39" reds for my buggy and wheel with a group that has mostly reds, a few treps, and some dot stuff.

My dad just got his buggy all together and after seeing the difference between reds vs dot sx's he's ready to pull the trigger on some stickys.

His rig is 3800 lbs with enough axle, gearing, and motor for any tire.

We are getting opinions on the big 3 choices.

39" reds
42" treps
43" sx stickys.

What are your thoughts and actual experiences with them.

We don't rock bounce, we ride mostly hardcore trails. Harlan, ivy branch, bearwallow style stuff etc.

Thanks.
 
My opinion is as follows.

Reds are cheap and that's why I bought them to get into stickys. Roughly $2100 to get into a new set.

They flat out work. I ran them on my 5k lbs yj at 12 psi and they worked awesome.

The main difference is that the red just flat hooks on rocks. The only edge they lose vs non sticky dot sx's is that I have to spin them faster to clean out the mud/dirt on that style climb. Still doable, just used 3rd gear low range, instead of 2nd with the sx's.

My dad following with dot sx's had to beat on his buggy in the same spots right behind me.

We rode all weekend and no one with a red had any cut sidewalls.

One of our group has 42" treps and they flat out work also. I think they actually work better than the red on wet dirt/mud, and are very similar on rock.

I haven't seen 43" sx stickys on the same obstacle the same day as the treps and reds to give my honest comparison like I have with dot tires vs red labels and sticky treps.
 
The red seems to have best market value ive noticed. A friend of mine who runs them brought up a great point also in that most sticky tires actually have to be broken in before they see best performance, except for a red which work from day 1 and also hold value longer. I've seen sets slap gone generate enough to buy one, if not two tires of the next brand new set.
 
I had a long reply typed out, but decided to just say after running all of the stickies you mentioned, I won't be purchasing any others but sticky SX from here on out.
They all shine in different terrain on different rigs. But those giant sticky lugs grab onto about anything they touch.
 
Reds are the shit i love mine nothing works as good on rocks but that 500hp rig and your dads lead foot need sxs and they will look so bad ass but if you go reds i will understand why they have never let me down other then the snow

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Yes my dad has a lead foot, but only bc he has had to drive that way with every rig he has ever wheeled.

He has always had overweight, oversized, under geared, dot tired, and limited suspension.

His only way to keep up was to hammer down on every obstacle. Neither of his previous rigs have been able to crawl at all.

I'll quote him.

He wants to buy the best tires he can get to put on it, and be able to wheel it as much as possible while he still can.

He bought the buggy so he could save time over building and get right in and wheel. We spent a month straight wrenching to get it truly ready to wheel, and it did well, other than just spinning the tires and not getting anywhere.

Bolting on new tires is easy and is a huge upgrade.
 
I haven't had any experience running any sticky tire yet but I have seen the amazing traction they find. My vote would be the 43 SX's, I was curious and started price searching. Filthy motorsports had them at 2300ish for a set of 4 shipped.

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I can make an argument for treps or sticky sx....reds are the worst of the 3 by a considerable margin, imho.
 
Ron said:
I can make an argument for treps or sticky sx....reds are the worst of the 3 by a considerable margin, imho.
Click to expand...

We wheel with a guy with 42" comp treps and there definitely isn't a "considerable margin" between his tires performance and the performance of the rigs on red labels. I'm definitely willing to hear details though.

They are considerably taller and more $$$ though.

I've only personally seen sticky sxs once on the trails and it was very brief while trying to break in a new trail.
 
My experience;

Sticky sx is the best all around tire for the east coast. Mainly in part because it's tough, and it works best due to the outer lugs that grab rocks and hook dirt. Only drawback I see is their size and weight. Really, they're huge, no matter how often you see them.

Friends that are running the 42" treps are finding the soft sidewalls can be prone to puncture. They tend not to clean out well but are ridiculously soft, which crawls better than an SX.

I've been running reds for over 3yrs now. I'm on my 3rd or 4th set. Only cut one sidewall, ever. They work like mad. Better in the rocks the lower and more rounded the lugs get. Not so great in the mud but I don't believe they're meant to be.

There is a trade off in any tire.
 
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^^ Yes. Nor would I turn down a 38.5.
 
Jody Treadway said:
If only Interco would make a true 40" sticky SX and we could all but end this debate.
Click to expand...

Well they have the 40" SX now, just if it was sticky. Idk where they are made, but if in the US, it only takes a quantity to get them sticky.
 
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