Tire orientation

[fomocoguy]

So I have read here that the tires on my Max will needto be flipped around to do well in the water, as they are currently positioned with the v pointing down if you look at it from the front. I would like mine to do well in mud and when the puddle gets real deep, so my question is how well do the tires do in the mud when they are positioned for water? It seems to me the mud would get pushed to the middle, collect there, and inhibit traction. Any thoughts?

[robertkbush]

This is what I've came up with every thing I know about off roading when it comes to 4x4s and 4 wheelers for get it when it comes to a 6x6 ... they run there tires backwards so they can swim in water and on land they will go any where . i have a max2 with 20in tires so i get stuck it the mud alot but so do the big 4 wheelers when they try to follow me . the tires being ran backwards dos not inhibit traction like you would think with 6 tires pulling all the time. u can go almost any where and put a winch on it and it will go any where you wont to and no one can follow IMG_2763.jpg

[racerone3]

i run my 4 front tires backward (V down as viewed from the front) and my rear tires in the proper direction for swimming. i loose some water speed by doing this, but i don't spend a ton of time swimming the machine

[Eldon]

A couple of years ago when I first started looking at amphibians 95% of them on the tires on "backwards" when compared to my tractor.The one I bought included.However my first trip in the water told me why when I tried to reverse.As far as the tires on the other way in mud.....the main purpose of them oriented as such on a tractor is to dump the mud off as they turn forward.you'll have traction just as a tractor does when reversing,plenty!

[fomocoguy]

Thanks for the replies! I think I'll probably just go ahead and reverse all the tires so they are oriented for proper swimming for now. I was thinking about it and with them having such a wide tread pattern I can't imagine the mud clogging them up anyhow, unless it's some really gnarly stuff, in which case it probably wouldn't matter.

[6X6]

I've heard of guys doing similar to Race, just running the front two forwards V down, and the back 4 reversed, ^ up from the front for swimming. The front two helps climb out on muddy banks and also improves reverse swimming. I am going to try this but haven't yet. I was also told this has almost no affect on water speed since the front two tires do the least of the swimming, but again, haven't tried it yet.

[george_pimpdaddy]

Id like to try having all tires properly facced for swiming but the 3rd axle back id put on like a tractor. so most V pointed up but the second last axle the other way.

[jerseybigfoot]

Along with swimming another advantage of the v up position is climbing out of ruts made by other vehicles. The tractor position tends to center you back in the rut.