I put a lot of credence in that you can turn just about anything into a proper off-roader with the right set of tires. More than locking differentials, more than 4WD vs. AWD, and even more than having my own personal lack of mechanical empathy, tires are everything.
The right tread pattern, the right construction, the right rubber compound can make or break an off-roader, as has been seen countless times across YouTube and social media. As such, when I swapped the stock tires on my 2021 Can-Am Maverick X3 Max DS Turbo R to BFGoodrich KO2s, I leveled up my go-fast UTV's off-road game. And that upgrade let me do far more than I would've been able to with the stock Maxxis tires, including climbing bigger obstacles, going into deeper snow, and generally going further than I had before.
They even helped me out while hunting by finding a deeper, more gnarly spot that everyone else was afraid to go into.
But then I got an email from Yokohama. The company had a new UTV tire—the Geolander M/T G003 SXS—they were fired up about, the brand's first in the category, and wanted to see if I'd be game to try the new rubber out. They wanted me to put it through its paces, and come back with some notes. I'm still doing that, but after going out in my Can-Am the other day and climbing some slick, gravelly hills, and shooting some of the sickest shots I've ever done, I figured I'd given you some first impressions as a taster for the full-fat review coming later this year after putting more miles on them.
I have one thought so far: BFGoodrich, you'd better watch out.
I'll admit right off the bat, I haven't put as many miles on the Yokohamas as I did on the BFGs just yet. But they've already seen mud, gravel, dirt, and some steep inclines, including my stupidly steep gravel street which sees the backend step out of everything, including front-wheel drive cars somehow. But the Yokohamas have remained, well, planted. Pardon the tire cliche, as it's the most apt for the situation.
While I could go into the nerdy details of how Yokohama put the tire together, the stability, both at low and high speed, is largely thanks to the tread pattern, the sidewall construction, and the overly square design of the tires. Whereas the BFGs had a bit of rounded edges, as a normal off-road tire does, the Yokohamas are practically flat from edge to edge, and it gives the whole tire and stance a far more stable platform on off-road terrain. And that's especially true on the dusty, gravel-laden fire roads that criss-cross and snake up and down through the mountains near my house.
Fire roads don't sound like tough obstacles, and they're really not, but when you begin to introduce mountain terrain, i.e. 10-degree and above inclines and declines, those same loose gravel roads, along with Utah's notoriously silty dirt, become slicker than water off a duck's back.
Everything slides on these roads. Everyone spins once or twice. Dirt bikes have almost no traction, unless it's just rained or snowed. You may as well put studs on your tires if you ever run your machines in rear-wheel drive.
Yet, in my limited tests so far, I haven't really slipped or slid using the Yokohamas if I'm being mindful of my right foot. That wasn't the case with the BFGs or the UTV's original Maxxis shoes.
And that was made abundantly clear on a recent trip to sight in my Christensen Arms Ridgeline FFT hunting rifle, where the trail was this loose-ass deep gravel that saw me sliding as if I was in Formula Drift all last year, but the Can-Am couldn't be bothered upon this trip with the Yokohama's installed. I
These are, however, just my first impressions of the tires. I'm still planning on using these a lot this year, as I've not only got plans to take my family out backcountry camping and hiking in the coming months, but I'm also aiming to find some slick off-grid rivers to do some trout fishing, some go-fast sections to see what they're like going real quick over terrain, and, hopefully, locating a very nice mule deer buck and bull elk to bring home with me and my Elite bow.
We should talk real quick about the Yokohama's price. As they sit, they're about $400 a tire, meaning you'll be about $1,200 in before you even mount them. That's a bunch of cash, to be sure, but that's also pretty comparable to BFGoodrich's pricing, as well as other side-by-side tires of this caliber. How they stack up after months and months of my abuse, however, will be the real test for that price tag, as well as Yokohama's destiny in the industry.
That said, so far, I'm pretty stoked about these tires.
