GBC Dirt Commander 8-Ply ATV Tires Review

[1Bad1000Xxc]

Many ATV enthusiasts find themselves over a period of time, or maybe even right when they get a new quad, looking to purchase and aftermarket tire setup for it. They may be looking for a tread design that will better suit their needs and riding style than what the machine came with from the factory. At the same time, there may be other that would choose to replace their tires for no other reason than to give their ATV a customized look while still providing functionality and ride quality.

Nonetheless, a question we hear all too often is "what is the perfect all around tire?".. While at face value, that seems to be a pretty straight forward question that should have a fairly straight forward answer. However, it is not. The "perfect" all around tire must take in to account a few different variables. To find the perfect all around tire, you must consider the type of riding that you do, what you expect from that tire, and primary riding conditions that you encounter.

Most likely, a tread design that will allow you to force your quad in to a high speed power slide around a turn, is not going to give you near the same performance in a deep mud situation as a tire that is designed specifically for deep mud. On the flip side of that, a tire that is going to produce optimum traction in deep mud, water or just a slippery terrain is going to grip too well in a turn to allow you to force your quad in to that same power slide.

So, for our testing, and because we like a lot of high speed and aggressive trail riding, we wanted something that would allow us to slide the test machine around a turn if we wanted to, but still get enough traction in mud to not leave us stranded and reaching for our winch. Based on our needs and the tread design of the GBC Dirt Commander, we decided to give their tires a "spin".

Below are our results.

From GBC:

GBC Motorsports Performance ATV tires are built to get you over tough terrains to your destination. Dirt Commander, GBC's new all terrain tire, is a super tough 8-ply rated bias ATV tire that gives you excellent puncture resistance. The Dirt Commander's siped tread design also gives additional biting edges for better traction in all terrains.

The Dirt Commander is GBC most contemporary entry into the all-terrain market and is designed to work in the widest variety of conditions. It features and an aggressive 8-ply bias construction that makes it virtually puncture resistant. The Commander has been extensively tested under grueling conditions and is load rated up to 1,045 to handle everything from quads to modified UTV’s. All 14” tires are marked on the sidewall with two air pressure ratings, one for lighter ATV’s and the other for UTV’s. GBC is the first manufacturer to extensively test their tire lines with different vehicles and imprint the suggested tire pressure for your vehicle.

Available Sizes:

SIZE	TREAD	PLY	TREAD DEPTH (32NDS IN.)	OD	SW	PSI	WEIGHT (LBS)	MAX LOAD
25X8.00-12	FRONT	8	28	25.2	8.3	7	18	450
25X10.00-12	REAR	8	28	25.2	9.9	7	20	550
26X9.00-12	FRONT	8	28	26	9	7	25.5	TBA
26X11.00-12	REAR	8	28	26	10.5	7	27	TBA
26X9.00-14	FRONT	8	28	26	9	7/14	24	700/1000
26X11.00-14	REAR	8	28	26	10.5	7/14	27	730/1045
27X9.00-14	FRONT	8	28	27	9	TBA	22.8	TBA
27X11.00-14	REAR	8	28	27	10.5	TBA	28.7	TBA

What was the ride quality like?

For our setup, we chose to go with the 14" tire and wheel combination because we get so many questions from folks asking what you lose and what you gain by going from a 12" wheel to a 14" wheel. Up front, we installed a 26x9x14 and at the rear, a 26x11x14. So, because we chose to go with a 14", we had to bump the tire diameter up as well by one inch. Keep in mind that doing so will add additional weight to your quad over the total weight of the stock tires and wheels.

That being said, right off the bat, we noticed how smooth the 8-ply tire rode on asphalt. There was no bumpiness or shaking at any speed that would insinuate it being out of round. this told us that GBC Tires put a lot of effort into the quality control of this particular tire which cannot be said for other tires.

Then it was off to the trail to see how well they performed. Much to our surprise, although ours had a shorter sidewall than a 12" setup since we were running a 14" wheel, they really did not ride much harsher than a 25x12" setup. When we started testing them at high speed around turns, we realized that the amount of trade off for what we gained in additional handling was so minimal, that we should not even consider the fact that it road even the slightest bit harder than it would have with had we gone with a 12" wheel configuration.

We had also expected since the tires are an 8-ply, and in unmounted form seemed to be extremely stiff, that the ride quality would suffer because of it. However, from what we were able to tell from our testing, it did not suffer at all. As stated previously, the ride quality was slightly more aggressive than stock, but we felt that this came purely from our tire/wheel size choice. It could in fact have been that the tires being 8-ply were the cause. However, most likely it was a combination of both things rather than just one contributing factor.

We really could not find a single thing wrong with the ride quality of the GBC Dirt Commanders and were very impressed with them over the ride of the stock tires that they replaced.

What kind of traction do they get?

Bumps, jumps, ruts, loose dirt, hard packed clay, sand and water, they were there to perform. In our testing, we found that they did great in situations that required slow technical maneuvering over rocks and other obstacles. Additionally, they seemed to impress us most on quick-paced trail riding. Put into a situation where a you approach a slower rider in a turn, you could easily throw the back-end of the quad around and pass the other rider in a flash while they were slowing to make the turn.

When you start using these tires primarily in thick mud or really loose dirt and sand situations, they do not perform quite as well as a very aggressive tread design tire will. however, in their defense, they weren't designed to be used by a rider that rides primarily or only in mud. That rider would actually be much better suited for the GBC
Spartacus tires.

GBC Tires considers this tire an "all-terrain" tire and we will certainly give it that. This is not to say that it doesn't perform in the before mentioned situations because it does. As a matter of fact, the tread design allows this tire to clean very easily should you happen upon a mud hole. Whereas other tread designs may clog up with mud which results in horrible traction loss, the

GBC Dirt Commander does not experience this at all and is actually quite extraordinary in how well it cleans mud up not being a mud-specific tire.

Overall impression:

The GBC Dirt Commander is certainly one of the top contenders if you were building a list of "Perfect All Around Tires". Would we have liked to have seen it do a little better in extremely loose terrains like mud and thick sand, yes. However, an all terrain tire cannot perform as good in every situation that a terrain specific tread design can. We do however feel that if you're riding areas are those that may throw a number of different situations your way, that the GBC Dirt Commander tire will be a tire that you will be very glad to have. The all terrain aspect of it, coupled with the fact that it is 8-ply and virtually bulletproof makes this an excellent all around tire for someone that rides in all types of conditions.

Contact Information:

GBC Tires
GBC Motorsports
info@gbcmotorsports.com

Phone: (800) 946-9412

Address:
2525 El Presidio Street
Long Beach, CA 90810

[jminer79]

Long term update?

[1Bad1000Xxc]

We no longer own the Grizzly that these were on. However, we do still have GBC Spartacuses on another Grizzly and they have held up wonderfully and perform well in every situation. We like them so much, we have ordered a set for our soon to arrive 2011 Renegade 1000.