A glorious step backwards- AKA- Bias Ply Goodness- STA Traxions

[peteinjp]

Having read often about the STA Traxions here on MUD but never actually seeing them in action on a cruiser for the sake of the community at large I had to take action.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/527303-anyone-actually-running-sta-tires.html

The other tires in the background are the 6.50 R16's for my friends Mitsu Jeep. Just arrived today- man I LOVE the smell of new tires.

Pete

 

[JohnnyC]

cool can't wait to see um mounted...bet you can't either

 

[DrivingMissRosey]

did this ever happen? I'm looking at the same tire in a tubed variety.

 

[peteinjp]

Mine 7.50 r16's are tubeless- and yes this just happened a few days ago. I'll get some pics up. Initial thoughts- harder to balance apparently than the BFG AT's or maybe its the wheels but I doubt it. A little noise from them- but I like it. Off road- way better than the AT's in mud so far. Just as you might guess it seems the AT's are a much better highway tire. I'm at 23psi so I'll have to report back after pumping them up more but at this pressure they are slower in terms of getting up to 100kph(60mph.) In terms of fit the 7.50 r16 is the perfect fit for a stock suspension - fits within the body work and does not rub at all on the drag link like the 235/85's did. Steering effort is not bad even at this low pressure. Truck does want to wander just a bit if there is any hint of a rut or slope to the road which makes sense as teh FSM calls for another 2mm of toe in for bias ply. I'll adjust that tomorrow and get back to this thread.


Pete

 

[peteinjp]

These tires would look very freakin cool on your 60! Go for it!

Pete

 

[75/76FJ40]

Love the look of those tires. Would love to see some pics!

 

[DrivingMissRosey]

Initial thoughts- harder to balance apparently than the BFG AT's or maybe its the wheels but I doubt it. A little noise from them- but I like it. ...I'm at 23psi so I'll have to report back after pumping them up more ....Truck does want to wander just a bit if there is any hint of a rut or slope to the road

Here check this out to balance them. Equal Tire Balancer -- EE -- Expedition Exchange Incorporated
You put it in the tire before you air it up and supposedly it balances the tire as it rolls. I haven't used it but am thinking about using it if and when I get some of the tires you posted.

Pump up those tires!

I've noticed that mine wanders less with the 7.50R16 compared to my old radials which are 11.5 inches wide. It grabbed every little bump, rut and groove in the highway.

Which model STAs are those tires? I want the same tread pattern.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Interesting to see that "Equal" stuff does not absorb moisture. Other products I have seen on the market require the use of nitrogen or something other then free air to air up. Pretty cool.

 

[peteinjp]

Might have to try that equal stuff. Costs less than getting a tire balanced here. Even the ones that the tire guy said he go to balance have a little wobble in the steering wheel. No biggie but the one that he could not get balanced well will be rotated up front.

The tires sure look the part and they work well. The 7.50 are probably a good balance for on/off road use. They do throw stones and on gravel roads you will not forget that you have them on- its shocking at first. The BFG AT's did this as well- but smaller rocks. This is the only down side to the tires for me and I don't care what kind of super bed liner etc you put of I'd bet this will chip it. But not a big issue for me- the loud bangs just kinda freak out people the first time they ride in my truck. I've got a plan for dealing with it but that will be another thread another day.

I put a little compression on the rear to see how they look as they get up toward the rear fender. As you can see the 7.50 size fits like factory on this all stock truck. Caps from Mike and the 16x5.5 toyota steelies also on for the first time- very psyched!

On to the pics:

 

[JohnnyC]

i use equal...i am pleased with them...i run them in tubes...its kinda hard to get them in if you need to change a tube to a new tube...but...they do ballance

BTW great looking rig...love the retro look you gave it

 

[peteinjp]

The business end of the stick- they are a very noticeable improvement over the AT's in terms of traction in any loose stuff. The AT's were not bad but they would have slipped on this climb (snow just melted and everything is soft and slick.) I haven't put lots of time in on these yet but I did hit a little mud just to see how they compare (no pics of that) and they do shed much better.

Only problem is that they are wearing fast on the left front outside- i think due to too little toe in but I'm not sure. The roads here are sloped to shed water so with a little toe out I always have to steer right to counter. Got to get to that this afternoon.

Pete

 

[Eshu Elegua]

nice tires, i would like it with black rims on your rig. will see if i can get those here in 900-16....and change the spare jajajaja

 

[peteinjp]

Black would look good. Eventually when I paint the truck I'll probably paint the rims the body color.

The caps- as much as I like them- look out of place on the truck as they are so new. But I can't resist putting them on. I'm actually thinking of getting a set of split rims and running those.

Pete

 

[DrivingMissRosey]

Might have to try that equal stuff.

The tires sure look the part and they work well. The 7.50 are probably a good balance for on/off road use.

I've got a plan for dealing with it but that will be another thread another day.

Please let us know how the Equal product works.

Thanks for your thoughts on their proper use. My use, in terms of time in the vehicle, is about 95% highway, 5% off road.

How will you deal with the throwing rocks issue? Don't hold out! Mudflaps?

i use equal...i am pleased with them...i run them in tubes...its kinda hard to get them in if you need to change a tube to a new tube...but...they do ballance

Thanks for your thoughts on how the Equal works.

The business end of the stick- they are a very noticeable improvement over the AT's in terms of traction in any loose stuff.

Only problem is that they are wearing fast on the left front outside- i think due to too little toe in but I'm not sure.

