Best All-Terrain UTV Tires

Derrek Sigler
by Derrek Sigler

Find your new favorite UTV tires for every terrain at prices you'll love in our all-terrain UTV tires buyers guide.

For the UTV driver that wants the best tire that works well in a variety of terrains, we’ve put together a list of the best all-terrain UTV tires on the market. Whether you ride trails or mud, we picked out UTV tires that are perfect for your needs with a wide range of prices your wallet will love.

As UTV enthusiasts, we all like to tackle some rugged terrain. Some days we’re driving in sand, and other days we’re driving in hard-packed dirt. We might go from extreme rocks, to extreme mud in the same ride. Planning out the right tire for all of these conditions would be impossible. The solution is an all-terrain tire that performs well in a wide range of terrain and conditions. Luckily, this is the broadest assortment of tires out there and your machine usually comes stock with something that will work pretty good. Are there better options out there? Of course, and you can get tires that work well in any terrain, but have an advantage over another tire in select terrain types.

We would absolutely consider some of these offerings to be among the best UTV tires available today at any price point. And unless you drive your UTV primarily in one specific type of terrain (extreme mud, rocks, sand dunes, etc.), any of these choices will provide you with solid overall traction and performance.

Check out the full list below for our picks for the best all-terrain UTV tires.

1. Editor's Choice: Maxxis Carnivore Radial

Normally you might expect to see the Bighorn tire from Maxxis here, but that tire comes stock on a lot of machines. However, it’s not the only tire that Maxxis makes. The Carnivore is a design brought in from its truck division and is one of the best UTV tires being produced today. It is a tough 8-ply, super-aggressive tire that has specialized rubber for gripping rocks, roots and other trail stuff you’d run into in extreme terrain. It has a lot of sidewall tread, and will work ok in mud, too. While designed for western terrain, the Carnivore is proving to work well just about anywhere making it a hallmark of all-terrain UTV tires.

2. Best Bargain Tire: Tusk Aramid Terrabite

Tusk is a product line well known for providing great value to the purchaser. With Tusk products, you often get some of the same features of a higher-priced product at a lower price without sacrificing the performance you’re looking for. Their Terrabite UTV tires have great standard features, but the addition of bead-to-bead Kevlar banding makes this tire a great buy for the price. Radial 8-ply construction and a tread pattern that work across a wide range of terrain types add to the pot. Throw in DOT compliance and an aggressive shoulder and sidewall tread, you’ve got some great all-terrain UTV tires for just over $100, making it one of the best UTV tires for the money.

3. Best For Desert Terrain: GBC Parallax

GBC is no stranger to the powersports market, and when coming up with our list of best all-terrain UTV tires this brand is well represented. The Parallax Radial is their newest addition to their line of UTV tires and deservedly earned its spot towards the top of our list. The Parallax Radial is a tough 10-ply tire that has a light-truck inspired tread design that was meant for tough off-road conditions. The tread blocks have sharp, defined edges that provide superb grip and are spaced far enough apart that rocks and mud are easily ejected. Each lug in the tread pattern also features siping that provides extra grip on slick surfaces, while the tough shoulder block lugs offer great side bite at both low and high speeds.


We recently had the opportunity to test these tires on a trip with Yamaha in the latest Wolverine RMAX2 to the Grand Canyon from Sand Hollow State Park in Southern Utah. This trip offered up a wide variety of terrain that ranged from soft, powdery sand, some of the toughest rock crawling on the West Coast, and through rugged desert terrain where lesser tires would have been torn to shreds from the sharp volcanic rocks we had to go over. Aired up to 16 PSI all around, the Parallax Radials provided great bite on every trail that our group encountered. The tires clawed away at the jagged rocks during climbs and descents giving the UTV a planted feel at all times, and even at high speeds the tires offered a predictable feel while sliding through corners.

After hammering these tires for well over 200-miles, not one unit in our group experienced a flat tire. One driver even swore he should have blown a tire, if not busted a rim from a rock he had slammed into, but the Parallax Radial took the abuse with grace. It's no wonder why many desert racers are opting to run these tires with their excellent handling and durability characteristics.

