ATV Tires in “Mesquite Country”

Hey y’all! I have a Honda Rancher and my place is up near Cisco where mesquite thorns are everywhere . The stock Maxxis M977 and M978 tires may be great for the woods in Arkansas, but they aren’t worth a hoot in this sort of country. Any suggestions on heavier ply tires for my four wheeler up here in the Big Country? Thanks!

If the tires are still ok tread I would try some slime or the tire puncture sealer of your choice. I live and mow in amongst and around mesquite all the time and even the pos tires on my riding lawn mower have held up for 8 years with plain old slime from walmart in them.

Yup! What redchevy said!

Makes sense. So, there’s the green slime and the red slime. Any advantage to either or no?

Essex tires will handle the thorns
did slime them just for extra protection

Essex tires will handle the thorns
did slime them just for extra protection

Essex tires will handle the thorns
did slime them just for extra protection

My hunting vehicle is a Jeep Grand Cherokee with "all terrain" tires and I have replaced several tires because of mesquite thorn punctures just above the shoulder, where it couldn't be repaired. I have thought about putting slime in the tires, but presume the slime would settle to the bottom when the tire is not turning and then cause an out of balance condition at highway speeds. Is that correct? Any other suggestions, besides get a monster truck with monster tires?

I hunt just north of Cisco myself. Slime the doodoo out of them. A tread that closer together seem to last longer but with all the rocks and mesquite, good luck. I keep at least a gallon of slime at the farm. Never seen any red all I've used is the green stuff

My place is covered in mesquite and I Slime the tires on my Mule and no flats in 5 years. They will get low from time to time, but air up and they hold fine. I am constantly pulling thorns and small branches from the tread.

Funny thing - I bought a UV flashlight to use for scorpion searches. One night in my barn, lights out, shining the UV light around looking, and happen to run the light across the Mule. The tires were full of glowing spots. Realized that the Slime glows in UV and every puncture that had been sealed was visible.

The slime doesn't harden like that, just floats around in there until it squeezes out of a puncture. The only time we notice an issue is if it stays below freezing overnight, it'll be out of balance a bit until it gets shaken up and spread out inside the tire again.

my dad used to buy this pink looking stuff in a 5 gallon bucket, with a pump handle top, TRC Tireseal TIRESEAL ... best stuff I have ever seen or used. It was not cheap but dad would sell by the handle squirt to who ever came by his shop. Mostly tractor tires but also several hunting/pasture vehicles that lived on a ranch. I would put one squirt in my offroad motorcycle tires and ride until all the knobs were gone without a flat. I am not sure where one could buy any longer ...

Did a little Googling ... TIRESEAL 6 gallon

just slime them. When the tires wear out you can usually get a good deal on tires from dealers for pull offs from NIB ATV's that had them upgraded before they left the showroom floor.

Sounds like slime is the way to go. There's plenty of tread left on each of the tires so that's what I'll do. Thank you much for y'all's answers.

Slime as others have said. You can drive straight through cactus or mesquite and won't have an issue. If you are that worried about it slime the tires and carry a plug kit/hand pump with you. Takes about 2 mins to plug a tire and a couple to air it up.

Ultra seal.

Mesquites are an every day thing here on my ranch.
When you replace the tires, get 6 ply and run slime in them.
After a while, the slime will start to dry out so you just shoot in a cup of antifreeze in there and you are GTG.

You can get a decent set of 4 6ply tires off of ebay for under 300 bux a set delivered.
I had a set of essex on a mule and loved them but they came on it - I can't see paying 2-3X for essex anymore.

I picked up these off of ebay for 288.00 delivered.
They are 6 ply and have tall knobs so a lot of the time, the thorns don't reach the tire body.
They are a lot smoother than the chevron tread mudders I had on there.

I hunt out by Murray and am 98% mesquite. I run ATP Mud Lites with slime and have never had a flat. Had one go a little low but topped it off and drove it and the slime did it’s job. The mud lites are great in the sloppy stuff too.

Slime and Mud Lites here as well

Tip: If you find yourself needing to add more slime and you've misplaced your valve stem tool a small fuse broken in half (at the plastic) will work. Just insert the two metal tabs and twist. Might not locate the valve stem internals if you remove with tire pressure.

Tire Slime gets the job done! And did so for 20 years on a single application per set of tires.

The "Red" slime is what I use. If you have an old school tire shop, tractor dealer that has a service department or even a Discount Tire location they all have it and will put it in for you. They charge by the amount required to properly fill your tires. Odds are, it is the identical sealant made by the same company out of Boyd, Texas. They sell direct to most tire and farm stores all over the Southwest. It is a fantastic product. The dealer that sold me my Honda Foreman wanted over $100.00, tire shop in Decatur had the same stuff for less than $50.00. Stopped in on the way to the lease and haven't had a low tire since.