ATV Florida Forum

we got stopped for having paddle tires on some of our machines, the rangers told us that they are going to out law them becouse they are wrecking the enviroment, whats the deal?? the trails ARE SAND! in my opinion a dirt tire constantly spinning trying to hook up  causes more damage than a paddle tire wich gets all the available traction in the sand, they said that they would rather have all stock type tires on machines, well then it wouldnt be worth even ridng as some machines have pretty worhtless tires mounted on them stock, and you would be jsut getting stuck everytime trying to go anywhere. SO can any one shed some light on the subject?

I have never seen any tire restriction rules for Ocala. I have 2 different sets of paddes though and have never even considered running them in Ocala. Bikes dont handle or turn that well with paddles on.  I cant think of anywhere that you would "need" paddles, its sandy but its all FLAT.

whats all flat??  ocala?? lol! dont think so!! that place has so many whoops the only place flat is the roads and even they are warped up.

Agree, there is a whoop or 2 or 2 million and there are some deep ones, but I have never seen a whoop that required paddles to climb.
 By the way, I'm not ragging on you nor do I care if you run paddles. I just personaly dont trail ride with them. Me and Mr. Tri-Z can take you somewhere that you do NEED them though.

Funny you say that about paddles 'cause last time I was there(few months)I was parked in B.S. campground & seen the little guy & that big lady in the green dakota stopped at the stop sign. They turned around & I said here they come,we were sitting at the picnic tables, they pulled the truck next to us & was looking at my banshee w/ paddles & asked me "what kind of tires are those ?"
I said there just for the sand, They were like ok & left. But I thought it was weird after they left I was wondering ???

Now I know what they were gettig at.

I guess now the Rangers will start making up laws to run us out of ONF now.......
Whats next, are we going to have to convert to propane ran cycles due to the Ozone being depleted.
Go Atv Rally, we need more legal riding areas so that ONF will not be an issue anymore....

there aint any rules about them that I know of,,,kinda sounds like a harrassment thing for now.

I agree with Chillin, I had paddle tires for a little while on my 400 and decided to try to trail ride with them and ended up almost running into a bunch of trees cause I couldn't turn.

Id@

WELL depending on the type of paddle tires yea its harder to turn, but if you have geckos or paddle masters (i have them) they turn just like any other tire, I enjoy using paddle tires down there, we got a couple guys on trikes including me with paddles and we do just fine, and a couple quads, my girfreinds blaster and one of my buds kids 250 uses paddles and they have no problem. But besides that has anyone else had a problem with rangers saying something about paddle tires?? net time I go down there, they are going to have to show my something written in the rules for paddle tires before I will take them off, if I have to I will get some Zippers and really shoot some roost!

If it makes you happy, I say run them. There are no tire restrictions in writing YET. I'm sure its just a matter of time though.

watch out with paddles.I got a ticket for destroying sensitive areas when I was sitting parked on the power line.1 ranger told me the tread had to be less than 1in.my tires are under that.the dude that wrote me the ticket did not have a ruler or care.he did not see my machine move.I have my stickers,stay off roads,wear my helmet and plan on buying my pass in oct.I am one of the good guys.I tried to tell the guy about the f250 I saw dumping roofing stuff earlier,but he did not care.also when I got the ticket I saw 2 people racing up 573,all he said was that they should not be doing it.forestry also told me people like me are not wanted in the forest.I showed him a bag of cans that I picked up that day like I always do.I had my 11 year old son with me and he was like "what did we do dad".I am sorry to vent but it seems like the rules only apply to the people who try to do the right thing.the day before my ticket I saw a guy on a 450r run from the cops and they just let him go.forestry is going to turn good people bad because of their poor understanding of the rules.the usfs needs to train the people they have enforcing the rules.I am riding next weekend without my paddles.I will not let one bad ranger spoil the fun my family has out there.

If I was a Ranger or whatever there called theres no way I coulda done that unless you were actin a fool like doing donuts in the middle of the trail or somethin.
Especially if you had your kid w/ you & a bag of trash that you picked up.

Maybe just to easy of a target for him, knowing you were stopped & w/ your kid.

Curtis when did that happen this last weekend?  Plan on fighting it in court?  I would.  Some of those rangers can be biggest jerks out there.  Just another rule to run people out.

check the new regs I posted.  They only want lugs of 1" or less as they do not move the sand as much.

yep i got some cheepo gecho's for my shee, turn good & wont break the wallet if i get a root stuck in them... i love 'em, well now i guess i need to measure them maybe do a few burn outs in the drive way to get below 1" ( better get down to 3/4' so there's no grey area!) ???

well I guess Im going to buy some zippers or 4snows now to ride with. what can they say about a snow tire? only has 3/4 tread? its not a paddle tire,  hehehehhehe

if you really want to go old school get you some Spider Traks.

naw, Dirt Dawg's

or what I had, Trail Claw II's on my Suzuki LT230

Id@

Wow way to bring out some memories of tearing the through the fields near my house in Maine. I had a set of those on my 200X as a kid

 ;D

Or Wooley Boogers (somethin like that), they were good in the mud back then.
I had a '84 200S w/ pull start(darn rope, some people would replace w/ a cable)
then a 85 200X, that was sweet w/ the rear shocks & kick start.

Seriously could I use a set of zippers out there now? and what about out of state riders grizzly? and out of state under 16 kids?

First of all,  what are zippers?  Out of state or in state residents are treated the same, and after July 1, 2008, even out of state under 16 will have to prove they have taken the safety course.

I didn't know what they were either, I put in "zipper atv tires" in the google search box, & there a tire made by AMS, you can see a pic. of them.

BTW, thanks for your input/feedback, I don't know anything about you but,
 I got the feeling your in a tough situation, kinda like a tug of war or somethin.

is this towards me?

any way here is a zipper, the tread is only about 3/4 tall new

(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e306/southgacustoms/ZIPPER.jpg)

so if your under 16 you will have to show that you completed a atv safety course there in ocala or in your home state?


personaly on the sand tires, I think OCALA has it all wrong, wouldnt a tire that dosnt get all avail traction tear up more ground? that seems logical, Ive never felt like my paddles were tearing up the ground any more than some guy on a bone stock machine witch crappy stock tires spinning like crazy trying to even get going in the sand. Also on the proof of ownership I have paperwork signed by my local sherrifs office on some of my machines stating that I own them, but some dont even have vins any longer, whats going to be the deal then? (meaning that the machines were scratced built and either metal work or paint has erased the vins over the years)

bump, I want to know :-*

im sorry.....let me clear my throte



BUMP!!

There is some great riding in Georgia  ;)

No, I wasn't replying to you syko, I was replying to Grizzly.

I felt like he's in a tough situation by trying to make both sides happy.
(the riders & the Forestry people)

The new reg on tires says "no lugs over 1 inch" Those zippers should be OK.  As regards proof of ownership on your homemade ATV's.  You need to contact the USFS at the Lake George Ranger Station

ok cool, I have a signed owner ship form that is filled out by my local sherrifs office, I actually toke my machine up there and they inspect it, in the state of georgia since they do not require you to register your machine to ride, caused me another problem, I sent this form off so I could get a custom vin and title for it, and becouse of that said law in GA, they wouldnt make me one, only 1 machine I own is like that, and its currently being built to ride.  And as for the tires SWEET!!

not trying to beat a dead horse here, but I looked over all the rules and regs, and I cant find anything stating no paddles, If for say I go to big scrub this weekend and they hand me the rule sheet, and it has nothing in it about paddle tires, then its ok for me to run paddles? seems kinda unfair for a freind of mine to get ticketed for it when its not even in the rules yet!?