I need tires - MTR's or KM2's - where should I get them?
- Thread starter nwoods
- Start date
NWoods,
I'm in Grand Junction, CO so Moab is 96 miles from the house. Those of us who play in the Western Slope of Colorado or in Utah spend a lot of time in the rocks. Before I upgraded to 37's I ran my siped 35's for about 8000 miles (and about 3000 unsiped beforehand) and had no chuncking out on any of the lugs. My Jeep is not a DD and 75-80% of it's miles are offroad. The sipes do great things for performance in rain, ice and snow but they also improve performance on rock too. I wasn't expecting that but have found it to be true. A soft siped BFG Krawler might to better than the siped KM2 but in my observation a siped KM2 is the best offroad tire available today. I pay attention to what the tires on other rigs are doing and based on what I have seen stayed with the siped KM2 when I went with 37's.
I am a fan of siping to the extent that I bought a 200.00 siping iron that can cut four sipes at once with quarter inch spacing. It will pay for itself in in three sets of tires relative to what Discount Tire charges to sipe 5 tires at 15.00 each. You can do a much superior job by hand than the Siping machine tire shops use an would encourage you to go that way. You can get a single cut Ideal iron for about 70-80. If I can figure out how to post a picture I post a pic of one of my tires that has seen use.
I'm in Grand Junction, CO so Moab is 96 miles from the house. Those of us who play in the Western Slope of Colorado or in Utah spend a lot of time in the rocks. Before I upgraded to 37's I ran my siped 35's for about 8000 miles (and about 3000 unsiped beforehand) and had no chuncking out on any of the lugs. My Jeep is not a DD and 75-80% of it's miles are offroad. The sipes do great things for performance in rain, ice and snow but they also improve performance on rock too. I wasn't expecting that but have found it to be true. A soft siped BFG Krawler might to better than the siped KM2 but in my observation a siped KM2 is the best offroad tire available today. I pay attention to what the tires on other rigs are doing and based on what I have seen stayed with the siped KM2 when I went with 37's.
I am a fan of siping to the extent that I bought a 200.00 siping iron that can cut four sipes at once with quarter inch spacing. It will pay for itself in in three sets of tires relative to what Discount Tire charges to sipe 5 tires at 15.00 each. You can do a much superior job by hand than the Siping machine tire shops use an would encourage you to go that way. You can get a single cut Ideal iron for about 70-80. If I can figure out how to post a picture I post a pic of one of my tires that has seen use.
NOMADIC_LJ
Explorer
CHuck, by siping them, do you think the lugs are more susceptable to being torn off? I really don't want chunked out tires. My typical use is coarse and rugged rock terrain.
John Bull!!
alosix
Expedition Leader
in support of the sipes (and I probably should do it to my KM2s soon)
The newer maxxis comp tires come siped. I don't believe its caused any excess chunking for those.
When I was doing comps on the east coast (crew chief/builder) nothing seemed to be able to touch these things
The newer maxxis comp tires come siped. I don't believe its caused any excess chunking for those.
When I was doing comps on the east coast (crew chief/builder) nothing seemed to be able to touch these things
nwoods
Expedition Leader
Well, Expeditioneers came through and I scored a GREAT deal from them on 35" KM2's. It was a bit more expensive than budgeted to actually get them on the truck ($150 shipping, but another $150 to get them mounted and road force balanced). They balanced out...okay I guess. Fairly large variance from tire to tire in amount of weight required. Not thrilled about that.
Photos:
I did get a nice and compact valve stem that is tucked into the wheel. I have a PowerTank low pressure air filling attachment and it clamps on just perfectly (wish I had the whole PowerTank!)
Photos:
I did get a nice and compact valve stem that is tucked into the wheel. I have a PowerTank low pressure air filling attachment and it clamps on just perfectly (wish I had the whole PowerTank!)
nwoods
Expedition Leader
Don't know yet, haven't been able to get it over 30mph due to traffic. Feels good up to that speed though. I took the pressure down from 45psi (what were they thinking?) down to 30psi and then hit a street full of potholes and speed bumps and it was pretty smooth through there, so it looks promising.