Valdez has new tires!
Sort of. I've only got one for now, I wanted to make sure I could fit these
on without having to do any major body modifications.
The one I picked up is my spare, the worst tire of the lot, which is quite
worn but still has over 1/2" tread depth. These are used take offs from
canadian military trucks, which were scrapped when replaced with new ones
due to one tire having some severe damage. DND's policy is to always replace
in pairs, therefore some decent tires end up being removed from service and
sold. I got them from a heavy truck place which has the service contract for
these trucks.
These guys have piles of tires, anything from 53" Michelin 1400R20s to the
"cute" 600R16 XZLs for the ILTIS trucks. They remove the bigger michelins
with a specially designed crane, as the rim and tire must weigh about 500
lbs. Whew.
I spent an hour looking the tire over, they are definitely a step above
other high end off-road tires like BFG, Interco, etc. They sidewalls are
very stiff however as the tires have a 3800 lbs load rating at 80 psi a
piece. That's kind of overkill for a 4500 lbs rover, but with 25 psi in them
they have a bit of a radial sidewall bulge and I think they won't ride too
bad. Bigger off-road tires always seem to be impossible to balance, but this
one balanced out perfectly on a rangie 16X7 aluminum wheel (didn't want to
balance on a L-R steel wheel, as all of my wheels are bent!). Impressive for
a tire that has 1 steel sidewall ply and 4 steel circumferential (tread)
plies.
Anyways, it will be nice to get rid of the 35" super wide tires as they are
pathetic in the ice and rain we have been getting. I'm told the michelins
are not great in the wet but at least they are narrow, which should help me
in the nasty weather. They also look a lot better in my opinion, much more
land-rover like !
J-L
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