Tires: Bias/steel side wall/radial/steer/traction/all terrain/etc?

[firehawk]

Those Nokian tires are all radials. I checked their site for both winter and summer tires, and all tire sizes are all listed as ***/xx/Rxx which means radial.

Driving fast on ice is just a bad idea.

Your experience with tires blowing out is not definite proof of radials being inferior; its just a data point. I have over 1 million miles on personal vehicles and the only blowout was from an old tire on my truck. My performance tires on my cars never had a problem, just just wore out.

Radials are popular because they are better. There is no conspiracy for the demise of bias ply. As for the flat earth reference, the truth won out. I have heard claims from people that the tire manufacturers are withholding technology and that they can make a tire that will never wear out. What utter BS. Tires have improved more than any other aspect of cars. They are the MAIN reason car performance has improved.

I'd love to see of picture of your bias ply tires, because I bet they are radials.

 

[kc0stp]

Umm guys you do realize your arguin 2 diffrent points right? Some of you are doing dias vs radial and some are doing steel belted radials vs non steel radials. As far as the bias vs radials, radials win hands down on anything but dry offroading, theres a reasson you cant find bias anywhere else.

 

[gatorman21218]

I would run an old 7.50-16 bias solely for the fact that it is not metric.

 

[RLDSL]

Those Nokian tires are all radials. I checked their site for both winter and summer tires, and all tire sizes are all listed as ***/xx/Rxx which means radial.

Driving fast on ice is just a bad idea.

Your experience with tires blowing out is not definite proof of radials being inferior; its just a data point. I have over 1 million miles on personal vehicles and the only blowout was from an old tire on my truck. My performance tires on my cars never had a problem, just just wore out.

Radials are popular because they are better. There is no conspiracy for the demise of bias ply. As for the flat earth reference, the truth won out. I have heard claims from people that the tire manufacturers are withholding technology and that they can make a tire that will never wear out. What utter BS. Tires have improved more than any other aspect of cars. They are the MAIN reason car performance has improved.

I'd love to see of picture of your bias ply tires, because I bet they are radials.

They are a fabric tire, and unless theyve changed teh construction in the last couple years, the ply construction on those things, even though it says radial on it, does not go straight cross wise , when I resesarched it they were using an inverted stacked angular fabric belt pattern that wrapped all the way up the sidewalls ( the angular gives the bias pattern and helps with puncture resistance , and I suppose the full wrap qualifies for the radial tag. I just remember their spiel , but hey, it works, those tires handle incredibly and last and insanely long time, especially considering that those winter tires are not designed for this climate, Ive had 2 sets I've had to pull due to the date finally expiring )

If ya'll have never driven on the things, you have no idea what they can do. If you want to drivve on ice and snow, get a car and tires from people who live in the stuff 6-9 months out of the year It's like driving on a dirt road with that setup Aside from studs and sipes, those tires have sand and glass fibers and other neat stuff embedded into the rubber to make it grab the ice the things stick like glue. I once tried to give my wife *winter driving lessons * with a set of their studless snow tires on freezing rain ice that was so bad, the plow trucks with chains on were going in the ditch, and the things stuck so tight, we simply couldnt throw the car into a forced slide ( and this was on a RWD wagon that didnt have a locker, most of our cars have lockers, and they REALLY track nice )

 

[460mudsports]

Blanket statements about bias tires not being able to handle high speeds are misinformed.

The highest speed tires in the world are BIAS. The top Bonneville Slat Flats cars all run bias tires to handle the high speeds. Many of these tires are decades old before intial use, but they have been stored properly. Anyone care to run 400 MPH on steel radials? Top fuel funny cars also run bias slicks. The tires used on airplanes are also bias.

As stated and confused above, not all radials are steel. Steel radials are not necessarily "better in every way" to all bias tires.

That being said, for normal highway driving - radials may be generally better that bias, but that doesn't mean non steel radials aren't the best of the radials.

 

[RLDSL]

On a side note do you have a suggestion for tire chains? Last set I had were used and older than the hills, but they held up good. I've had a few friends get them locally and they have had problems with them breaking.

Thanks again,

Paul

Security Chain, Whitestar CHains They are made in a diamond pattern that stays tight and from a lightweight alloy that does not break. When I switched to teh big truck version of those things, I never had to repair another broken link, and running where i used to, it was a constant occourance before, I used to carry a whole box of repair links and crimper, not a single break with those things, I got so bold with those things that I stopped pulling them to run dry across a low valley, I would just slow down and throw sparks till I hit the next mountain, still never a break, and instead of one chain in each arm, both in one hand ( for big truck chains ), VERY light I have them for backups for our other vehicles but have never used them with the snow tires theyre just in case something hits before the snows get mounted) If you have a dually, check for clearance if you dont have stock tires with any chain

 

[firehawk]

Blanket statements about bias tires not being able to handle high speeds are misinformed.

The highest speed tires in the world are BIAS. The top Bonneville Slat Flats cars all run bias tires to handle the high speeds. Many of these tires are decades old before intial use, but they have been stored properly. Anyone care to run 400 MPH on steel radials? Top fuel funny cars also run bias slicks. The tires used on airplanes are also bias.

As stated and confused above, not all radials are steel. Steel radials are not necessarily "better in every way" to all bias tires.

That being said, for normal highway driving - radials may be generally better that bias, but that doesn't mean non steel radials aren't the best of the radials.

