Joe basically takes a perfectly good STU (Sand Tires Unlimited) tire and grooves it...
You have play cut which is X amount of rubber (weight) removed
Then you have comp cut with is 2*X amount of rubber removed...comp cuts are very light.
The Tebo groove is something all together different...looks like a paddle on the left going from left to right a little more then half the tire...then one on the right, then left, etc. I am sure you have seen this type of paddle on dune buggies.
Brat is a straight paddle all the way across.
Skate is a V blade design.
Then Tebo is all together different...you will get many odd looks running these tires and many people wanting to check them out.
All of the above tires are available uncut, play cut, and comp cut.
Skat Trak has the same sort of options and once again the lighter the more expensive...
Standard buff...remove X amount of rubber.
Bead to Bead buff 2*X amount of rubber and goes from bead to bead.
Ultralight, 3*X rubber removed and very, light...similiar to the comp cut STU tires.
Keep in mind STU tires are 4 ply and Skats are 2 ply...so even with the comp cut grooving the tire is lighter but still retains more plies then a comparable Skat tire...but, the skats are about 60% the price of the STU tires so keep that in mind.
All the front tires will be on a 10" diameter rim...don't worry about it and running .125 wheels as you still have 6" of rubber between the rim and impact.
We first purchased Stars for my wife's Raptor she had in the past...I thought they would be a cheap easy to ride solution for her...same with the kids Predator 90...man was I wrong! At first she did not know any better and thought the tires were fine...when I rode the Raptor I hated them and thought they could not be the only problem and I began tearing into the bike and upgrading...still horrible performance. Finally crawled up in the attic and unwrapped an old set of Haulers and mounted them up...WOW, like a brand new bike. She rode them and said she never wanted to see the Stars again! When we ordered the LTR for her the first comment, err, second comment was that she did not want Sand Stars! My wife has only been riding since December 04 and if she can tell that much difference in just the tires then I know it is not just myself!!! After watching the performance of the kids on the 90 the Gliders were on order and arrived too late for our last trip. But they are on now and we are anxious to watch the kids in action.
Skate II's are OK tires...still a molded heavy tire and uncut. I still have a set in the attic but have not ran them in years...personally I did not like them that much. They have a very tall blade and get very good traction but I think they have very odd sliding characteristics and I just could not get used to them. Of course that was in the past and we rode quite a bit faster then...have not tried them since I have gotten so old and slow!
For most folks that really do not know, I would say go with the Skate I comp cut tires and you will be very happy. They are the best handling tire for all around duning and still shoot the hill very fast. If you lean more toward shooting the hill go for the 8" rim diameter and if you lean more toward overall duning go with the 10" diameter wheel. The razorbacks are new to me as I have been running the skat mowhawks mostly for racing...I ran razors back in the late 80's and they are an excellent handling tire. We purchased the AMS tires for the wife's LTR and I tried them on the Honda last trip to Glamis and they handled very well...but, I bolted up a set of buddies razors (my old ones are dead) and I think they handle slightly better...enough to warrant the extra money for me. My new set is currently mounted on the Honda...I will switch them around and let the wife try them on the LTR too and let you know what she thinks.
Rich, you are more then welcome to try out some of our other tire combos...we are heading back out March 31-April 2.
I do not currently own any Tebo cuts but I did get to run a set for a few days in January and I was very impressed with them. I have some friends very heavy into tires (58 sets last count) and they work closely with Fullerton on tire development...also Joe is such a wonderful guy and he will walk you through your tire purchase. The next set of tires we purchase will be the Tebo's and I will retire the brats to grudge matches! Our biggest problem is we just have no way to really carry very many extra sets of tires to the dunes...no where to put them with myself, wife, 3 kids, and both my parents!
