For all you dreamers

[marauder]

I hear what you're saying about the weight factor, and I agree, weight is important, but there are other factors that figure into mobility just as much, and I think the reason the Hydratreks do as well as they do is because they have great ground clearance so that they don't high center when they dig into the terrain and in the case of the XA66, the non-track model, the tires are optimized for traction on land, be it mud, sand, rocks, etc., and they don't have to compromise tread design to do double duty propelling the vehicle through the water like so many other AATVs, including the SHERP. I've looked at a lot of youtube videos of AATVs and I have yet to see the Hydratreks get stuck but I have seen the SHERP get stranded with its tires spinning away in deep mud. Now I know anything can get stuck if you try hard enough, but for the money I would take the Hydratrek any day, it has an aluminum body (as opposed to the plastic of just about everything else out there) and it is built in Tennessee and getting parts would be a whole lot easier than anything made in Russia. That is, when I win the lottery and have that kind of cash to play around with.....

[allwheeldrive]

You are correct, (assuming low impact ground disturbance is of little concern) Ground clearance can compensate for ground pressure. As simple as a vehicle that sinks 3x more but with 3x more ground clearance works just as well at not getting high centered. And more advantageous always has the benefit of more GC on hard terrain such as rocks and stumps. The Sherp is rated at 23” but I know if I was the manufacture that would be with the tires fully inflated, I would not be surprised if it lost 6” when aired down. My Truck with 31” tires loses 2” going from 35 PSI to 20 PSI. I had to look again but I had not realized the Hydratrek 6x6 had 16”GC and the 8x8 25”GC that is pretty mental and alone may push the performance beyond that of the Sherp in the majority of terrain. Considering a Monster truck on its 66 floatation tires has about 24” under the axle and weighs 10,000 pounds so 25” at 7,200 is no joke.
I will disagree about the tire assumption. Being a bit of a tire fanatic I am intrigued at tread design and application. There is no such thing as the perfect tread, every tire can fail to deliver even in the terrain they are intended. For example ultra aggressive ATV tires such as Assassinators, black mambas, and superior traction rice and cane tires can become useless on hard packed axle greese like muddy inclines a standard BFG all terrain can grip and climb. The principles by which mud is extracted and self cleaned is not so far from how a tire may function in solely water. I think the best way to say this is there is no such thing as the perfect off road tire, thus an AATV tire by its nature is not any less perfect just because it functions in water. Such as a heavily sipped soft compound Snow tire may make an excellent rock crawling tire as well even though it was not intended to be, the design principles that make a good water propulsion tire may also make it great in mud.

Simply put a mud terrain tire (which assuming any of this matters on a machine that will primarily be using tracks, except in the fact that it allows TRACKS not intended for water propulsion which I can completely agree with is a good idea) simply needs to clean out and or work while congested with mud in its treads. While Youtube may suggest high RPM super cool looking mud tires are best, in fairness there are simply no AATV tires within the size range 4x4 trucks and mud built ATV would utilize IE 33”+
I have no doubt Vendettas for example would work if scaled up even if they don’t look as cool lol.