JConcepts continues to muscle new scale off-road items into the market with the introduction of the Tusk 1.9” tire. After successful class 2 tires such as the Landmines, the team focused on a new design with learned information by driving, crawling, and important input from a heap of development time by the JConcepts team. The team retained the 4.75” sizing making it an approved and scale-based tire, but the tread layout went under the scope for changes.The Tusk has an animal like instinct while it makes its way over terrain with hefty lugs and sidewall support. The center of the tire starts with a V-shaped lug with multiple steps to the sides for additional grip while the green compound rubber flexes and contours to the landscape. The design team added large, staggered traction bars off the side continuing the V-shape pattern and while the shorter version steps in conjunction with the center lug, the longer version fills a void underneath and meets up near the center line of the tire.The Mirrored aspect to the tire lays out beautifully and alternating rows provide a staggered height affect. JConcepts has added sidewall lugging for pinch grip and gap crawling and relieved a small portion of rubber for increased flexibility. All traction bars and lugging have relieved cuts and slots on the top to split up the flat surfaces for additional little edges for light dirt, dust, and debris. The sidewall lettering is highly detailed on the Tusk with naming, sizing, and identification.The flexibility of the green compound combined with the lug arrangement gives the tire a grippy feel but still maintains the all-important scale and performance look. The overall height provides plenty of ground clearance for class 1 vehicles for an abundance of terrain. The tires include a medium open cell foam insert capable of standing up to the super soft compound but flexible enough for sharp terrain.