Please let us know if you fix that wearing issue. I sounds to me to be a toe in issue too.

nice tires, i would like it with black rims on your rig. will see if i can get those here in 900-16....and change the spare jajajaja

Heres what is offered in a 9.00R16 size. Look at post #107. And there
https://forum.ih8mud.com/expedition-builds/462615-tires-tall-skinnys-6.html. You might have others available to you.

 

[peteinjp]

I'm not off road more than 10% of the time. I usually use the riverside dirt roads here to get from A to B. By highway I meant 100kph speeds. If they balance out with well then I don't see any problem with them for high speed.

As far as the wearing issue as per the FSM I adjusted the toe in about 3mm in from the previous setting of 0. But more importantly I found that the tire guys that mounted them only put 23psi in the left tire vs 28 in the right. I'm running 27.5 in front and 24 in the rear with no load. I always pay attention to the way the little nubbins wear on a new set of tires and adjust my pressure and toe in in order to get them to wear even.

235/85 16's are a little wider but they would be a great size on your 60 as well. I liked the BFG At's that I had on before and I'm switching them over to my Nissan Patrol which is basically the 60 series equivalent. I'd run those if I were going to be on the highway every day.

 

[DrivingMissRosey]

I'm not off road more than 10% of the time. I usually use the riverside dirt roads here to get from A to B. By highway I meant 100kph speeds. If they balance out with well then I don't see any problem with them for high speed.

As far as the wearing issue as per the FSM I adjusted the toe in about 3mm in from the previous setting of 0. But more importantly I found that the tire guys that mounted them only put 23psi in the left tire vs 28 in the right. I'm running 27.5 in front and 24 in the rear with no load. I always pay attention to the way the little nubbins wear on a new set of tires and adjust my pressure and toe in in order to get them to wear even.

235/85 16's are a little wider but they would be a great size on your 60 as well. I liked the BFG At's that I had on before and I'm switching them over to my Nissan Patrol which is basically the 60 series equivalent. I'd run those if I were going to be on the highway every day.

Do you have any long-term use particulars to report? How are they holding up?

 

[peteinjp]

So far so good. Toe in made a big difference. The first pic you can see the outside edge was feathering quite quickly. Notice how the lug corners on the outside leading edges are rounded off compared to the ones on the inside. With 0 toe they would not have lasted long.

Balance- I took the weights off and put the beads in but the balance still sucks. For me it's not a big issue but if I were on the highway every day I might get tired of it. Yesterday cruising at 100kph the was enough vibration to shake the hood a bit. 80kph seemed was much more tolerable. A good shop could probably get them to balance out better by rotating the tire on the rim for the best balance the breaking the bead and popping the balance beads in. In this case I ca not say the beads don't work. I can say that they seem to work as well as the weights that they replaced.

The hum a bit but again for me it's no problem. The do pick up rocks and t grow them hard into the fenders. The BFG's also did but much smaller stones so it was less startling.

Traction is great off road. I'm not qualified to compare to anything other than the BFGs. I did notice a bit of the tire getting torn but this is the newest tire (rotated from the spare) so the rubber still seemed very soft. They clear out mud very well. Not too bad in the snow. They pull well up slopes. With the relatively solid pattern in the center the are good for a truck that sees on road use but wants to be able to grab well off road as well.

I still only have a little time on these. I'm confident that they will wear well as I've used a tire thermometer to set the toe and tire pressure and I can get even temps across the tire.

Basically it's just as the title of the thread implies. These are definitely a step backwards from a modern tire. The flat spot, vibrate, hum, probably wear faster etc. In that way they are much like the rest of the truck. Rough, leaky, loud, and tough. So for me it fits. I think they are super cool tires.

I'll update again when I have even more time on them.


Pete

 

[lostmarbles]

All bias ply 7.50 x 16 tyres that I've run back in my early days have worn out well before 20,000kms was reached Pete. (I can get well in excess of 80,000kms out of a set of Modern BFG all-terrain radial tyres on the other hand.)I don't know if your tyres have technology that overcomes this "rapid wear" feature though? Tubeless bias ply tyres are certainly something I've never tried. (All mine have been tubed.)But those old bias tyres I ran in years past definitely performed better offroad when aired-down than anything I run these days because the tyre walls were so much stiffer than those of my present tyres and this resulted in a sort of paddle-effect (or at least that's how I've always imagined the advantage was gained).CheersPS. This computer doesn't allow me to use "smilies" or even create paragraphs so it is a bit of a challenge making a reply. (The way it's setup seems to be incompatible with ih8mud and because it's not mine, I can't change settings.)

 

[peteinjp]

Well quite a while ago Dedtruk called me out for a long term report on the Sta's. Unfortunately I have moved on. The reasons being that they wore quickly and the center tread was get was getting thin and slippery in the wet. Also the balance issue got worse with time and I tired(no pun intended.... Maybe) of it.

I was planning on getting a tire groover and carving out the center treads and the figuring out a way to shave and true them but in the end with sooooo many other projects on hold I let them go last week.

My advise is not to use these on a daily- unless you can get them put on at an old school place that has a bias ply tire shaver. I had terrible vibrations due to the wheels being out of round and no amount of Equal or lead weights could get a balance. On a truck that will primarily see off road use I'd say it's a good choice if you want a classic tire. This tire is probably best for a truck that will see 50/50 off and on road use. The shallow center tread keeps more rubber on the road and the large open treads on the in and outsides work well aired down a bit in when you get into mud etc.

Pete

 

[myquestoyota]

So what did you move on to? BFG's?