To begin, the sand at Little Sahara had ? inches of rain that fell a couple days before I ran the Odysseys. The first day (Thursday) had 25-35 mph winds which kept the dunes with a nice layer of loose sand most everywhere. The next day (Friday) wind was 5-15MPH and lots of peeps there leaving thier mark on the dunes and sand was more noticeably wet under the surface. So I think my best day for testing the tires was Thursday. It is written on the sidewall of both the AMS Zipper and the ITP Sand Stars, "use bead lock wheel". I did not use beadlock wheels, I am using Douglas aluminum 10 inch wheels, front 4X2 offset and 10X8 factory offset in rear.I started the AMS Zippers at 10 lbs,not wanting to chance breaking bead just yet until I have some fun, tires spun out of the hole more than I wanted, so I lowered pressure to 6 lbs., I liked that, hooked up well. We jumped hills 3 feet or so of air, I got rowdy in the trails trying to break bead, never happened to front or rear.I did some slow climbing and had no trouble getting up and over the hills. When running
WOT (Wide Open Throttle) tires glided over the dunes and seemed to have no resistance like I encountered with the more agressive Kenda Gecko paddles, also during decelleration no resistance.FYI IMO don't GET THE KENDA GECKOS. To wrap up the review on the AMS Zippers i loved them,though I am not an experienced Odyssey rider I reviewed the tires as to how I would like a tire to perform in the sand. As for the front ITP Sand Stars...To start off...I am running "number one" Odyssey with a generic pair of "knobby" front tires and "number two" Odyssey has the ITP Sand Star front tires...(I was not sure what pressure to set the sand stars to so I went with 10lbs., could this be too much??).The front end adjustments were set, to the best of my knowledge and ability, the same on both Odysseys,such as toe,offset on wheels is the same 4X2,running Honda stock shocks both preload set at middle setting. That being said,I have to say the sand stars performed as well in a slow turn as did the "knobby" tire.I am not sure what I was experiencing with the sand stars but 0 to 20 MPH the sand stars tended to give me feedback through the steering wheel much much more so than the knobby. I believe the sand will cause feedback through the steering wheel with any tire, especially on the FL350 Odyssey, but the knobbys were much much less noticeable than the Sand Stars. At speeds over 20 MPH, honestly I cant remember if the sand stars tracked better than the knobbys, I don't remember which one I liked better at speeds over 20 MPH, nothing stood out bad or good, darn I wish I wrote this review the night I got back from the dunes, old age is making my brain go (*(^&*(*.... To wrap up this review on the ITP Sand Stars I was left believing the knobbys performed better, I wouldn't have believed this after reading all the great reviews the sand stars were getting at Rockymountainatv, although the reviews were with the tires most likely mounted on 4 wheelers and not an Odyssey. On the next trip to L.S. I will switch out the sand stars to Ody number one and install the knobbys on Ody number two. This way I can compare apples to apples. After this test I will determine if I am going to use knobbys on the front, keep the sand stars and lower pressure, or maybe try a single ribbed tire. Hope this helps ya'll...Marc
I need to update this post. My good ol buddy Adnoh had the privelidge of joyriding my FL350, after sliding through an awesome right hand turn in the sand, right front tire lifted off the ground about 12 inches,then, the bead broke loose on the left rear Zipper. The tire had 6 LBS of pressure, so beadlocks will be necessary for the Zippers. You might get by with more tire pressure but I think beadlock wheels are in order. I have not had the bead break on me but I have not lifted the front wheel off the ground more than 6 inches while making a turn in the sand.


Odyssey number two (me) coming in for a landing

The masked stix


Odyssey number one (Zac) getting air,Im proud "o" that boy...