Polaris ATV with airless tires hits the road

[Team Sergeant]

I think I just heard a collective "oh S**t" from a few of the big tire makers! Very cool stuff.


Polaris ATV with airless tires hits the road
Published November 18, 2013/
FoxNews.com

The war on compressed air is heading to the home front.

Polaris has introduced a civilian version of the MV850 ATV it supplies to U.S. Special Forces.

The Sportsman WV850 H.O. features a 77 hp 850 cc engine, military grade transmission, front and rear cargo racks with a total capacity of 600 lbs, extra wide work boot-size foot wells, a 1,500 lb tow hitch and 3,000 pound winch, power steering, hill descent control, an 11.75 gallon tank, and Polaris’ unique TerrainArmor airless tires, an industry first.

The non-pneumatic “tires” (NPTs) are comprised of a tread band supported by a polymeric web in place of an air-filled carcass. According to Polaris, they can withstand a direct hit from a .50 caliber round, or a railroad spike-size puncture and continue for hundreds of miles without failing.

With a starting price of $14,999, the WV850 H.O. sits atop the Polaris ATV lineup and is primarily marketed as a work ATV, but would almost guarantee that you’ll make it back from your next deep woods hunting excursion and may be the perfect addition for your doomsday BOL. That’s “bug-out location” to you unprepared types.

The WV850 H.O. hits dealers in December in limited quantities, but Polaris is developing the NPTs for use on other vehicles.


http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/11/18/polaris-atv-with-airless-tires-hits-road/?intcmp=features

[SF_BHT]

Looks interesting..... Just checked the vendors here. It starts at $19,000.00. It sucks being here when you want to buy a toy.....

[alelks]

Oh, I already see problems with those tires.

1. when one side fills up with dirt and mud can you imagine how much that tire is going to bounce at higher speeds.

2. Something getting stuck in the tire from the side and then slamming up against something else like the boot around the CV joint or getting throw up at something or someone else.

3. Unless they have a mud tread version it would be useless in the mud plus as the holes in the tires fill up with mud it's much more likely you'll get stuck as you will become heavier and it will be a bitch to break suction on those when they fill up with mud.

[Peregrino]

Looks interesting..... Just checked the vendors here. It starts at $19,000.00. It sucks being here when you want to buy a toy.....

Ha! Any toys you collect for "BOLs" better include water wings. :p Personally, I want to know when their military grade side-by-side hits the streets.

[The Reaper]

Looks interesting..... Just checked the vendors here. It starts at $19,000.00. It sucks being here when you want to buy a toy.....

End of year departmental purchase. :D

TR

[SF_BHT]

End of year departmental purchase. :D

TR

I bet next August I can justify one to launch and recover our small boats at the docks. What I do with the the rest of the time is no big deal. Great for Beach Recon:p great for oving dive gear around....:rolleyes:

[chance]

This was also done on HMMWV.

[MtnGoat]

Oh, I already see problems with those tires.

1. when one side fills up with dirt and mud can you imagine how much that tire is going to bounce at higher speeds.

2. Something getting stuck in the tire from the side and then slamming up against something else like the boot around the CV joint or getting throw up at something or someone else.

3. Unless they have a mud tread version it would be useless in the mud plus as the holes in the tires fill up with mud it's much more likely you'll get stuck as you will become heavier and it will be a bitch to break suction on those when they fill up with mud.
Yes on the number one. In the mud they throw mud and IMO suck. On hard roads or hard packed roads or ground then ride ruff. You have fillings, you may loss them.

[alelks]

Yes on the number one. In the mud they throw mud and IMO suck. On hard roads or hard packed roads or ground then ride ruff. You have fillings, you may loss them.

And that puts wear and tear on everything else. I had a Polaris RZR for a few years and know all about them. Great machines but the early versions had some problems. Biggest was the intake boot that kept coming off and sucking tons of dirt into the intake. Polaris tried to play it off initially. I actually got kicked off one of a major site because I was asking everyone to ban together and make them fix it. The owner of the site was in bed with Polaris as he and a few others every year got invited to test drive them prior to any release of info about the latest version coming out. He was a piece of shit.

[alelks]

A lot of people like to put either a partial windshield or full windshield on them. The only problem is that when you do that it creates a vacuum and it sucks dust into the cab.

I put one on and immediately removed it during my first trip to a dusty riding area.

It was REAL bad. You could see the dust twirling horizontally in the cab and it was THICK. Took the windshield off an it immediately went away. I never put it back on.

It would suck dirt in from under the dash and under the seats. I put a dashboard block on it and that did no good at all. It did help from all the dust dirt and water getting flung into the cab under the dash though.

Those things jump pretty good too and soak up the landings well.