Kenda puts consumer OTR tires to ultimate test

PHOENIX—For Kenda Rubber Co. Ltd., there isn't a much better durability test for an off-road tire than watching it land a 100-foot jump—or several—during a race.

As Kenda Tire USA Inc. has evolved over the last decade and grown its Green, Ohio-based Kenda America Technical Center, the firm's participation in motorsports also has evolved.

Instead of showing off new technology—a traditional use of the platform—the company is showing off what one can actually buy in the store. Kenda races only tires you can pull off the shelf. It's win on Sunday, sell (the same tire) on Monday.

Or as Kenda puts it, "podium to pavement."

The company's involvement in motorsports is a way to show off the quality of the tire against proven competition.

"We race where we race specifically because we want to have DOT (certified) tires," said Brandon Stotsenburg, vice president of the automotive division at American Kenda Rubber Industrial Co. Ltd. "We could produce race tires for Baja and light truck or in other areas, … but what we want to do when we race is race with the same tires you all sell.

"We know we can make really good products with premium performance, but how do we show that within the marketplace?" Stotsenburg told tire dealers and wholesalers during the Kenda Light Truck Boot Camp event in Phoenix, held Sept. 27- Oct. 1. "The best way to do it is to take the same tires, the DOT tires that people are using, and race those.

"So we created the tagline 'podium to pavement.' "

The company showed off its off-road brands during the event including the Klever A/T2, R/T and M/T—demonstrating their ability to perform with Tier 1 brands in a number of off-road situations. The Klever line also includes the Klever XT UTV tire for all-terrain and ultra-terrain vehicles.

The Kenda team demonstrated how the company's tires perform against other leading brands in extreme situations, such as sand, loose soil, gravel, dirt and mud.

Tire dealers and wholesalers also got a chance to meet some of the off-road drivers sponsored by Kenda and watch a test drive by Chad Rayford and his pro-light race truck.

"Kenda is a smaller brand (in motorsports), but not with how they do things," Rayford said. "They are involved and give great support."

Kenda sponsors a number of drivers in the Amsoil Champion Off-Road series, including Rayford. The company also is a sponsor of the short-course racing series, along with other tire brands, including Cooper, Falken, Maxxis, Toyo and Yokohama. The series features DOT tires only.

"In the off-road, short-course racing, because of the different terrains and the different ways it's adapted, we actually can use an M/T tire, the R/T tire and the A/T tire,"Stotsenburg said.

Rayford drives on the A/T2. He said while he loses ground early when the track is soft, he can more than make up for it later in the race. The A/T2's speed shows up near the end when the track gets hard and starts showing blue groove—the bluish rubber marks that come off the tire when the dirt track gets hard and slick.

The A/T2 is the least aggressive tire of the Klever line, designed to give consumers more highway driving benefits while maintaining the integrity of an all-terrain tire.

Driver Zac Zakowski, who races the larger Pro-2 class vehicle, said the Klever R/T is his tire of choice because it is the most consistent no matter the course conditions.

"The R/T is the best overall from start to finish," he said.

The Klever R/T exists in a "tweener" segment, according to the company, positioned as a "best of both worlds" solution between the more highway, original-equipment-replacement friendly A/T and super-aggressive M/T.

While the tires are DOT-spec tires, the drivers said there are small modifications that are done to the tires, depending on the type of track they are racing. The race vehicles run the tires at a much lower psi and use bead-locking wheels. Also drivers may hand-carve parts of the tire depending on the course, for example, to add more void.

Stotsenburg said COR is a great showcase for the company, and the drivers involved are passionate and have helped elevate the brand.

"They are jumping these things 100 to 120 feet, landing them and showing the end user and the people there that they aren't breaking," he said. "And we get to compete with great tires that the consumers know. And our products show we can compete straight up."

As Kenda has improved the performance of its products, especially among the second-generation Klever line, company executives see an involvement in motorsports as an important part of spreading the word on the quality of their products.