I have owned and road on several ALL AROUND type tires over the years including 589s, Dirt Devils, Mud Bugs and now Outlaw M/S/T’s. This tire review is on my M/S/T’s but many of my comparisons will be based on the above tires as that is what my experience is primarily with. I will also mention the prior to the M/S/T’s the Mud Bugs had been my favorite ALL AROUND TIRE. I am running 26” M/S/T’s on a 2006 Arctic Cat 650 V2.
The M/S/T is a very nice looking 6 ply tire with a fairly stiff side wall. As with all of the 6-ply tires I have owned they really cut down on the tire lean I experienced on the corners with my stockers. They are a very durable tire and have held up super well against the sharp flint rock and hedge & locust thorns here in North East Kansas. I now have over 1,400 miles on them and while they are showing some wear they appear to be lasting great. I will note here that the 589’s and the Dirt Devils are also very durable tires and proved to wear just as well if not a bit better. The rubber compound of the M/S/T’s seemed to be a bit softer than both the DD’s and the 589’s but they are not as soft as the Mud Bugs. While this softer compound may allow them to wear out a bit sooner than DD's and 589's I believe that it is part of the reason this tire performs so well.
The very first thing I noticed about the M/S/T’s performance and ride was that on the concrete driveway there was very little bump at all, comparable to the Dirt Devils in smoothness and far less bump than the Bugs and the 589s. I recently had need to run several miles on an asphalt county road and these tires ran smooth and handled well at speeds up to 65 mph. Ride and handling on gravel roads was superior to all of the others as well. Again at all speeds up to 65 they ran smooth with no wobble or pulling. This was one of my biggest complaints about the Bugs and 589s, their lack of higher speed handling on road trips. The ride and handling on hard pack dirt trails was great. I could not have been more pleased with the smooth ride and the very responsive steering at all speeds. On rocky gravel type trails it was equally impressive with both great traction and very responsive handling. One great advantage on the trails over the Bugs was that the M/S/T side lugs, while very effective, do not seem to grab at rocks, ruts and roots at trail speeds and cause steering issues. Slick rocks and logs were also a week point for my Bugs and 589’s but the M/S/T’s did a lot better in this department. At a glance the sipes in the treads do not seam like enough to make a difference but they really do seem to grab onto rocks better than the other tires I have had. I have also had to climb over several logs and they gripped really well and made short work of the smooth round surfaces. I first ran about 6 psi in the front and 8 psi in the rear and they really seemed to grip well but at the advice of High Lifter I dropped them all to 4psi and the increased traction was noticeable, particularly on hard and hard wet surfaces such as rocks and logs. The lower tire pressure did not seem to affect the high speed handling on hard pack surfaces either.
Hill climbing is another aspect of tire performance to consider and I have done some really tough hill climbing on both dirt and rocky & gravely hills. The tires gripped very well on the dirt and equally well on the rocky hills. One big advantage of the M/S/T’s over the Bugs was that on slow climbs with big rocks the bugs with the big lugs would slip and spin to the next lug making for a rough time getting up and over. The M/S/T’s really eased up and over, there was enough tread on the rock at all times to make a safe smooth climb. I have not got to do a lot of long slick muddy dirt hills with this tire yet so yet so I am not sure how it will perform there.
Side slip running on the sides of hills is always a test for tires as well. The M/S/T’s did this very well. I found them to grip and hold course very well on both dry loose terrain and on slick wet slopes. They did seam to loose side traction a bit more on slick muddy slopes but no more than any tire would. Thumb control is critical as the less you over spin the tires the better.
Mud is always a big factor for people even though it is not the most used aspect of the tire for the majority of people. The M/S/T’s pulled very well in moderate to heavy mud. They are not true Mud Tires but they pull good and clean better than the 589s and much better than the DD’s. The M/S/T’s did not clean out as well as the Mud Bugs however. I was riding next to another quad with Bugs in the same mud, I went just as well as he did but his Bugs threw mud and cleaned out better. The Bugs advantage in the mud was most noticeable when climbing out of the holes. The M/S/T’s made it but with more effort and wheel spin than the Bugs. Again I need to mention that while they do very good in the mud, good enough for most trail riders, they are not true mudders and can not hang with their big brother “The Outlaw”. Of course they were never designed to.
We have had several mild winters here and there has not been a lot of snow but I did get a chance to run the M/S/T’s in a couple of light 4” snows and one 10” snow and they seemed to perform very well. I was not able to get out to the trails and really test them on hills and serious terrain but on the farm they performed really well on hard pack and soft terrain. The secret seemed to be keeping the wheel spin at a minimum. To much throttle would dig you to the bottom but driving wisely they would go very well.
I have not yet got to try the M/S/T’s in any serious sand. I have heard they do well but I do not know first hand. It would seem to me that sand performance would be similar to the snow performance, the less throttle the better. They appear that they could dig a little fast in sand.
In closing I think the Outlaw M/S/T’s are a very, very good all around ATV tire. They are superior to the 589s and Dirt Devils in all categories and they are superior to the Mud Bugs in every aspect but mud. If I had it all to do over again I would buy the M/S/T’s without question.