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rusty_tlc

rusty_tlc

Dain Bramaged Member
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Jun 23, 2005
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Yet Another Tire Thread.
I finally decided to look at other tire options for the FJ40 due to my inability to find a reasonable solution that would; fit the 15", was available in a reasonable time frame, and I could afford.

This is one option I found.

8 Bolt Hummer Wheel & Tire Special

Anybody have any thoughts on these? <cough>Jack<cough>
 
That definitely looks interesting. I'm piqued, but have fairly fresh rubber currently.

Email them and ask if they have done anything local, maybe we can get a peak???
 
Yep, the hummer/tire combo...

Well here are a few problems:

8 lug rims were meant for bias ply tires only, AM General spec'd the radials with 12 bolt rims (big deal? I don't know, just saying and that is why you see so many 8 bolt rims being sold, the government is done with them).

16.5" rims, pretty much useless now, other than hummer tires and some swampers, most everone else has forsaken that size rim (with good reason). So then you are stuck with either the hummer take off's or swampers (permanent backorder) or some other tire that may be on the endangered list.

Hummer take off tires, don't really have that tough of a sidewall, don't really grip that well and don't measure 37" tall (more like 35.5-36" if you are lucky).

On the plus you do (can) get a double beadlock rim.

But hey at least they are cheap, round(ish) and black...:hillbilly:

I know they seem hard to beat just based on size vs. price, but do yourself a favor, call/stop by summit, order 17" steel US Wheels in whatever backspace you need for less than $100 apiece and then you have the ability to run just about any tire that catches your fancy. 17" is the new 15". They just are. Believe me I know, tires are crazy expensive right now. I'm not looking forward to tire buying time.:crybaby:

Jack
 
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Lol... I hit jack up on this topic about a year ago and he told me the same schpeal.
Seeing the issues your having, I may end up getting some 17 in rims too.
 
To be fair, there does seem to be an infinite supply of hummer tires and he does offer the re-treaded version now, which have the old style MTR style tread. The re-tread's are supposed to be of a softer compound which should have much better grip.

I still think buying a 16.5 rim is like buying a VCR, obsolete.:lol:

Jack
 
locrwln1 said:
To be fair, there does seem to be an infinite supply of hummer tires and he does offer the re-treaded version now, which have the old style MTR style tread. The re-tread's are supposed to be of a softer compound which should have much better grip.

I still think buying a 16.5 rim is like buying a VCR, obsolete.:lol:

Jack
Click to expand...
Actually the regular take off's look like they do well if you groove the tread blocks so the tire can flex. Same as with the TSL's I have on the 40 right now.

Replacement cost was another attractive thing, the JFP's sell for $85, you could carry two tires with no wheels and gash side walls all day. (Well at least three times.:grinpimp:) With the wheels set up the way they are field replacement would be pretty easy. I was also liking the double bead lock feature.


I have no problem running a 35"X1250 R15 tire except that they appear to be made of unobtainium.

The cost of 5 17" wheel's and 5 35" or 37" tires of pretty much any description is just insane.

I'm so depressed I just want to park the effing thing and forget I own it. :frown:
 
rusty_tlc said:
Actually the regular take off's look like they do well if you groove the tread blocks so the tire can flex. Same as with the TSL's I have on the 40 right now.

Replacement cost was another attractive thing, the JFP's sell for $85, you could carry two tires with no wheels and gash side walls all day. (Well at least three times.:grinpimp:) With the wheels set up the way they are field replacement would be pretty easy. I was also liking the double bead lock feature.


I have no problem running a 35"X1250 R15 tire except that they appear to be made of unobtainium.

The cost of 5 17" wheel's and 5 35" or 37" tires of pretty much any description is just insane.

I'm so depressed I just want to park the effing thing and forget I own it. :frown:
Click to expand...

I hear you. And there are plenty of vendors carrying the replacements.

Changing them in the field is not much fun, of course when I did it, we had the run flat to worry about and oh yeah, no air tools.

Maybe you can't beat them for the price...

Jack
 
I think step one is to get my caster corrected. If I can get the old TSL's to run without death wobble any tire on the planet will work.

I think what has happened is the springs have flattened out so much that what was already a marginal caster angle is now way out of whack.


:idea: If I can get the TSL's to be driveable I can re-groove them and get another season out of them!:hillbilly:
 
rusty_tlc said:
I think step one is to get my caster corrected. If I can get the old TSL's to run without death wobble any tire on the planet will work.