4. Best Ride Quality: STI Chicane RX Radial

If you've got one of the modern UTVs with high HP, you need a tire that can easily handle the power being put to the ground. The STI Chicane RX is one of the best all-terrain UTV tires that can get the job done. Like many others on this list, the light-truck tread design of the Chicane RX provides ample traction and top-notch ride quality. The 8-ply carcass offers a smooth ride with its flexibility, light weight for less driveline fatigue, but still is a durable tire that performs well in all types of terrain. The non-directional split-knob tread design provides plenty of traction in terrains that vary from sand to aggressive rock crawling, yet the tread blocks are spacious enough that they easily eject rocks and light/intermediate mud that you might encounter on the trail. As for the tires side bite, STI has revised the shoulder tread that gives improved traction while increasing driver feedback and a predictable feel.

Speaking of rock crawling, a great feature of the STI Chicane RX is the deep rim guard and reinforced bead. This feature helps to prevent damage to the wheel and bead surface and allows lower tire operating pressures. If you live in a state where UTVs are street-legal, you'll be happy to know that these tires are also DOT approved.

While these tires will work on any machine, we feel that they excel on today's higher-performance sport UTVs.

5. EFX MotoClaw Radial

The Motoclaw is one of those all-terrain UTV tires that will leave you really glad you made the call to put them on. This is one of those tire designs that seems to excel in almost any condition, including not-so-serious mud. In other words, if you’re not a serious mudder, these UTV tires are perfect for you and everywhere you ride. These are 8-ply, DOT-approved radials that will dig in to anything and the sidewall tread will help pull you out of some seriously nasty ruts. They have a strong rubber compound and combined with the 8-ply, can feel a little stiff, but the trade-off is great traction and durability.

6. GBC Kanati Mongrel Radial

The Mongrel was first introduced as a truck tire, before being developed for the UTV scene. It was apparent that these UTV tires were great for extreme terrains on high-performance machines, and the newest version has been updated to work even better. The Mongrel is a 10-ply tire with a re-engineered carcass to have a tougher sidewall while reducing the overall weight. The tire is also DOT compliant and has a smoother ride than you might expect. If you are in the market for rugged, all-terrain UTV tires, the Mongrel is worth checking out.

Check out our review of the Kanati Mongrel tire.

7. Pro Armor Crawler XG Radial

Remember how we said that some all-terrain UTV tires work better in certain conditions? The Crawler XG is one of those tires. It works best in hard-pack and rocky terrain, as you might expect with rock crawling implied in the name. Pro Armor designed these tires to be seriously tough and puncture resistant with an 8-ply, belted-radial construction and .78-inch tread depth. The Crawler XG is constructed with a dual rubber compound that mixes tread life with slick-rock grip making them some of the best UTV all-terrain tires that excel in hard pack.

8. Tensor Regulator Radial

Tensor is a unique company. While they’re widely known for making durable tires for the desert-racing world, they’ve also added a line of UTV tires to their lineup. The Regulator line of UTV all-terrain tires that meet DOT standards and feature a nylon-reinforced 8-ply construction. The tread pattern is based off of a light truck tire design as opposed to an ATV design, which is interesting since Tensor doesn’t make truck tires. What it did was make a tire with a quiet ride, good handling, braking, and a wide footprint for excellent traction in every terrain.

9. Sedona Rip-Saw R/T Radial

The Rip-Saw is one of our favorite all-terrain UTV tires because it works really well in every terrain we’ve thrown at it. It’s a 6-ply tire with 1-1/8” deep tread, a pattern that is spaced well for cleaning, and wraps around the sidewall for superior bite. The knobs are siped for slick surface traction, as well. We’ve used them in sand, mud, snow, hard-pack soil, deep woods and on rocky terrain, and have zero complaints. They work well for performance machines and utility work, making them, what we consider, some of the best UTV Tires.

10. BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM3

As one of the leading tire manufactures in the world, there’s a decent chance you have BFG tires on your truck right now. They are one of, if not the most popular truck tires on the road. This may lead you to think that their UTV tires are just downsized versions of their popular truck tires with the same name, but you’d be mistaken. The Mud Terrain UTV tire has a specific tread pattern and construction for the UTV market, and takes all of their technology from the truck version to make some of the best UTV tires on the market. BFD adds a specific compound that gives their UTV tires better grip on rocks and other off-road surfaces, while the tread patterns is a little more closed than the Mud Terrains on your truck. While it’s considered a Mud tire, it’s truly one of the best all-terrain UTV tires you can run on your SxS.

