Polaris ATVs Feature Non-Pneumatic Tires in 2014 – Trucks Next?
Tim Esterdahl | Mar 19, 2013 | Comments 28
A new breed of airless, virtually indestructible tires are coming to the ATV world, will cars and trucks be next? Probably sooner than we think.
Polaris is planning on using these Non-Pneumatic Tires staring in 2014.
These revolutionary tires were actually created by Resilient Technologies which was bought by Polaris last year. The simpleness of the design should remind you of a bicycle tire. What’s really cool about them is that you won’t need to carry any spare tire or jack to change a wheel. This translates into significant weight savings (can you say MPG full-size truck fans?).
Here is a video showing the tire on a Ram truck doing some off-roading that was sent to us below. 
As with all new things it seems pricing has not yet been announced. What’s your guess?
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Filed Under: Tundra Wheels and Tires
These things better be bulletproof…
for everyday steet use, itll prob work quite well….. offroading…. I can see rocks getting wedge in there…
the question is y atv’s… they spend nearly their whole life offroad….
AT least it’s a start to help in tires/mpg issue. We can only go forward from there.
I’d be curious to see ride quality of these new tires vs. using rubber normal tires.
MK,
My brother sells Polaris at his dealership. I think I’ll see what he knows when they release it.
-Tim
Isn’t there an old cliche’ about trying to reinvent the wheel?
Yep!
-Tim
But they’re only starting with the tire…..;)
That type of tire has been around for a while. It has had some limited success on stuff like forklifts.
As far as using it on the road, it probably will never work out. It can’t take high speeds and just think what they would do to bed bounce!!
Mendonsy,
Good points. I think rubber will always be the way to go, but who knows. They are inventing new things everyday.
-Tim
At some point we need to say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”.
BriBri,
I don’t know. The more tire stories I write and research, the more I question the future of “rubber.” I mean it is heavy, wears down and can erode MPGs with larger sizes and poor design.
I think the future is something else. I’m not saying Polaris has it, but with everybody desiring 8-speed automatics (among other things) as the answer to increased MPG, why aren’t we demanding more from our tires?
-Tim
I wonder to what extent there is a market for ‘synthetics’. I recall a couple years ago that Goodyear was working on a synthetic rubber tire project, but I lost track of that.
The basic concept of a round, inflatable tire is a good one. I wonder if it is just a matter of improvement in materials/construction, rather than a shift to a drastically different design. After all, there needs to be a market for any new ‘invention’ – not may people will want to spend $500 on a tire, even if it is some new-fangled alien-looking design.
Perhaps our government owns all the tire companies? 😉
I read in a car and driver that this will significantly improve handling too, but that was a while ago.
Here is a video of a non-pneumatic tire and some basic off-roading.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN8VwD0V4RE
James,
Crazy! Thanks for the link, I’ll incorporate it into the post.
-Tim
Now that’s kind of impressive!
There’s gotta be tons and tons of offload testing done on this kind of tire due to the millions of situations off reading can put a tire through.
Dez,
It’s amazing to me how the tire “molds” itself on the rocks. I wonder if it would be a bonus for off-roaders needing more traction??
-Tim
The consistency of the tread rebound and the rebound itself is what amazes me Tim.
I’d like to put a set of these on my long travel Yamaha rhino!
Just wondering what will be replaced once the tire wears out. Just the tread? The tread and honeycomb piece? The entire wheel including the center lug-on piece?
If its just the honeycomb and tread I’m sure wheel companies will be scrambling to come out with a sweet looking center lug-on piece.
This is a great article Tim and every time I look at it my thoughts go deeper.
Thanks Dez. Like I said previously, my brother owns a lawnmower/ATV shop and should be getting the new Polaris in sometime soon. I’ll be curious to hear what he thinks.
-Tim
Wait.. Did I say Off reading? Lol!
Yes you did, but I missed it too! LOL.
-Tim
I’m sure there was quite a bit of off-road testing done. The US Army contracted with Resilient Technologies to develop these tires.
http://www.resilienttech.com/p.....matic-tire
James,
Well aren’t you full of good information!
-Tim
the only problem i see with these is that you would have to get a different set for every situation. Regular tires for on road, stiffer ones for towing, and soft ones for off road. not to mention they are probably not going to be cheap. Dont get me wrong, i think these are awesome and i will be one of the first to buy a set (mostly for the novelty) but they may be more for off road than anything else.
I want a set of these I wish you could buy them