Mayola Question

[krick3tt]

I am curious now that all this chatter is out there.
The Swiss vehicle is such a wonderful machine, why do they put the less than adequate Maloyas on the beast?

Cheers,
Morris

[Protoman333]

maloyas might be fine, but only if thats all you have.

mine tried to kill me twice. seriously dangerous. once rounding a corner on the highway at 55 (about a 150 degree spin - weeeee! - no flip, no wreck!!!) and once making a left turn at an intersection (again a spin, but into traffic). both times were on wet, slick street but still...d@mmit!

a bit of irony was the highway "spin" was on the way to buy new tYres!

i ran 255/85 's Interco Swamper TrXus for a while. radial. fine fit. great ride, considering they are a mild mud tYre. bigger than stock. not bad wear considering most miles were street. a bit soft for some of the rock i drive over, side wall and tread lug cuts happen with these on sharp obsticles. replaced 2 from unacceptable damage (over a 6 year period).

im now running 34 x 10.5's, interco swamper LTB's. bias (cross) ply, but i think they look bad @ss on there. bigger still. only had them a week or so. stiffer side wall. stiffer ride. a bit squirrelly under breaking. follows the cracks in the road. but i expected all of this. ive noticed they do have much better traction off road.

dont know if you can get those over there or if any of this helps.

[Twin Pinzies]

Besides a paint job, swapping the windshield to safety glass, and upgrading to an electronic ignition, swapping out the crappy maloyas is the first thing you should do to a stock Pinzy! Oh yeah, Did I mention that ALL Pinzgauers NEED a paint job.... badly.

[Profpinz]

I'm always intrigued when the question of Maloyas comes up, because before the days when Swiss Pinny's became readily available they were never mentioned.
It appears the Maloyas were unique to the Swiss Military Pinzgauers as most vehicles sold direct from SDP for local and overseas use were fitted with with SEMPERIT 245-16 All Service or MICHELIN 7.50-16 Sand Tyres. I understand some later air-cooled vehicles were fitted with BFG MT's or other "special" tyres.

Virtually all the Pinzgauers sold in Australia since they were first imported in 74 were fitted with the Semperits and when sales stopped here I grabbed a brand new set which I initially fitted to my 712.
The Semperits were not a bad tyre, especially for outback use, because the 6 ply construction resists staking by the mulgra roots, but for local track use, I didn't find they bagged when aired down (too siff a sidewall for my applications).

I don't know how similiar they are in performance to the Maloyas, but the importer did tell me many years ago that that he did have a number of local enquires about purchasing the Semperits for non Pinzgauer use as they were similar in pattern and performance to the Firestone SAT (which was a pioneer of the aggressive off road tyre in Aus) but considerable larger.




All that said, I daresay any 30 year old tyre is probably not the ideal thing to be sitting on in some instances.

On that front, I recently went for a run in a mates restored E Type Jag with period tyres (he's a fanatic for "period originality") and when we were "meant" to stop at a T interesection .... We didn't! (fortunately nothing was coming)
He's not quite such a "period originailty" fanatic now, as it has newer, hopefully better, tyres fitted!

[ScottishPinz]

Well the research has paid off... I conclude:
Cross or bias ply tyres as the Mayolas are are good for hard off road conditions particularly when the side wall may hit rocks or stumps etc. They are no way as good on the road as a radial.

Radials are best for all round use if you drive on the road at all.

Size depends on the tyre as much as the quoted size, for example the circumfrance of my worn Mayolas is 2550mm, Greenway tyres here in the UK supplied me with measurements for thier popular off-road tyres as follows:
235/85R16 Atacama = 2566mm
7.50R16 Atacama = 2566mm
7.50R16 Chaco = 2493mm
7.50R16 Colway MT = 2512mm
235/85R6 Colway MT = 2556mm
On the basis of this I will either save up for 255/85/16 BF Goodrich or go with a remould in size 235/85/16 but choose carefully to get a large circumfrance.

I also think that in the 1970's the Mayola was probably a good tyre for off-road conditions likely to be encountered in Switzerland, why they didn't update the tyres may have been more a mater of logistics especially as newer tyres would probably be radial and you don't want to be mixing the two. If a vehicle in the field needs a spare its easier if you just send another Mayola than 5 new tyres!!

[PittsPinz]

I originally wanted to buy 255-85-16s but everywhere I checked in Dallas said were going to have to order them.
Didn't like that they were not in stock if I needed 1 or 2 for replacement.
Settled on Dunlop Radial Mud Rovers 285-75-16s.
Discount Tire sold me a set of 5 for the same price as their 285-75-16 house brand of Mud tire & they had them in stock.
1st thing I noticed was ease of turning @ slow speed.
It was like I had power steering versus the Maloyas.
BEST (& safety wise best) money I've spent on the Pinz!

[ScottishPinz]

Well I've bought tyres... 235/85R16 Greenway Machos, they are a cheap retread tyre made here in the UK. They get excellent reviews on the off-road forums here and are even fairly good on road. Not got them on the truck yet as its in for body repairs.

Picture of the new tyre next to the old Mayola http://flickr.com/photos/85306730@N00/1516092894/

[jacksonpinz]

due to our altitude and loss of power due to it, i went with the 235's. the pic of the nightime "killer pinz" some of you have from this spring has them on it.

[JNijst]

Gents,

I was told by one of the guys at the terrain-riding-event that different tires have very different brake-distances. Meaning the distance it takes to stop te car. The 'rougher' and better suited for mud and terrain, the longer the brake-distance. The smoother, the better suited for highway use...
This is an issue, I have not seen addressed when talking about different types of tires. Anybody can enlighten me on that ?

Thanks and regards

Jules

[PinzEOD]

Setting aside the various tire compounds, tread design is an import factor in determining stop distances. Simply put, the more rubber you have on the road, the better the braking characteristics. All things being equal, a non-aggressive street tire will generally have more contact than an off-road tire and therefore have better braking manners. Stuff like siping and lugs and such all affect wet performance as well. Tire design and construction discussions can be VERY lengthy.

[ScottishPinz]

Tyres are like the vehicle itself, a compromise that will allow reasonable on road performance as well as off road ability. Yes I would agree that the best off road tyres are some of the worst in terms of grip on road. However if a tyre is road legal it has to meet a minimum set of requirements in terms of grip and tread.

The tyre I chose is like the pinz, good off road but still able to travel on paved roads. I Don't expect sports car like grip on the road, just as I don't expect the pinz to handle like a sports car!!!

I'll comment on how they perform once I get them fitted.

[ScottishPinz]

New tyre on today, seem fine, a bit more vibration at 50mph, but less above that speed and softer over street bumps. Not been off road or tried a wet greasy roundabout yet....
pictures http://flickr.com/photos/85306730@N00/1729262663/

[ScottishPinz]

Been for a wee road run to see how they handle the tarmac. felt really mushy on corners so I've upped the pressure after reading a few of the posts on the subject. Seems radials having softer sidewalls need much higher pressures on the road. I now have them at 44psi (3 Bar) at the front and 40psi on the back and they seem a lot better. Much more grip on the road than the mayolas, lets hope they are as good off.

Any input on what pressure others are running similar?

[EuroPinz]

On a 712 Pinzgauer I run 3 bar pressure on the front tires and 2.5 bar on the tires of both rear axles. As soon as I go offroad I lower the pressure to 2 bar on all tires.

Regards,

Jacques