Tires again

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This thread high lights personal preference and intended uses for one does not suite another. We all have our likes and dislikes, one is no more right than the other. Some people like tall skinny others like big and wide.....man that can be misconstrued into so many things lol.

I have always liked the look of big wide tires "ballons" as some would call them on trucks. I have always had tires as such, i have never been in a situations where I thought "man a tall skinny tire would do so much better here".

If you like tall skinny well then get them, if you like tall and wide well then get them.
 
Apart from 'mall cruisers' and which often run tires for looks not need -- the best tire based on functionality is the narrowest you can get by with for the type of terrain you normally drive on.

If gravel and occasional mud and snow is the norm then an OEM width or slightly wider and a little more aggressive is all you need. However, people often want wider and more aggressive for that off-road 'look'. From my experience if the paint is not scratched or dented they generally don't off-road. Note that running gravel roads is not off-roading, because its a road.

If mud, soft boggy ground, snow, unstable ground, rock crawling (eg. Moab) is the norm, then wider is needed, but that performance comes at a significant cost - increased intial cost, increased unsprung weight (bad), reduced mileage (expensive), balancing problems (expensive), increased ball joint wear (expensive), wander on the highway (safety issue) - the list goes on and on.

Cruisers in many other countries run skinny tires for economic reasons (cheap) - if they get stuck they more often have more time than money to get unstuck. The competition jungle cruisers run wide tires ( Columbia, Malaysia) because time is more important than cost.

Most ' long-range' expedition rigs run narrower tires because they are on pavement 99% of the time and want good fuel economy. When tires need replacement - guess what is generally available - the local narrower tires. When they are on soft ground with skinny tires they can use sand mats for short distances.
If I were to drive to Guatemala I would put on a common narrower tire available all along the way.
 
Glenn-BJ74 said:
Most ' long-range' expedition rigs run narrower tires because they are on pavement 99% of the time and want good fuel economy. When tires need replacement - guess what is generally available - the local narrower tires. When they are on soft ground with skinny tires they can use sand mats for short distances.
If I were to drive to Guatemala I would put on a common narrower tire available all along the way.
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Partially correct. Most long range expeditions in Africa, Asia and Australia are on dirt tracks most of the time. It wasn't that long ago that most of South America and Central America was the same. Australian, Middle Easterners and North Africans will tell you that our big MT tires are the pits in the soft sand. The big lugs tend to dig big holes rather than floating over it. Note the dune climb comps in the Middle East; they are using AT tires. Although i think that is the reg for the comps.

But you are right that it is just good sense to use a commonly found tire size when you are a long ways away from a market that supplies big MT tires. A simple thing like a staked tire could have you waiting a long time for a replacement in the middle of no where. You are wrong thinking that they have any more time to waste than anyone in the North. In fact, I'd say they are busier and rely on their vehicles to work for them more then we do. For many in Canada and the US, it is mostly play. For them it is making a living. That is the same reason why they buy Land Cruisers and Patrols. They need simple vehicles which will keep on going km after km in all types of conditions.
 
"Partially correct. Most long range expeditions in Africa, Asia and Australia are on dirt tracks most of the time."

Drive around the world - you will be on pavement and hard packed most of the time.
Drive from Alaska to the southern tip of South America - you will be on hard packed/pavement most of the time.

I drove nearly 30,000 miles around Australia, on a stock street tires on an old Holden. We drove thousands of miles on Australian dirt tracks and gravel on stock sized recaps - we pilfered from the dumpster in Townsville and changed failed tires on the road side with another baldy and got another 500 miles out them.
Most dirt tracks down under are easy to drive on with stock tires in all months except the rainy season - when nothing moves. I was down there nearly a year and from there travelled overland through Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and through Europe. I have seen their modes of transport, the roads they drive on, the condition of their vehicles and the incredible frequency of their brake-downs. Time to many over there is not importantt as it is is to us. Travel about a little over there and you you will see that your preconceptions are not accurate.

PS. for sand you want a big tire - with little void for flotation - aggreesive tires do not work in sand - common knowledge.

Lots of inexperinced hot air around lately ...
 
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Glenn, unfortunately I have been around and have seen outside of the Canada and the USA for over 24 years. That is the nature of my work. You will note I did say dirt. You know what happens to those hard packed dirt roads when it rains? And they usually aren't little west coast 'storms'.

Incredible frequency of break downs you saw with Land Cruisers or Patrols were probably more due to lack of maintenance. Not sure where you were going with that comment anyways. The partners we work with overseas, realize that even with a great vehicle, lousy maintenance will kill the reliability of it.
 
I am recounting first hand experience - not second-hand half-correct BS I see on the Expedition Portal from web wheelers and want-to-be expedition types, which I see here from time to time. I have been wheeling with the Coastal Cruisers since 2006 - never seen you or you rig wheeling.:confused:
Oh I forget its a 'vehicle club', not a wheeling club - that's not right either because there is no Cruiser in the stable.:flipoff2:
So its a wheeling BS club - now I got it. :cheers:
 
Ha Ha, damn I missed this one as I usually get bored of tire opinion threads, but I just love my wang is bigger than your wang threads! :hillbilly:

Anyway here is my opinion on tire type and size based on what I see street racers doing to what the hard core tough truck challenge guys do (not based on my real world experience at all :hillbilly:).

