ITP’s BajaCross 8Ply Tires Get Put to the Test

by Shannon Bushman

Once in a while I can learn something.  Not often, but on occasion the glaring light of something new penetrates my dim bulb.

Before I even start in here I will tell you that I am a Maxxis Bighorn fanboy.  You know us…we can’t be reasoned with, cajoled or beaten into believing that any other tire is even worth a second thought.  When I mounted up a set of Bighorns on my 400 Outlander and everyone told me they were heavy and would rob what little power I had I didn’t listen.  I wanted what I wanted: 6-ply baby, tough as nails, don’t give me anything less. End of story.

So as we fast-forward a few ATVs and a few UTVs down the road I decked out my rock crawling RZR with Bighorns.  My new RZR S came with them right from Polaris so I must be right! Right? Right.

So when Garth Butler from MTA mounted a set of the new ITP Baja Cross tires on my RZRs and sent me for a ride I was intrigued by 8-plys but not sold.  Tread

patterns don’t mean much to me, what I care about is what is underneath.  Just how tough is this tire and will hold up to my punishment.  I can tell you I am brutal on tires.  Maybe I’m not a great driver but I seem to hit ever bush hidden rim whacking hunk of granite I can find.  Usually at a clip that would make me nervous if anyone else was driving.

Now I wasn’t intentionally trying to abuse these beautiful new tires and wheels from ITP but hey they had the misfortune of being attached to my RZR S for the day.  We launched onto the Pipeline trail at the Paiute UTV Jamboree and well, to be frank, this trail is a lesson in why 4-Ply is just not a good idea.  In our group, we had two ripped sidewalls (both on the same rig) which I attribute simply to 4-ply tires weakness.  I’m talking severely ripped, “you’ll never plug that”, sidewall damage. In fact thats why the 8-Ply of the ITP Baja Cross hooked me.  I mean more is always is better right? Right!

Lets just say about halfway through the day I was getting concerned that nothing was going to standup to the days riding, trying to think of how I was going to explain to Garth how all that damage actually happened.   I

whacked the rims several times hard and they were brand new SS108s with nice shiny black powder coat that shows scars nicely when  you dig down to the aluminum underneath.  Ah what the hell, he said try them out so that’s what I was doing.  Right? Right!

In short order I noticed something remarkable.  My RZR S seemed to be able to steer.  That may not seem like such a great thing but with my Bighorns I’m more of pilot guiding a fast boat.  You know, plan way ahead, calculate the push in every turn and compensate early and often.  I just thought it was a RZR thing, not handling well.  But with the Baja Cross I could actually feel the tires gripping the ground, digging in and cutting a corner.  To be fair here I have to explain that some genius put 12″ wide bighorns all around my RZR specifically to get maximum grip on Moab rocks and while it works great for rock crawling it causes plenty of handling problems that I am sure would largely go away with a narrower front tire.

Now I’m a bit of a speed junky and it only took a few turns for me to start looking for the edge.  Trying to find out where the Baja Cross was going to let loose and turn me back into a pilot.  I looked hard all day but I never found it.  They never let loose.  They were hugging hard packed gravel roads and sand wash bottom chicanes the same way. I was in a new world, speed AND handling what a concept.

About half way through the day I inspect the tires, looking for gashes in the sidewall, tears  in the tread knobs, nothing to be found but a few nasty dings in those nice new rims.  The tread simply did not seem to be wearing at all.  So I beat them severely for another four hours.  I didn’t really check them after this until we returned to MTAs booth at the Jamboree.

I can tell you that even after a full days abuse  (and I’ll admit I was abusing them) they looked great.  A few sharp edges showed the stress of a day spent in a four wheel power slide but nothing that looked like wear.  No chunks missing, no little slices or mangled rubber anywhere.  I actually felt relieved giving them back to Garth because they were in such great shape but sitting there watching him put my Bighorns back on was depressing.  I mean they are still the same tires they were yesterday but it hard to keep a boy down on the farm after he’s seen the bright lights of Paris right? Right! Right…….

Two thumbs up for The IPT Baja Cross.  Its not just tough it handles well.  We’ll be looking for some long term reports on how well the rubber wears over time but after a long hard day all I can say if this Bighorn fanboy is finally open to new options.

You can get more info at www.ITPtires.com or find an MTA dealer near you at
http://www.mta-la.com/DealerLocator/tabid/228/Default.aspx

By Shannon Bushman.  Shannon is the author of the “Paiute ATV Trial Guide”. He can found anywhere from Colorado to California driving recklessly and shooting video or broadcasting LIVE from the trail for XXXoffroad.   Check out XXXoffroadTV on the front page of XXXoffroad.com.

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Tags: BajaCross, ITP Tires, Paiute Trail

Category: Product Reviews