Kenda Bearclaw

Kenda Bearclaw

We've got an entire article dedicated to this subject, which you can read here. When it comes to choosing good UTV mud tires, how serious you are about the mud you encounter plays a huge factor into which UTV tires are best for you. The most aggressive UTV mud tires can be a little rough for extended trail riding, so if you occasionally play around in the slick stuff, you likely prefer a tire that has more of a focus on comfort than aggressiveness. One tire that fits the bill is the venerable Kenda Bear Claw. These are tough, super affordable UTV mud tires that are reasonably adept in the muck, but also offer great performance on the trails.

ITP Mega Mayhem

Of course, if you want to build the ultimate mud machine, consider the ITP Mega Mayhem. Narrower than you'd think, the Mega Mayhem is ideal for digging through the nastiest mud you can get yourself in. It is built with 1.5-inch lugs that can claw through and clean out mud with ease.

Do UTV Tires Differ from ATV Tires?

Yes and no. Many of the best UTV tires will fit across the board. However, UTVs typically have more weight and can fit taller tires than ATVs. Plus, many are much higher in horsepower, so the construction of the tire has to be able to handle the extra power. So while you will see ATV tires that are specific to ATVs, especially sport models, you’ll find far more UTV tires that are specific to UTVs. Any that are DOT approved are meant for UTVs only, for example.

Do I have to run the same tire size that came on my UTV?

While manufacturers pick UTV tire sizes to optimize the performance of their package, you can absolutely run a larger or even smaller tire size than what came on your UTV. Of course, you have to take into consideration the clearance and turning ability of your machine for the tire size you want to run. We recommend asking others who have the same machine what they're running or their opinions before making your purchase.

How can changing my wheel size affect my UTV?

Altering your wheel size can affect your UTV in a number of ways. First off, is appearance. If your UTV came from the factory with what used to be the standard 12" wheels, upgrading to a larger wheel can definitely improve the look of your machine. Just know that increasing the wheel size will also increase your wheel weight, and if you're going with a larger tire you'll likely have increased weight there as well. This will affect the performance of your braking system and will require you to brake earlier if not need to upgrade your brake system with things like steel braided brake lines and even better brake pads.

One other thing to think about is your brake caliper clearance to the wheels. If you stay with the same wheel diameter, you should be just fine but know that you can't go any smaller of a wheel. Increasing your wheel size can provide more clearance between the inside of the wheel and brake caliper minimizing the possibility of rocks getting in between them and causing catastrophic damage.

As far as handling is concerned, wheel size can also make a significant difference in the way that your UTV rides. Let's say you've gone from a 12" or even a 14" wheel to a 15" wheel. Increasing your wheel diameter can lessen the amount of sidewall of the tire you're using. By doing this you can cause your UTV to have a stiffer ride because you've essentially reduced the sidewall cushion and made the ride more firm. This also affects the roll of the tire in cornering.

Recent Updates:

March 18, 2021: Updated some text for clarification.

May 2, 2023: Eliminated obsolete products (ITP Baja Cross XD, STI X Comp ATR) and replaced with (GBC Parallax and STI Chicane RX), updated product links for better UX and added to FAQ.

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Derrek Sigler
Derrek Sigler

Derrek's love for all things ATV started when he was a mere 11 years old, growing up on his family farm. His mom gave him and his sister a choice - get a horse, or a three-wheeler. The sister wanted the horse, and Derrek wanted the ATV. Luckily he won out, and was soon burning up the trails on a Yamaha Tri-Moto 200. By the time he was 14, he had saved enough of his own money by working on the farm and in his folks restaurant to buy a new 4-wheeler. That happened the day he and his mom were driving past the dealership and saw 1987 Banshee. His mom had no idea what he was buying, and he never looked back. He's been riding ever since, and been writing professionally for many years. He has ridden all over North America and been behind the controls of just about every machine out there. And yes, he still has his 1987 Yamaha Banshee.

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