For all you dreamers

[allwheeldrive]

The problem with those water tricycle wheels is they will not deform and contour to the ground as a low pressure tire will. It may seem counterintuitive but even a massive tire with hi PSI (or in this case an inflexible tire that mimics 150 PSI tractor trailer tire is going to have very little contact patch with anything but water and very soupy mud.

Or is the Sherp a copy of those Russian homemade contraptions since they came first lol.
The large roped on inner tube is very popular in Russia, I’d love to know how they get it to work or even deem it useable. It takes just a twig to puncture and I’ve seen them use such a tire on grass and rocks as well. Maybe they have some sort of home brewed tire sealant as well? I’d like to experiment with such a set up but in the states such a massive inner tube would likely cost as much as an entire tire! So I don’t see the feasibility.
If you watch enough Russian 4x4 videos you will notice a trend towards big fat tires, many makes, styles etc. Sort of like how the US has a plethora of Mud terrain tires, in Russia they have all of these giant balloon tires. I did find a manufacture a while back but didn’t see any way to import. They where pricey too. I find it funny how in America 4x4 enthusiast argue over wide vs skinny tires and their debate will revolve around a 11.5 vs 13.5” tire, in reality I doubt there is much of a difference when the Russians use 2 foot wide tires and the South American 4x4 enthusiast use 8” wide NDTs etc.

These big fat tires really seem to be the bees knees in marshes, bottomless mud, snow etc. But it should be noted in the rare instances of hills (something lacking in swamp lands of Siberia) these pillow tires really struggle.

[john swenson]

yes sir....those russians do like the fat tires !! the inner tube style must hold up fairly well. the way they lash on the outer covering for protection and traction is the ticket. i would'nt think a rim and tube would weigh alot. the tricycle wheels i agree are not feasible.i designed and built a motorized cart with 4' wheels. i had a co. bend 4'' round pipe to that diameter, then welded spokes to a center hub. they worked good...but not much cushion to them. it was a funny looking amusement ride i sold to a circus. they loved it. j.b.

[allwheeldrive]

Haha that's a fun story about the 4' wheeled kart, must have been a riot!
I'm sure there is some Russian forum with all sorts of set ups for these inner tube tires, really just need to start doing some research, obviously inner tubes are not designed to run by themselves so it can be hard find the right size IE, you can look up the tubes to go in any tire, but when looking up the tube its hard to figure out what size tire it can go in sometimes. The best thing about them like you said is they are light, I'd image extremely light. Even a 46" tall set up would weigh less than 25 pounds rims included. You could also get away with smaller lighter rims since they'd expend to fill in the space I'd think.

[marauder]

If you really want to dream go to Hydratrek.com, their cheapest model starts at $74K and is a true hydraulic six wheel drive, kind of like what MuddOx should have been so that the headaches of having chains is eliminated, plus the Hydratreks have a twin propeller system for the water so that the tires can be no-compromise traction monsters for the mud and sand instead of having to pull double duty as land traction and water propulsion. Sweet machines but pricy, luckily used ones are available for the price of a new MuddOx or Argo. Happy hunting!

[allwheeldrive]

I know I sound like a broken record, but weight is critical in our application. I’m SURE these do what their intended to do, but if you take their tracks off I’d bet they’d have a hard time going the places a Max or Argo could go, like wise a Max or Argo should go anywhere these can (with tracks) with the exception of these hydrostatic machines being much less a hassle to maintain and much easier to drive. That said with the 6x6 models weighing 4,200 pounds… and the 8x8 weighing 7,200 pounds… cringe well.. there is such a thing as too heavy duty. The Sherp a MUCH larger machine weighs JUST 2,866 pounds, perfect, excellent weight engineering.

[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.