Rubber tires for power wheels dune racer – try these upgrades

If you are looking for rubber tires for power wheels dune racer, I have some bad news: There are no specially designed rubber tires for power wheels dune racer.

I know that sounds grim, but hey: all is not lost..

You see, there are some great rubber tires from other equipment you can mount on your kid’s power wheels dune racer to gain more traction.

All you have to do is make a couple of modifications to the power wheels to fit these alternative tires (your toy car will be gripping much better in all situations after that).

To be clear, you might have to adapt the wheel hub and the hub of your rubber tires to the power wheels axle size.

Below are the rubber tires I most recommend if you’d like to upgrade to these substitute tires:

 

Rubber tires for power wheels dune racer – try these options

Option 1: Turf saver tires

The first option that comes to mind is Turf saver tires.

For starters, the popular Turf Saver tire has been the undisputed market leader when it comes to residential riding lawnmowers worldwide thanks to its excellent traction.

Now, the optimized grip this tire is known for is primarily due to three key features: a classic square-shouldered design, flat profile, and chevron (or “fine file”) tread.

The good thing is that though some mods are required, the tires are not very difficult to fit on the dune racer – you don’t have to be an engineer to do this.

If you want to give the Turf saver tires a shot, you can order them on Amazon then watch this great YouTube tutorial for installation tips.

Option 2: Small ATV Tires

If you have finally decided to upgrade the tires on your child’s power wheels dune racer, you can consider replacing the cheap plastic tires with small ATV tires.

Like the lawn tractor tires, these typically don’t slip on wet grass and provide great traction all around.

They’re super capable off road too so your son/daughter will be riding off road without a problem once you wrap them on your power wheels.

Plus, they won’t tear as easily as the stock tires- unfortunately, factory-installed tires tend to be quickly chewed up.

What you can do is this: Just stretch the small ATV tires (you can again buy them from Amazon) around your dune race tires then use epoxy to bond them on.

You will certainly enjoy better traction.

 

Option 3: Wheelbarrow/ hand cart tires

You can as well pick up 4 rubber tires from your hardware store- you know, the type that fits into a wheelbarrow /hand cart and mount them on the dune racer.

You see, some have ridged tread so the grip is way better.

Another option would be golf cart tires – you can find some used golf tires (about the same size) that have rims on them and inner tubes.

A probable downside of doing that is that you may have to modify the axles and find adapted hubs.

What to know about upgrading rubber tires

While adding rubber wheels goes a long way in boosting traction, it often causes countless issues.

The greatest concern is that the extra traction could smoke the electronics (from the load).

In truth, the engineering of most power wheels is made that the slippage of the tires is necessary to prevent burning the motors up due to the torque.

Likewise, the plastic gears usually rely on the slip from the wheels for proper operation so this can also strip gears (more grip means more stress on the gears).

So, what other options do you have?

Here are some ideas:

 

#1- Get a wheel you can adapt to the motors

Well, the first thing you can do if you must upgrade is to get a rubber wheel that can be adapted to your motors (The rear wheels are the drive wheels).

In fact, you may have to replace the entire drivetrain so you might have to find wheels and hubs that fit the axle splines.

 

#2- Attach strips of rubber on the tire and forget about the upgrade

It might be better to attach strips of neoprene rubber on the tire instead of doing an upgrade.

It’ll give you the much needed additional traction but not to the extent of what the above rubber tires will which would reduce strain on the gear box.

Here is the thing: Instead of only putting a strip down the middle of each tire, put an extra one along the outside edge and glue it on.

Now, by moving a strip to the outside, which slopes down, you increase the area of surface contact, increase the overall wheel base lowering its center of gravity, and provide additional traction without messing up the gearbox.

This makes sense if you consider that the plastic center of the tires and the neoprene strip are both touching the road.

Quick Tip: Even “splaying” a bike tire across the wheels could be fine. You simply get an old bicycle tire then cut off sidewalls (you can just cut slits every few inches into the sidewalls then “splay” them out). You then glue/screw it to the dune race tires. The result will be better traction without breaking things.

 

Wrap up

If you’ve got a power wheels Dune Racer for your kids and now want to swap stock wheels for something that does not slide dangerously, try to adapt it to fit the above replacement rubber tires.

If money is tight, you can still go for used tires because they’re cheaper, as long as they’re in fairly good condition.

Don’t forget that upgrading could trigger unending problems so evaluate if the other rubber tire mods (such as attaching rubber strips to the tire) could be the best way to go.

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