I think what has happened is the springs have flattened out so much that what was already a marginal caster angle is now way out of whack.


:idea: If I can get the TSL's to be driveable I can re-groove them and get another season out of them!:hillbilly:
Click to expand...

How much caster did you set it at when you first built it? What is it at now? Toyota straight axles (in my experience) are very sensitive to caster. Most mini and I think early LC's all were spec'd from the factory at 1-2 degrees of positive caster. 80 series are spec'd at 2-4.

When I first did my SAS on my 4runner, the All-Pro kit rotated the caster up to 7 degrees positive. It sucked big time and eventually ended up with DW. I backed it down to 4 degrees and it was better all the way around, big improvement on driveability. My 80 had 4 degrees after the lift and caster plates. It was too much, I backed it down to 2 degrees and it (again) drove much better (including getting rid of a slight DW effect on deceleration).

Another thing that help tremendously on my 4runner was going back through the front suspension and tightening everything back up. Snug up the spring bushings especially.

If it didn't have DW before, then it's probably not totally the tires fault. I would start with checking the tightness on the front, correcting the caster and see where that gets you.

Jack
 
I think high speeds and high temperatures are the killer for those tires. The date code is obviously very important as well.

Radials are horrible about falling apart when they get old. There are about a million different theories, but the best one I've heard came from a Michelin site. They claim that impurities in the steel from most tire manufacturers set up microscopic corrosion and the rubber de-bonds from the steel belts. The cap loosens, then comes off, usually at high heat and high force, which equals high speed, high temps and high loads.

Since your average speed in the 40 is maxed out at 60-65, I'd not worry too much about the high speed part. If you don't run high speed at high load I doubt you will have to worry much, but you do get what you pay for.

That's why I'm known as the maypop tire man.

Summit has 2 deg shims for cheap, they even carry the steel ones, vs the aluminum junkers.
 
I did some measurements last night, if I'm doing it right I have about 0° of caster, originally I had about 4°, no DW but it did wander a bit. My springs are trash, but I have another set I got from Sarmark that I can put on. These are stock springs instead of the "Frakensprings" I started with, I don't know what it is about add a leaf's but they just seem to find me. After I put them on I'll check the caster again and add shims if needed. Once I get everything working I should really do a C&T for the long term.

The thread on Pirate was kind of ambiguous, blow outs can happen with any tire. I'm not saying the take offs are okay but that thread could have been about pretty much any tire on the road. Based on the sellers thread on Pirate there are a lot of those guys with these tires, not many responded to the blowout thread.
 
Living in Vegas we used to drive past HMMV's all the time on 95 North toward the base at the Springs. Almost every day, there was one on the side of the road with a blown tire, but you have to know that all of those were training vehicles, which equates to the crap that was too worn out for combat anymore. Ditto for the tires. My SP buddy said they drove them till they blew, you could ask all you wanted for good rubber, but the answer was always "No" the motorpool seemed to feel that slave labor was cheaper than tires and HMMV's aren't really prone to high speed rollovers with blown tires, especially with N/A 6.2 diesels in them.
 
WILLD420 said:
Here you go. Buy some and let me know how they work. For that price, I'd buy some and bring a load of them home in November when we go back to Kansas.

BFG Baja T/A 37x12.50-16.5
Click to expand...

Wow!!! Sounds like a great deal!!!!
I think summit has a steel rim that is 16.5
 
WILLD420 said:
InnerAirLock, LLC - Inner Air Lock ~ Home

1/3 less price than the other guys brand.

The Hummer wheels would be cheaper, but inner locks will let you run an aluminum wheel to save some weight.
Click to expand...
I was looking at those but after a few trips running almost no air in my TSL's I decided they weren't worth the investment.

I think the only real down side to the extra weight of the H1 wheels would be highway performance, like I get any performance out of my 2F equipped 40 to begin with:lol:. The extra weight might help on the trail.
 
Have any of you checked out www.4x4groupbuy.com? Donno much about it, but I have found some decent prices on tires there.
 
I tried to buy a tire from them a couple weeks ago, but they couldn't get me the one I needed. Great guys, they were very nice and refunded my money right away, which was double cool, since they were going to save me $100 on one tire over what everyone else wanted to charge. Just happens to be my bad luck that 36x12.50-16.5 TSL's are out of stock and on backorder for another 6 months or so, if they ever decide to build them again.
 
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