Tire question

[tbh726]

on my mutt the tires were brand new 16 years ago, you can still see the fingers. i do not see any cracking or dry rotten. there were in a garage the whole time. in fact they never went flat in all that time. they had about 20 pounds of pressure in them when i got my mutt and rolled it out of the garage. so a few questions are they bad? if not what pressure should i have them at? it says max 40 i believe, i put them to 30.

thoughts?

tim

[rickf]

Well, The experts will tell you that anything over 7 years old is too old but I can tell you that with bias ply tires that does not really pertain. I just recently had a tire blow out on my tractor, it was 45 years old and had been very abused. Same size tire as a matter of fact. So I would not worry about the age, at least not as long as you are not planning on going on cross country drives. As far as pressure.............. Someone has not read their -10 manual have they? You REALLY do need to read that manual before driving this thing around. But the tires are 20 front and 25 rear. If you do not plan on carrying any passengers in the back then run 20 in the back also. You have the NDT tire on there which is the old style tire used on the M-38 and older, the M-151 uses the NDCC tire with the rounded over treads on the edges. Either will work. And neither will work worth a damn in the rain on the road!! Be well aware of that fact, if the road is wet you will have very little traction. Military tires were made for off road use.

[lpcoating]

When I bought my A2 it had older NDCC tires on it. They had decent tread on them, were not checked or cracked. Not sure how old but they were obviously on the truck for a decent amount of years. I replaced them with new NDT's and was amazed at how much better the truck handled as the old tires were hard as a rock. There was even less tire noise. I would have no problem running the tires you've pictured, just use some common sense when driving a short wheel based truck and you'll be fine.

Guy

[Mark]

Ya, I have some NDCC tires made in the early 1970's.The tire guy said no high speed driving.25mph/below in town.I had a flat once drove it a long ways to get home, tire bead stayed on rim, like it was made to do it that way.It said military tire.
I guess the best way to maintain the tire texture is spray silicone on it, or some tire rejuvenator on?

[Hambone]

They look way better than most of my tires, but if you're uncomfortable with them, I will take them. Hambone

[tbh726]

Yes i really do need to read the manual and not just scan parts. thanks for the info, yes i feel good about using them, but did not know that they are not that great on wet roads... does that mean most do not drive in the snow on the roads with them? i assume the would be great off road in the snow. Also what size would i look for if i want to put other tires like civilian radials on? is there anything i should look for? i have extra wheel rims and figure i could go back and forth if i want too.. would civilian tires make it less likely to roll or at least a little more safe? i do have the rops system in it. not sure if it is better or worst from what i have read in the forums..

tim

[lpcoating]

I've driven my A2 in some pretty heavy rain and have never had an issue. However, slowing down and common sense with a short wheelbase truck help the situation. Mine has the ROPS and that's one of the reasons I bought the truck. Others on this site have put civilian tires on their trucks and have reported good results. Hopefully they will chime in.

Guy

[raymond]

Also what size would i look for if i want to put other tires like civilian radials on?

tim

The correct metric tire cross reference is LT 215 85 R16. Or you can go one size wider which would be LT 225 75 R16. Don't go wider than a 75 aspect tire. I have been running LT 225 75 R16 size tires since I bought my A1 in 1997. Even with the radials, I run the A2 inflation recommendation of 20 psi front and 25 psi rear with no ill effects on tire wear. We used to sell tires and the standard advice on inflation was to follow the vehicle manufacturers recommendations.

[csmith]

Tim, I recently replaced my NDCC tires that were likely 30+ years old and about out of tread with civi tires 215.85.16 without tubes and love the results. Ride better, quieter, jeep feel on the road so much better. It has been about a month and I check tire pressure weekly and there is no loss of air from the wheel rivets. Your tires should be fine if you just drive with good sense as others have mentioned, and if you have an extra set of wheels and want to mount them with civi tires, go for it. You can see my post at the link below:

http://www.g838.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13121

[tbh726]

This good info. I think i will do like others have mentioned and use the mil tires for parades and civi tires for just general driving around. So last question on tires... most seem to use LT 225 75 R16 however Raymond you mentioned using wider ones LT 225 75 R16. I am not really a tire person so it would seem that wider would mean it would offer a little more stable and more road coverage. But my guess is it takes more power or effort to steer. What would be the pro and cons on wider vs narrow?

tim

[raymond]

Not a lot of difference on any of the above. The 225 75 R16 tires were a good deal. So they were used instead of the 215 85 R16 tires.

[rickf]

The 225's will be just a hair wider but they will be taller also and that is where you could run into problems. If I were buying new tires at today's prices I would buy the 215's since that is the direct crossover size for the original tire. Unless the dealer you buy from is willing to take the 225's back if you have a clearance issue, not likely since they will now have mileage on them not to mention marks from the clearance problems. Different brands will have just slightly different dimensions so the ones Raymond got may be just a hair shorter than the ones you will get. I went to 225's on my dually from the stock 215's and they were a good bit taller. I had a 4 MPH speedometer difference after the change. You can see in the link that with the BF Goodrich TA the 225 is 2" taller than the 215.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp ... mpare1=yes

[raymond]

Rick

There is no 215 85 R16 on the spec sheet you linked. Just a 215 75 R16

The 225 75 R16 tire should have pretty close to the same radius as the 215 85 R16 tire.

The first number is a measurement from bead to bead.
The second number is the aspect ratio of the tread.
The third number is the radius of the rim.

Since the tread in a 75 aspect tire is wider than the tread in an 85 aspect tire, the rolling radius should be essentially the same. Perhaps even slightly smaller.

[rickf]

You are right Raymond, My bad. I was not paying attention the aspect ration numbers. I have the 85's not the 75's. When I compare the 225/75-16 to the 215/85-16 the 225 is actually 1" shorter and exactly the same width.

The direct crossover is the 215/85-16. Tire rack does not list that size in a BF Goodrich TA. That is odd since that is THE most popular tire out there and to not have it available in a size that was used on all dually pickups for 30 years is strange. But anyway, the truck tires are all 8 ply and they is serious over kill for these vehicles and will just give a rough ride. so the 225/75-16 is probably the better choice. The only downside is the loss of an inch of diameter of tire which in turn will cut your top speed. But for parades the shorter tire will give a lower gear and a slower first gear without having to ride the clutch as much.

[csmith]

These fit my A2 perfectly!