pwrtripls1

No one knows a better tire than the oil patch hot shots. They spend 90% of there time on the road but the 10% off road is in some nasty clay mud. Almost everyone I've talked to recommends the Nitto Terra Grappler. They say they get good wear and are good in the mud.

BearKiller

I bet your truck drives/handles way better with those BIAS-tires than it ever did with radials.

If half the research and effort had of been put into the development of good old no-non-sense bias tires, as has been wasted trying to "fix" the radial mistakes, our tire selection would be a lot better.

The sad thing is, all of the major manufacturers have dis-continued bias production, and most of what is still available is of poor quality.

When I find good quality bias, I run them on my steer-axle, and my truck drives like it should = no more radial lurching, hunting around, swinging and swaying; it goes in the direction I point it.

Currently, I have TOYO radials up front, and PowerKing bias on the rear; I honestly believe the bias are going to outwear the radials, and the bias were back there already for several months before the fronts were put on.



I haven't tried it myself, but many claim that six-ounces of plain old B-Bs works really good.

Many is the truck-tire that we have found about a dozen deformed golf-***** inside.

Several of the truckers have us pour a half-gallon of anti-freeze in each tire.

Most of that high-priced stuff that comes in tire-size-specific bags is nothing more than clean "playground" sand, sold in little plastic bags for about twelve-bucks a bag.


Due to all the recommendations I hear, I am going to try Centramatics.





^^^^^^^^^Mostly that reason.



-----------------------------------------


Our place having been in business nearly sixty years, long before I was born, and me growing up around it all of my life, another observation I have is that there are certain people that, no matter what brand, nor how good they balance, these same people will come back complaining a dozen times, making us balance and re-balance, for weeks after every set of tires they buy.

It is always the same people; and, were it up to me, I would put them out the door and down the road, because they are always a loss to deal with.

But yet, sad to say, they always return for more.

M1Lover

My truck came with near-new Michelin LTX's. I put a new set of these in 31-10.50-15 on my 84 Toy FJ60 and ran 'em for over 50k and they still had a ton of tread on 'em. Best tires I ever had. When our Honda Element needed new tires, I bought Yokohama Geolandars. Michelins were priced nearly half again as much as the Yoko and weren't rated as nearly as high......

93Fury

Mastercraft Coarser M/T's, used to run them on the plow truck. Very good wear pattern and lasted forever. Low to NO noise on the road. Pretty aggressive, plow truck ('96 K3500 reg. cab, 7.4L) never once got stuck. Highly recommend these tires.

Tron

ive heard good things about the Toyo m55's. Pricy but they last and have good on and off road use. They are also designed to be one a heavy vehicle unlike some out there
http://www.1010tires.com/tire.asp?ti...tiremodel=M-55

BearKiller

These may very well be next on the rear of my truck :


http://www.toyo.com/docs/tires/tires...=lgt-suv-truck


unless I find something I like better before then.

It gets harder and harder to find decent size 7.50-16 traction tires; these are the same diameter as a 235-85-16, without being so fat, thus allowing much more space between the duals.


I picked up a pair of 3/8" wheel-spacers at a recent swap-meet that I am tempted to experiment with.

KRB

They still make Power Kings or are these some old ones?

I bought some of the "last ones" years ago and they're on my '51.
I like 'em

BearKiller

The ones on my truck were fresh when I put them on.

I still occassionally find some, though they are getting more rare all the time.

Of all things, demolition derby cars have sort of caused an upsurge in demand of good rough-tread bias tires with tough construction; therefore, the suppliers are keeping more around.




Power King is definitely not the first ones to use that tread-pattern.

Multi-Mile used it for years, even on the big monster Grand-Prix RVTs.

I am not exactly sure which old-time company should actually get credit for the design, but I want to think FireStone was the first to use it.

At one time or another, just about every major brand has offered it.

BearKiller

A quick search yielded this :

http://www.tbcprivatebrands.com/sigm...&type=2&cat=63


On edit :

I played around with that site and found that they make the Power King under at least four different trade-names, Multi-Mile, Cordovan, Sigma, and Vanderbilt.


That other tread pictured is also as old as the hills, and often you will see it in a "directional" configuration, where the "points" all point in the same direction, instead of one side pointing fore and the other aft; a common mis-understanding when mounting them was that the "points" should go in direction of travel, when the opposite is true.(actually, I think the Super Traction LT is the wrong picture and should be the directional version, because the description states it to be a directional tire)

Paul S.

I looked around a ton. I looked at the Traction Kings and several other bias ply tires. Here is a good site with a vintage wagon focus with a bunch of thoughts and ideas...(http://www.gag.com/~cabell/photos5.htm)

I chose the Superlugs based on what other people have told me first hand. Talking with the "experts" at the tire shops all said "you will regret bias ply, why would you ever waste your money on such dated technology", well at this point they could not be more wrong. Bearkiller is right, the truck handles great. I put another 60 miles on today and I could not be happier.

I spent a lot of time on all the tire websites, looking at wear ratings, user reviews, etc. but our trucks are very different than all others. How many "light" trucks do you know that carry so much weight on the front axle? The longest wearing tire I have had on here was the Yokohama Geolander AT-S. My last truck a Ford diesel I ran Michelin LTX which lasted a while too. The Mickey Thompsons I just took off went just over a year, horrible.

I have heard amazing things about the Toyo M-55s but I simply could not afford them. There are a few guys on this site that run them, they claim they will never buy any other kind of tire. The Buckshots were in the running for a while but again could not beat the value of the STA's. The guys that sold me on the STA's also are running heavy trucks and claim the tire will dry rot before they wear out. I am not expecting that kind of longevit, I am asking that they last more than two years...

BearKiller

There is some real good information in that link.

There are some pictures and descriptions of the PowerKing tires.

Here is a good "been there, done that" picture of an old FireStone in the PowerKing tread design.

That poor guy is sure making his life a lot harder by not having a proper tire-hammer and knowing how to use it; I could have that tire off that wheel in less time than it takes to tell about it.

http://www.gag.com/~cabell/december/tires/ken04_02.jpg


Another oldie/goodie is the Goodyear XTRA-GRIP in some of the pictures.

They used to build tires to HOLD, instead of hydro-planing and skidding around.

In my opinion, tire technology has slid backwards in the last thirty years.


I went to the bottom of the page and clicked on "home" and found enough to keep me busy reading for several nights.

Benjamin b2

just put a set of toyo open country mt's on my 1991. 255 85 16's, toyo just came out with that size in a ten ply load range E this fall, so far very impressed and love the looks, my dad ran a set on his 02 and they have lasted lots of miles never empty and below 12000lbs pulling. very hard tire and great in the snow.

NO_SPRK

i second that! i love those tires, almost the same as dunlop mud rovers. never got stuck with those things, clear faster then you can fill em. they tend to work better on heavier trucks UNLIKE toyotas (on ramp spin out, rainy day)

BearKiller

He brings out a good point there.

Experiences with particular tire brands/treads on little light-weight toodle-around vehicles cannot be applied when considering tires for more realistic vehicles with some weight about them.

A tire that performs very well on one of these trucks may skate all over the place when put on a Datsun.

Yreka

I went in looking to replace 2 of my Toyo Open Countries, and came out with a set (5) of 10 ply BFG A/T KO's for a little over $300 otd..

They were used, but only 5k miles or so, they still have the nipplies on them..

Apparently, a guy with a new truck traded them in after doing a lift and buying bigger wheels/tires.. The guy at the shop said the size is pretty common, they get quite a bit of almost brand new OEM tires in that way. Might be worth checking on if you don't mind used.. I never even thought about it, until he happened to bring it up.