The American West has some of the best riding you can find anywhere. From the slick rock trails in Moab to the wide-open desert and dunes in Southern California, the unique topography creates one-of-a-kind adventures.
It also makes for unique challenges that a stock UTV just isn’t built to handle. So today, we’re looking at the best and only the best because you want nothing less when you’re hammering down in the harshest environments in America. So without further ado, here are the 6 best UTV accessories for desert and dune riding.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: no matter what upgrades you put on your machine, using the wrong tires will screw you over. Don’t skimp on grips—only go for the best desert UTV tires.
When you’re hitting the dunes, you need SandCat UTV Sand Tires.
The aggressive center ridgeline gives the front tires reliable control while the staggered double-lug design helps them grip in sand.
The 12 or 13 paddle rear tires are lightweight and use mini lugs between paddles for better grip and floatation.
They’re the best UTV tires for sand—every inch of them has been carefully crafted for carving up dunes.
Warrior Tires are the best UTV tires for rocky terrain—perfect for taking on wide-open desert or technical rock terrain.
Our XT Warrior Tires feature all the bells and whistles a good tire needs. The aggressive lug pattern pairs nicely with our tapered and siped lug design for excellent grip on smooth rock and loose earth alike.
They clean out easily, too, so you don’t lose grip from a clogged up tread. They let you rip down a dusty trail and transfer seamlessly to dominating a difficult rock garden.
The desert’s dust and dune sand can make any ride miserable. That’s why a good windshield is one of the best UTV accessories for desert riding. We have a huge variety to choose from:
Half windshields are the ideal windshield for riding in the dunes and desert. That’s because they keep sand and dust out of your face without closing you in and making you hot. The shape of the windshield itself deflects wind over your head so you don’t get sand blasted in the dunes.
Glass windshields are another top choice for riding in the dunes or desert. Glass is the most scratch-resistant windshield material you can get, so it doesn’t get those sparkly microscratches that can ruin your view.
Our glass windshields come with vents in the frame, so you can stay cool while it keeps that sand out of your face.
If you’re not sold on glass, you can get similar functionality from our vented windshields. They’re made from hard-coated polycarbonate so they’re scratch resistant (not quite as resistant as glass though) and they’re incredibly tough. Take a baseball bat to this thing and you’re more likely to break your arm than break the poly.
And if it wasn’t obvious enough, it’s vented, so you can stay cool in the scorching desert heat.
A flip up windshield is the ultimate all-arounder. It’s hard coated like our vented windshield, but lets you flip between open, closed, and vented on the fly. It’s kind of like a full windshield, half windshield, and vented windshield in one.
It’s great for folks that ride all over the place and need to adapt to changing weather conditions. Keep it open in the dunes, but close it right up on those chilly winter morning Moab rides.
Aluminum roofs make really awesome desert roofs for a few reasons.
First, they just look rad. Even if you don’t have a chopped cage, the flat, low profile of the aluminum almost tricks your eye into thinking it is chopped. The big flat surface they give you is begging for some stickers too.
Second, they do a great job of stopping heat in its tracks. The perfectly opaque aluminum keeps your whole cab shady, which is nice when the nearest tree is in the next county.
Finally, aluminum is really dang tough. If the car in front of you flings gravel all over the place, you can count on an aluminum roof to block it without getting wrecked.
Tinted roofs are kind of like aluminum roofs, except they keep your cab brighter. The poly is insanely tough, so you still don’t have to worry about rooster tails breaking it, and they’re tinted to keep some of the heat out.
We love tinted roofs because they’re like the moonroof in your car—they just make your cab feel bigger.
A good aftermarket skid plate is practically a requirement for rock crawling. Sliding over big boulders with your stock plate is a good way to tear up your drivetrain and potentially poke holes in the bottom of your cab.
Upgrade to a better option like our 1/2” thick ARMW skid plates to make sure you slide over obstacles instead of stick to them.
ARMW is our proprietary blend of UHMW, and if you know anything about UHMW, you know it’s awesome. It’s unbelievably tough and ludicrously smooth. It’s almost as slick as ice when you’re high-centered on a boulder. Plus, our patented interlocking design makes sure that the individual panels stay locked in tight.
Speaking of ice, the desert can turn your drinks into hot garbage water if you don’t do something to protect it.
Grab an insulated cargo box to keep dirt out of your lunch and keep your drinks cool. Not to mention, a cargo box that’s bolted to your UTV will hold onto your gear if you roll over. Your cooler tied down with ratchet straps and bungee cords might spill your sandwiches if you hit a bad bump.
Whip lights are a key piece of dune safety—and they’re rad looking too.
Riding in dunes under the stars can be one of the most thrilling—and beautiful—things you can do. But it’s also dangerous.
Whip lights make sure people can see you in the dark and, more importantly, from the other side of the dune.
Ours give you tons of control of the colors and patterns, so you can get just the look your midnight machine needs. This is one dune accessory that’s both fun and necessary.
Now you’ve seen all the best gear, but getting geared up to ride isn’t just about looking cooler or being more capable (you will). It’s also about making sure every wild west adventure is filled with good memories. At the end of the day, you want to make every weekend ride a fun one, and getting the right gear from SuperATV makes that so much easier.
