Mickey Thopson Baja Radial Claw

[Gold Finger]

Has any one on this board fitted Mickey Thompson Baja Radial Claws to there 80 or any other vehicle and what were your findings? I am not too concerned in mileage. Is the Pro Comp X-Terrain a similar tyre because superficially they are both sport a V tread as I believe does the Yokahoma Geolander MT. It could be that the spacing between there respective treads is different. I have heard at another place very favourable views about the M T B Radial Claw, in that it is very good in mud and is also quiet on the road, in both cases because of tread design. Having a V placed tread on my agricultural tractor I can imagine how they work and I should think that the tyre in question does not have any digging facility such as the Simex Extreme Terrain which may be better at finding traction under the surface after cutting through the greasy slop, but is aimed more at flotation and surface traction. That that is a supposition based on technical imagination of course. I have looked and found one reference to the Pro Comp X-Terrain on here which was not favourable but it was not a trial for any length of time on there own vehicle but rather based on a one off encounter I realise that people may have there own personal preferences for other brands. I would be grateful for any accurate appraisals,

 

[fzj]

It's been years sense I owned a set of Claws, and they were not the radials, but here is what I remember about them. They actualy were not that loud on the street, atleast not for a bias ply aggresive tire. The one thing I notice right away after having them put on was they run really small, my 35x13.5's were no were near a true 35 inch tire, infact my buddies 35 inch swampers made my 35's look my like 32's! The other thing I noticed after a hard day out wheel 'in was that the tread was starting to fall apart, large chunks were gone and I had only had the tires for a couple weeks, other than the above listed I really liked the tires, they did seem to work great offroad!

 

[Gold Finger]

FZJ,
Thank you for responding and confirming that they are quiet running on the highway, I guess that might mean that they do not vibrate to much either. It is interesting about the size issue but the ones in the images seem to look big enough, I do know from reading threads on here that a lot of tyres run smaller than there theoretical size except for one or two exceptions. Is it rock that you mainly used them for. I can see that they are not an especially popular tyre here on this forum, maybe I should ask on chat or some thing as there may be a few who have had them or knows something about them. Cheers any way.

 

[bjowett]

Hey GF, I run 37" MT baja radials. They are quiet for an MT, make sure you get the 3 ply sidewall, I believe only LT versions have it. Nice offroad, A TEENSY bit squirly on side hills, but not bad... the forward traction more than makes up for it. A TSL bogger light w/o the noise. They do run a little small as do most tires, mine measure 36.? at the most.

 

[Gold Finger]

bjowett.
That is great and thank you for you reply and it is good to here about the performance aspects, although I wont be able to fit any thing quite so large. At the present I am getting as much information on them as I can, I think that they may offer some of the benefits that I am looking for in a tyre. All tyres are a compromise and this has to be juggled against ever ones individual requirements. My long term aim is perhaps to have a set of these as an every day tyre with good general off road performance and excelling in mud and farmland type of terrain and a set of Simex Extreme Terrain in the future which will have more of an ability of cutting down through the slippery top layers of greasy clag to more firm strata below. The Simex I think would be not so suitable for every day running and would soon be worn away at speed on the motorways. I am not quite in a position as yet to purchase a set just yet and the second type of tyre may well have to wait until the following year, I could perhaps get around on what I have for the moment but will need to prepare for next winter at the very latest for the first choice which will I think be the Claw. It will be sooner than that I hope.

Outlets for MT Radial Claw are very few here in the UK I have found only two one wanted £300 for each tyre for 285/75/16 wow. The other suggested two prices £168 air freight from the US and £218 by boat I think as I have mislaid the paper I scribbled the prices on. I soon realised that neither supplier normally have a stock and do in fact order individually from the US. So I looked at the US EBay for an idea on prices and although I am not sure they would export to the UK the prices seemed very good but of course import taxes and carriage would add a fair bit to the prices but they still may end up cheaper buying this way, I will have to investigate closer to the time that I am ready.

 

[Gold Finger]

I made a mistake on size the above should read 305/70/16 and not 285/70/16 as the latter is unavailable.

 

[Bear80]

IMO the Pro-Comps are the way to go. I have owned Mickey Thompson's Bias Ply Baja's and been very happy with that type of tire and the brand. As far as the Claw Radial, the lugs are thinner than the lugs on a X-terrain and the X-terrain has sips for improved wet conditions.
Mickey Thompson has also come out with 2 new lines of radial tyers ( s/p) you could look into those.
I my self have the x-terrains and love them, even replaced the Mickey Thompson Baja's on my mini with a set. The pro comps are very nice on the road and work great 'wheeling.
Also my biggest issue is looks, the baja claws look way to thin setting next to a set of x-terrains and do not look fitting for a fat and curvy vehicle like the 80.
Either way, just make sure to get the tiers mounted and balanced using a road matching machine. A super tire can ride like crap if it isn't balanced with a lug centric adapter, and road matching makes it perfect.

 

[Gold Finger]

Bear80 thank you for your reply,

I was beginning to think that I had heard all I was going to from this query. The sipes on the tread blocks are a very good idea and I do not know why other tyre manufactures have not done this as it must afford better road manners especially in the wet.

You have answered one of my thoughts when looking on the web at such tyres I have no other way of seeing them, I had thought that the MT Baja Radial Claws had a larger void between tread blocks and that the X-Terrain had broader blocks. My thoughts about this would be that the X-terrain might behave better on the road than the Baja Radial, and that the X-Terrain also might conform better to rock because of the sipes allowing the blocks to deform but that the Baja could be better in heavy mud or were the tread has to force its way into heavy clay soils.

I think that you are from San Antonio Texas from your Avatar what sot of wheeling do you do is it rock, I have to ask because I am very uninformed about the topography that all you guys live in various parts of the States and have made many pleasant discoveries after taking to Dan and then looking up on that’s states web site its like a geography lesson I had many misconceptions about what the country look like over there.

Fitting and balancing, I do not think that we are so advanced over here and I do not think that we have much of a choice over how they are mounted and balanced especially in this part of Wales as I would have to buy them by mail order because no one would ever of heard of any of these tyres here let alone stock them. They would be balanced on one of those processor read out spinning balancers what type I do not know I bet that lug or hub centric would mean very little to tyre fitters here.

It is sounds as though MT tyres tend to be small for there size and that maybe going up one size could be easier accommodated or is advisable with them.

Thank you for such a detailed appraisal.