If you want your truck to preform well on the street/highway and not to follow dips in the roads get a skinny, small, non-aggressive tire. Then based on what you want to do with a truck go wider, taller, and more agressive if you want to wheel more. Period. You can argue all you want, but the basics of getting traction and clearence when your off the road, you need height and more surface area on the ground. Also note that once you start getting taller wider and more aggressive tires, the comforts of road driving start to decrease, and you will start to compromise with noise, vibration, fuel milage, tire wear, cost.....

That is my tire opinion, which is basically a scale, so pretty much pick a tire and the size based on what you will be doing with the truck (or if your just about the look, that's OK too :p)and not what others think you need to be doing with your truck and you will be happy :hillbilly:

Also note that I think that scale can be somewhat altered based on the vehicle and modifications, as there are things that can compensate for smaller less agressive tires in offroad situations, like driver skill, flex, lockers, gears, horsepower, less weight, width, wheelbase.........
 
canucksafari said:
Agreed. ;) One day I may just go wheeling someday... if only I could have all the right gear to do it properly. :grinpimp:
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That is a pathetic excuse - your stock truck, in fact all stock 4X4s have incredible capabilities...

Greg and I saw nothing but stock 4X4s in the Land of the Standing Rocks - in fact a low slung Tacoma 4x4 pickup loaded to the gills drove into the Dollhouse campsite without a scratch - that I found incredible, given the ledges and drop-offs they had get to through - patience and rock stacking did the trick for them.
 
Cheez Glenn, I kinda thought John was being sarcastic, ease up.
I probably won't have the opportunity to go wheeling/ camping at all this year, between working 5-6 days a week and raising two kids, suffering a separation and having barely 2 cents to rub together. Land Cruiser has a blown engine and I don't have a shop/ garage/ or even a pad of concrete to replace it, though Sheldon was kind enough to donate an engine and Greg transported for me. 15 years ago I wheeled and/ or camped every weekend, went to Rubithon pretty much yearly as well as Walker/ Naches/ Blue mountain/ Clear Creek. Since then I've lost my business/ house/ dog, wife left. I do have two fabulous kids that get most of my attention now. My time will come around again and I'll (hopefully) once again have time and money, after all I'm only 50, still got a few good years left in me.

I still prefer big wide tires, but I doubt I'll ever run a 38-40" again, I have found that 35-36" still yields good ground clearance, but you still need to pay attention. When I was running 38" SSR on my FJ40, I didn't need to be to technical, pretty much drive over anything, which was OK too, but I prefer actually having to pick a line.
 
Bummer Phil, I'll have a beer for you tonight ;) Hope Karma eventually brings you some good things.

Granite Grinder said:
I have found that 35-36" still yields good ground clearance, but you still need to pay attention.
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I found the same thing, 35-36 seem to go where ever the big boys go, just sometimes you need a tug or a winch and you still have somekind of street drivablility. I still plan on one day running an extended BJ42 into semi short pickup on 38's though for the tough trails ;)
 
I got a bottle of very good singani that I'd gladly share with Glen when I can drink again. Sure beats the hell out of mustard. :D But this 'll have to do for now...

hippie1.jpg
 
Granite Grinder said:
Cheez Glenn, I kinda thought John was being sarcastic, ease up.
I probably won't have the opportunity to go wheeling/ camping at all this year, between working 5-6 days a week and raising two kids, suffering a separation and having barely 2 cents to rub together. Land Cruiser has a blown engine and I don't have a shop/ garage/ or even a pad of concrete to replace it, though Sheldon was kind enough to donate an engine and Greg transported for me. 15 years ago I wheeled and/ or camped every weekend, went to Rubithon pretty much yearly as well as Walker/ Naches/ Blue mountain/ Clear Creek. Since then I've lost my business/ house/ dog, wife left. I do have two fabulous kids that get most of my attention now. My time will come around again and I'll (hopefully) once again have time and money, after all I'm only 50, still got a few good years left in me.

I still prefer big wide tires, but I doubt I'll ever run a 38-40" again, I have found that 35-36" still yields good ground clearance, but you still need to pay attention. When I was running 38" SSR on my FJ40, I didn't need to be to technical, pretty much drive over anything, which was OK too, but I prefer actually having to pick a line.
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Well that happened to me a number of years ago (very hard time) and Greg more recently- so I talked Greg into 2 weeks of Utah therapy and I believe he is completely recovered :grinpimp:
 
Glenn-BJ74 said:
Well that happened to me a number of years ago (very hard time) and Greg more recently- so I talked Greg into 2 weeks of Utah therapy and I believe he is completely recovered :grinpimp:
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Greg and Rob provided me the same therapy, a trip to River Shiver. Greg and I had lots to talk about, the healing takes awhile.:cheers:
 
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