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Kudos to Matt O for making a tire designed specifically for amphibious skid steer machines. It takes a lot of guts and capital to venture into the tire business. Will these tires fit a stock Max IV without spacers? I can't wait to see them in person at the races next weekend! They look good. Very similar to argo's tires. Kinda wish they were that hight and width but on his 9" rims though. They would look like giant marshmallows and probably ride the same. -
AWESOME
The more I see and hear, the more I want a set.
Edit: What size (actual measurement) did they turn out? It looks like the rawhideIII's were the 25x12-9(approx24") so I'm guessing about
25 1/2"????Leave a comment:
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Vendetta high performance AATV tires by Mudd-Ox
I had a chance to go directly to Mudd-Ox in Shipshewana, Indiana this weekend to test a set of their new Vendetta high performance AATV tires on my Max. I feel really lucky to live close enough to be able to drive to the "Mudd-Ox Mecca" and get to view Matt's new tires first hand. I also found out a lot about tires. The Vendetta is not just some random ATV tire made by some company that makes lawn mower tires. The Vendetta is made by Hoosier about an hour away from Matt. Housier is a company known for high performance racing tires. In fact, Hoosier actually makes the performance tires for a number of other larger tire manufacturers. The construction of the tire gives the tire a very compliant sidewall yet its bead construction allows it to stay on the rim even at very low pressures. Hoosier even changes the compound in different sections of the tire to give it performance and wear characteristics that Matt specifies. The result is a true high performance AATV tire designed from the ground up for amphibious use and manufactured by a company known in the industry for its high quality performance tire manufacturing capabilities. Sort of a win-win for the amphibious community. I found out later that the Vendetta rides AWESOME, skid steers GREAT, is FAST in the water and has so much floatation on sand and in mud that it is really tough to get stuck. TIme will tell the wear characteristics but the really neat thing is if Matt doesn't like them he can have the compound changed in just the tread. The hole deal is just over the top cool.
Here are a set of 26x14x12 Vendettas mounted on my Max.
Matt was great and picked my Max off my trailer with his giant fork lift and after a little (maybe a lot) of spit swapping started pulling the tires off my Max to fit his new Vendettas.
As soon as a Super Terra Grip was off my Max, Matt grabbed a fancy didgital scale and weighed it to see how it compaired to his Vendetta and a Rawhide III. All tires were mounted on steel rims made by Kawasaki. The results surprised even me. The Vendetta is a lightweight monster.
I took a few pictures of the 26x14x12 Vendetta along side a Rawhide III and SUper Terra Grip to show just how big the Vendetta is.
The Vendetta is big and has a really flat tread face that measures nearly 14 inches across which I found out makes for some serious traction in sand, mud and I guess you could say water, as I found out later.
Fitting the tires on My Max that is set up for 18.5 wide Adair tracks turned out to be a simple matter of bolting them right on. My machine is a factory tracked model with bearing supports and a bearing support bar. I run 4" wheel spacers to keep my tracks the proper distance from the body and the 4" spacer kept the Vendettas about 3/4 of an inch away from the bearing support rail. The distance from the top of the tire to the tub was about the same as the Super Terra Grip.
Matt already has the first run of tires committed for use on new machines with Hoosier gearing up to make hundreds more over the next few weeks. Here is a pallet of tires and wheels.
I have a bunch of video from the Mudd-Ox proving grounds that I will be posting soon. I will attempt to try my hand at editing it so it is not just some long random single shot video like I usually post so please stand by.
Keith.
Here is the video:
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