TUESDAY TREAD: RACELINE WHEELS WITH ARISUN & GBC TIRES

A perfect setup for your truck and UTV By the staff of Dirt Wheels

There are so many tire and wheel options on the market today, it’s daunting to choose the right setup for your UTV. Then you realize that your sole tow vehicle for your off-road toys needs new rubber shoes as well, and your options for truck wheels and tires more than doubles. Fortunately, there are companies that make wheels and tires for both trucks and UTVs. We picked out a set of Raceline rims and Arisun tires for our 2016 Polaris General, and a set of Raceline rims and GBC tires for one of our trucks, a 2011 Ford F-150.

 

 

UTV METAL AND RUBBER

Raceline Wheels has a large assortment of wheels for cars, trucks, SUVs, ATVs, UTVs and trailers. Raceline’s new Twist rim is so popular that they can’t keep it in stock. It is stylish yet has a clean look to it, so we outfitted our Polaris General with a set of 14×7-inch wheels with a wider offset than stock. The stock Polaris lug nuts won’t fit on the Twist rims, so make sure to pick up a set of Raceline’s $38.99 racing lug nuts. The Twist rims come in either a matte black or matte black with silver spokes, and prices start at $109.

We paired the Raceline rims with Arisun’s Bruiser XT tires. The stock tire that comes on the General is a 27-inch GBC Dirt Commander that has great traction and lasts a while; however, all tires eventually wear out, and ours did. We wanted to try a bigger tire for rock-crawling purposes, so we chose 30×10-14-inch Arisun tires. The Bruiser XT has a radial construction with their N4D protection system that provides four layers of nylon-reinforced composite material to defend against punctures.

The first thing we noticed with the taller and heavier tires was that the handling of our General decreased. The stock wheels and tires weighed 44 pounds each, but our wheel/tire combo weighed 54 pounds each. The taller tire rides over terrain in a much smoother fashion and aided the machine’s ground clearance greatly. The wider offset wheel helped keep the stability of the Polaris to a stock feeling. The General lost some acceleration with the taller and heavier tires, but a change in clutching will bring back the aggressive feeling. Traction with the Bruisers was great in all sorts of terrain. They performed best in rocks and on desert trails. The rubber compound is soft for great traction, but that means they will wear somewhat quickly.

The tread design allows mud and water to disperse from the tire quickly, and the shoulder design of the Bruiser XT gives the tire good bite on off-camber trails. The Arisuns seemed to push a little in loose dirt and sand before grabbing solid traction, but that wasn’t bothersome. Arisun’s eight-ply Bruiser XT costs between $99.99–$164.99. They are offered in multiple sizes: 25, 26, 28 and 30 inches.

 

 

TRUCK TREAD

Our next avenue was to get new rims for our Ford F-150 from Raceline, so we picked out their 20×9-inch Octane wheels. Each rim runs between $140–$230. Our truck spends far more time on asphalt than it does on dirt, so we wanted to incorporate a stylish wheel and rim size suitable for daily driving, yet choose a tire that works well on dirt and street terrain. GBC is a sibling company to Kanati tires, and they offer their Trail Hog All-Terrain tire with a three-ply sidewall.

We chose a 265×60-20 tire size for our truck that is taller and wider than stock to improve traction and ground clearance. While the heavier wheels and tires slowed down the F-150 a little bit, the added traction when towing trailers off-road was very helpful. When driving the truck in dirt without the trailer, the tires float over sand, track in slick terrain and even perform well in snow. The tread design reduces road noise, so while they are audible, the tires don’t give off a really loud humming sound like most off-road-inspired tires would. You can get the Trail Hog AT tire for many different size wheels; the 20-inch wheel size goes for $190 per tire.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Raceline manufactures wheels for ATVs, UTVs, trucks, SUVs and cars. They are quality rims that come in many different styles and types. Go to www.racelinewheels.com or call (800) 529-4335 to pick up a set for yourself. Arisun tires is a rising company in the off-road industry, and their Bruiser XT tire is durable and provides great traction for our General. We could have gone down to a 28-inch tire size for better performance in some aspects, but we felt the ground clearance was well worth the trade-off in tire weight. Contact the company at www.arisuntiresusa.com or call (714) 893-3311. Kanati Tires, a sibling company to GBC, impressed us with the quality of their Trail Hog AT tire. It isn’t obnoxiously loud on the road, and it tackles off-road terrain quite well. Contact Kanati at
www.kanatitires.com.