Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's How to avoid Flat tires ?

I have a John Deere Gator 4x6 that we use for woods work, hauling firewood and fertilizer and such. Speeds not a factor as it tops out at about 15 mph .
If you don't know, these things have no suspension , just the tires and they are 9 x 22 with 10 to 15 lbs pressure in them depending on the load.
We have tried slime, all that does is makes changing them a mess, tubes help be they still get holes, have you guys found anything that works at keeping the air in the tires ?

Well that clears that up.....

Higher quality tire and rim would likely help.

Heavier ply to help with holes, beadlocks if necessary to help with tire/rim separation.

I live in mesquite country. I've found TireJect is much more effective than the green slime crap that doesn't work for me either. Ditto on 6-8 ply's as well.

Slime your tires and run low tire pressure. Get a tire plug kit and your good to go. Don’t take a tire off unless it’s wore out just plug them right on the machine. IMO I wouldn’t tube a tire.

better/heavier ply tires

lower air pressure

TireJect is what I use on my ATVs and Off-Road vehicles. I use it on everything including tube tires around the house such as wheel barrows, bikes, generators, etc. It does not make a mess like Slime or some of the other brands.

We have a lot of sharp rocks. I put these Sedona Ripsaws on my Razor because there's a lot more thick rubber on them, fewer thin spots for rocks to get through. I don't know how they compare to other tires but I haven't had a flat in the 3 years I've had them.

Very nice.

The stock tires that come on most UTV's and ATV's are usually crap, they put on the cheapest they can get at the factory. Better, more ply tires are the best answer.

Airless tires, Michelin sells some, they ain't cheap.
michelin tweel

Um, yeah.

Good grief. You know how many flats you can plug for what one of those costs?

Don't run over any dead poplar trees.
But the more plys the better, but then your Gator will ride even worse with no suspension.
With just balloon tires you have to be ultra careful. Stay off picked bean fields, corn stubble and esp the spears on a dead poplar tree.

Yes. The Tweels offer a smoother ride,
good traction on a variety of terrain,
don't require downtime for repair and airing,
don't strand you in the backwoods,
don't pop the bead in a pothole.
Some models can be retreaded. They have their place.

Tweels are not perfect. They are expensive.
The ride is always soft, you can't adjust pressure to the conditions.
High speed maneuvers are more Buick than Lotus.
Can scalp a soft sidehill.

If it were mine and thats all I used it for and considering it's not fast I'd probably been pizzed off enough and filled them with spray foam insulation.