Rounded contact patch tires, Truxus, Cooper or Mickey Thom..

[Lisaspinz]

Since we drive swing axle trucks has anyone gone out to deliberatly select the tire with the most rounded contact patch profile?

What did you find/observe.

The Mickey Thompson MTZ's look pretty rounded to me.

Mike and Lisa

[Anthony]

The Michelin XL unfortunately is no longer made but would have suited your requirements. I think that they would have been an ideal tyre for the Pinzgauer. They can still be found if one looks very hard. The other tyre that comes to mind are the ones that the Prof has been using, Simex. They are very aggressive though and with very stiff side walls, they may not suit every one especially the rock crawlers.

[Erik712m]

I have been tring to find a Simex dealer. Neveda was about as close as i could find they had a great write up in a off road mag i have. I would like to try them as my next tire.

[Lisaspinz]

Yes, I have given up on the XL's. It is a shame they were discontinued as they did seem to be made for swing axle vehicles.

But more to the point of the post...what do you think of commonly available tires from Truxus, Mickey Thompson or Cooper?

Simex...do you mean the ST Combat series http://www.tirexusa.com/simex/trbias.html#ST%20COMBAT ? They look pretty similar to the Maloyas and are bias ply construction. I do not see the advantage over the tires mentioned above.

Mike and Lisa

[Erik712m]

http://www.simex4x4.com/html/s02_articl ... =55&dsb=55 I was thinking Extreme trekker. The had a write up in Petersons not to long ago.

[Erik712m]

http://www.washbrook.net/simex_tires_in_action.htm

[NM_Mogman]

Well, I finally got rid of the Maloyas and upgraded to an 265/75R16 Mickey Thompson Radial MTZ with bead balancers (8 oz. per tire). WOW! What a difference. On the way home my wife and I were able to talk to eachother at a reasonable volume and MANY of the vibration noises were gone. The truck rides very smoothly and even seems to have a little more reserve umph for passing and accelerating. We took a day trip to Chaco Canyon which is about 250 miles round trip mostly up hill. We got up to 7,000 feet elevation and on the trip (doing over 100KPH) I averaged 14.675 MPG! I can't say if they will be perfect to the end but for now it seems to be a match made in Heaven! I will send pics if anyone is interested since i don't have anywhere online to link them to and don't know how to attach a pic here. They look great and I love them.

Phil

[Lisaspinz]

I will send pics if anyone is interested since i don't have anywhere online to link them to and don't know how to attach a pic here. They look great and I love them.

Phil

I would love to see your pictures, please show one pic of the profile of the tread surface.

Mike

mbarna at chartermi dot net

[mjnims]

here is what the Mickey Thompson MTZ's look like

and what they look like on the truck these are 265/75 16's on original rims

[NM_Mogman]

How did you post the pics?

[mjnims]

find a host site (I use photobucket, its free) Upload your pics and then copy the img code into your post here. very simple and easy. Just takes a little time to upload pics to hosting site.

[Anthony]

It is a shame about the XL. I used to use them on my Landrover 101 FC. When they became unavailable I switched to XZL which turned out to be an All Purpose design with a flat tread aspect. They were not as good as the XL for what I wanted them for and once the tread became a little worn they were hopeless for me. The XZL is still a VG tyre being immensely strong but give me an XL any time. No matter what they state on paper the XZL 9.00x16 tyre is much bigger than the 9.00x16 XL when placed side to side. I still have 1 brand new unused XL which was a spare, I wish I had another 6 or at least 5 for my TGB 13.

I agree with you that a rounded profile might suit the swing axe better than a flat profile. I think it also suits the older beam axle than the more common flat tread.

The Simex I suggested as having a rounded profile is the one that Erik Maybee illustrated the Simex Extreme Trekker. These tyres are immensely popular in Europe for extreme offloading in mud dirt ect. I am not sure about their capabilities on pure rock for rock climbing as they have very strong side walls which do not deform so much I am told. I have never experienced them myself. Prof Pinz from Down Under has used them for years, I suggest that you ask him about the suitability of the Simex Extreme Trekker for the Pinzgauer.

I like the looks of Mickey Thompson Baja Radial Claw, I especially like the tractor V type treads but I can not tell if the tyre has a rounded tread profile. The M T Baja R Claw tyres are very wide and it may be that the actual tread is flat but I do not know.

A similar tread design to the MT Baja R Clawis the Maxi Muddzilla. This tyre is unfortunately cross ply or as you call it in the US Bias Belted. I should also for that matter call tyre (tire) but I can not bring myself to any way this tyre has a more aggressive tread than the MT baja R Claw. It has the tractor V tread which goes down the side of the tyre just like the M T Baja R but more so. The spaces between each tread on the Muddzilla is larger than the M T so this will help in heavy soils and mud etc.

The two tyres that I might consider for my self self is the Simex Extreame Trekker or the Maxi Muddzilla. It is just the bias construction of of the Muddzilla that is holding me back but they have excellent reports from Northern Europe in the wet forests and also increasingly fr GB as well. The Simex is a Radial by the way. Their are a lot of copycat versions of the simix which are cheaper and should be OK.

Yes, I have given up on the XL's. It is a shame they were discontinued as they did seem to be made for swing axle vehicles.

But more to the point of the post...what do you think of commonly available tires from Truxus, Mickey Thompson or Cooper?

Simex...do you mean the ST Combat series http://www.tirexusa.com/simex/trbias.html#ST%20COMBAT ? They look pretty similar to the Maloyas and are bias ply construction. I do not see the advantage over the tires mentioned above.

Mike and Lisa

[Erik712m]

Maxi Muddzilla.

I would think you would only get about six thousand miles out of the maxi have you ever seen them out fitted on any thing. they look like they would be good off road but horable on pavied roads.

[Anthony]

Why should they be horrible on road or ware ot quikly? The tread design is very similar to Mickey Thompson radial Claw or Claw for that matter and slightly similar to Yokohama Geolander Mud Terrains.

I have a remold copy of the Geolader MT @ 285/75-16 on my 80 series landcruiser, they behave well on the road and appear to last OK, they are excellent off-road.

Maxi Muddzilla.

I would think you would only get about six thousand miles out of the maxi have you ever seen them out fitted on any thing. they look like they would be good off road but horable on pavied roads.

[mjnims]

Not much difference in tires but the Mickey Baja MTZ have more contact with the road and should last longer than either of these. Ironically I had considered the Baja claws for my durango but settled on the 33" bfg mt's as the noise level on the claws is off the charts

pic of the mudzilla

pic of the baja claw