Trail Tested: Kenda Snow Mad Tires

Products, Tires/Wheels — By ATV Mag on March 11, 2010 at 10:33 am

Cody Anderson rocking the Kenda Snow Mad Tires

Kenda Snow Mad Tires

So you live in the frozen tundra and like to ride ATVs huh? Me too. There’s just one problem: traction, or a discouraging lack thereof. While it’s always fun to ride a four-wheeler in the snow, usually with the help of 4WD and lots of ground clearance, that basically means sport quads stay parked for the cold months up here in winter wonderland.

Not this year! Thanks to Kenda’s Snow Mad sport quad tires, designed for snow-covered and icy surfaces, there’s now a tire for people just like you and me — sport quad aficionados who like to ride anywhere or anytime, regardless of the season or snow cover.

I’ve been working on a Polaris MXR 450 motocross build project between race seasons, so I had an ideal test unit, and the perfect excuse to finally ride my creation.

After getting dumped on in early winter, followed by a snow-compacting ice storm, our Midwestern snow base is unusually crusty this year — not the ideal conditions for such a test — so we compensated by riding in a variety of locations including untouched fields, icy driveways and packed-down trails.

The perfect environment to use these tires would be somewhere the snow is packed down pretty well, such as a snowmobile trail or a frozen lake. There is no doubt that the Kenda Snow Mad Tires do some digging, but more impressive is the tires’ aggressive side bite. I can honestly say I’ve never used a snow tire that offered so much traction in the snow like these.

The Kenda Snow Mad Tires come in a 22 x 10-8 or a 22 x 10-9 size, and weigh 13 pounds apiece. The 22-inch tire is, of course, taller than traditional MX tires, as you’re going to need some extra clearance if you’re going to be out bombing around in the snow.

Next, Kenda has incorporated a special low temperature rubber compound to improve traction in a cold, icy environment. The Kenda Snow Mad Tires also feature a lightweight casing to allow the tire to expand at high speeds, this also helps add to the “cushion” factor to absorb some of those bumps out there on the trails.

They’re not going to propel a sport quad through two feet of soft powder, and they’re not the greatest in crusty snow like we’ve got, but they are a big improvement and I suspect there are conditions where they’d truly shine. In my opinion, if you trail ride in the winter, these are a must-have upgrade. They offer significant improvement in control and traction over a stock tire, not to mention these make it much easier to roost your buddy with snow! — Cody Anderson

See your local dealer for pricing

www.kendausa.com