Old School Mud & Snow Tires And Vintage-look Radials

I have the Dirt Commanders on my 2004 Chevy 2500hd. They are almost worn out now, at 25000 miles. For the price, they have never punctured or lost air. They were pretty evenly and have been good in the mud.

 

I'm looking at these tires wistfully, but I know my BFG all terrains need to stretch one more year. The Jeep budget is shot for this year with the Dauntless rebuild.

 

You have a jeep budjet!

 

So..... I went to the Detroit Autorama this weekend couple modified CJs nice, a resto mod Willys wagon beautiful! from Pennsylvania and a stunningly restored CJ3 from Michigan..

I talked to Rusty from dbtires.com they do white/red wall tires so if you reeeeeeealy want white walls they can do it. They do “stock” tire but he said the will do most any NEW tire you want. 4 year warranty on their product. He mentioned they buy the tire inspect it so they know the sidewall is good with no issues.

I have no affiliation with them, I looked at their display up close and... i like their work. (if I want whitewalls on a set of Michelin LTX Defenders they’ll do it.)

Price???? Not cheap, but nothing custom is.
He said they could be in the $300 per tire range including the tire depending on the price of the base tire. Dbtires.com

just an FYI
Tony

 

I'm curious if anyone has experience with both the deestone D503 style tire and the super traxion tire? I have heard good things about both but not sure if one is much better than the other. Deestones seem to be cheaper by 40-50$ per tire. I like the price but if quality significantly better with the super traxions i might be willing to pay up for the super traxions.

 

Here's a short "tire review" if you will of the Deestone 503's after a weekend at TDS in Salton City, CA.

They pretty much behaved just as I expected for a bias tire. A little flat spotty in the morning but not bad. I ran them at around 12lbs. since i have them mounted on old non safety bead wheels with no tubes. No problems with popping a bead at that pressure. They're 10 ply so not much sidewall bulge until you get into the good stuff. Yes they are noisy on pavement but that's not objectionable to me as it reminds me of days gone by before I ran radials.
One surprising thing to me is that I didn't bother to have them balanced when I mounted them since they were only going to see limited pavement use but they didn't exhibit any out of roundness on pavement. Traction was excellent, although they'll dig to China in the blink of an eye in the soft stuff. All in all very pleased with the performance, and price was great. I watched for them to go on sale and got 4 from Simpletire on Ebay for 464 delivered. I just picked up another yesterday for a spare and it was 99; 105 delivered.



Mine is in the center...



Here it is in a flex scenario, showing a little sidewall bulge in the rear...

FWIW,
Mike

 

I really like these Coker Firestones i saw them on a 2a it looked great im sure they grip better than most

 

Hollow out those nubbies and make them suction cups, think of the rock crawling you could do!

 

Love those tires I just wish they made a 7.5x16. I think the only size they have is a pretty small tire like 29". Probably good for a stock ride height but ive got a few inches of lift

 

Great review! Thanks for the info I will probably go with the deestones. Nice rig too btw

 

Is that "tink" on the left?

 

Yep! That photo was "pre" Tink.

Mike

 

Hah! Thanks
With the exception of the Lhead it's really nothing more than a crappy bunch of parts that other people were throwing away for the most part, bolted together with a new set of tires. The real redeeming quality it has besides that is I put a T98 in it to give the little 4 banger some more gearing.
Last weekend was its maiden voyage of sorts, and it was a real hoot!

FWIW,
Mike

 

A buddy of mine just nabbed a set of 30-yr-old, barely-used Desert Dogs.

 

I really want a set of those Yokohama Y742S tires, but can't seem to find any for sale. Anybody see them lately?

 

I'm afraid the Y742S may have been discontinued. Yokohama still shows the tire on their website, but doesn't show any sizes available (Y742S | Yokohama Tire Corporation).

Maybe you'll get lucky though and will be able to find a tire supplier somewhere that still has a set in stock?

 

That was my fear and experience looking. The good stuff always gets discontinued, after all. :-\
I thought I'd put out the request just in case someone tripped over a set.

 

those are for heavy trucks they are going to ride like bricks

 

Might be another option?
They sell them for sand-rails and baja bugs quite often. I don't think they are radials sadly, just an expensive alternative to the STA super tractions and the like. Described as load range C, 6-ply.
Yokohama Y720 Tractor Service Tires 7.00-15LT

Yeah, that happens a lot using LT tires on a jeep. I would have had more options if I'd kept the 16" rims I scored, but I'm committed to trying to keep the look of the vehicle about the same as when my great-grandfather and uncle had it. Easy to do with bias-ply tires but having had an accident partly because of said tires I'm really trying to find a radial fit for the application. Low tire pressure helps and it's not like I'm going to daily it.