I have used goodyear road racing slicks for many years, and they have no steel, and are amazingly light. That said, tire technologies change, and I expect steel in tires to be a thing of the past fairly soon. They weight and cost too much. Imagine one day tires for our trucks weighing only 15lbs and having longer life and higher load ratings all at a lower price. 17" performance tires I paid for 20 years ago cost around $300 each are now close to $100 and grip better while lasting longer. I like that trend.

Race tires are very application specific and many have to conform to rules. For the really high speed runs, like the ssc, they use solid titanium for tires. I wouldn't want those on any of my cars, though.

 

[heff]

i have 7.50x16lt bias ply tires on my travelall. they're load range D. they look like co-op gripspur mud tires.
it doesn't feel like i'm on ice, it does fine in rain and snow. they're wearing good enough.
the only time i notice them is when i'm doing 65-70 in a vehicle that's over-sprung on a tire with a contact patch that's about 5". truck weight 5700lbs empty.
they do flat spot in the winter, but they eventually round out. i probably won't use bias ply tires on it again, but i'm not ruling them out either.
on my f250 i have michelin ltx ms/2 tires. they have been great in all weather, they do as good as tire could on a 2wd truck when it comes to slippery mud and clay
they did great in the little bit of snow we got this year. i'll definitely use these tires again.

 

[jhnlennon]

Bias ply tires are a a thing of the past if for no other reason that the only way you can get them is from a few select places. If you blow a tire and need a replacement your gonna have to wait on a replacement leaving your truck down.

And if you live a region that gets snow, that last thing you want is a mud type tire on a vehicle that does highway duty. They do well off road, but are pretty much USELESS on wet slippery snow covered roads. They have little to no siping, and are typically a harder compound making traction on hard smooth surfaces diffulcult to get. And when they get half worn down, you may as well pitch them in the junk if your vehicle sees winter time use. Ive had enough experience with mud tires to know never to spend money on them for anything other than a trail rig. I live in a northern climate and know all about winter time driving...

 

[88fordidi]

well I can personally vouch for the bias tires, I've never had any problem with them so far (only ran about 25k miles on them currently) but the rumors about wearing faster aren't true, I've had them up to 90mph multiple times, and I've never found any mud that I even needed to bother with 4x4 for. I will say that they aren't very good on wet roads (but find me a true mud tire that is) but as far as snow I typically am going about 55-60, they handle it perfectly. I'm not saying that they're better than radials, but I'm also not saying they aren't.

 

[Dieselcrawler]

Bias ply tires are a a thing of the past if for no other reason that the only way you can get them is from a few select places. If you blow a tire and need a replacement your gonna have to wait on a replacement leaving your truck down.

And if you live a region that gets snow, that last thing you want is a mud type tire on a vehicle that does highway duty. They do well off road, but are pretty much USELESS on wet slippery snow covered roads. They have little to no siping, and are typically a harder compound making traction on hard smooth surfaces diffulcult to get. And when they get half worn down, you may as well pitch them in the junk if your vehicle sees winter time use. Ive had enough experience with mud tires to know never to spend money on them for anything other than a trail rig. I live in a northern climate and know all about winter time driving...

when was the last time you bought a set of muds? alot of the new muds ARE siped and grooved. not only for better traction on the rocks(letting tread open) but better rain and snow traction. take a look at **** cepek mud country. i ran them for a bit. never once slid in the rain, and were on in the snow.

 

[jhnlennon]

when was the last time you bought a set of muds? alot of the new muds ARE siped and grooved. not only for better traction on the rocks(letting tread open) but better rain and snow traction. take a look at **** cepek mud country. i ran them for a bit. never once slid in the rain, and were on in the snow.

Just bought a set of Hankook Dynapro m/t's this fall for my chebbie to the tune of 950$. Absolutely USELESS in rain, slush, and ice covered roads. A mud tire will never compare to a good a/t type tire in those conditions. The dynapro A/T's I had before on the truck were 10 times the tire in the same conditions. Ive had many different sets of mud tires before including super swampers and they dont cut the grade when winter time driving is a huge concern like it is here in Wisconsin. They are designed for mud, not maximum highway traction. The only reason I bought the mud tires this time was because I had a big contract that required 6 months of my truck being operated off road daily, otherwise I never would have considered it. Im driving down ice and snow covered roads every other day up here in the winter months and a good winter tire is very important...

 

[Dieselcrawler]

Look into the cepeks. Great tires. Anything with a big solid lug will suck. But sips them and do much better. Swamper ssr are a radial siped tire that does decent on wet and snow.

 

[jhnlennon]

Look into the cepeks. Great tires. Anything with a big solid lug will suck. But sips them and do much better. Swamper ssr are a radial siped tire that does decent on wet and snow.

Im familar with SSR's and they are OK, but overpriced and tread life on them is miserable. That, coupled with the fact that I've never seen a super swamper balance out worth a s**t strikes them off the list as anything other than a tire for a trail rig. Ive seen the cepeks but for most of what I do, an all terrrain tire would be hard to beat. Ive yet to come across anything that compares to dynapro a/t for winter time driving and all around driving combined, bfg a/t's coming in a close second.

 

[Greg5OH]

Is siping some fat lugs down halfway with a razor a really bad idea? I rrally dont see the difference in that vs getting a shop to sipe them...