Hilux_Max said:
alot of the competition trucks use simex tyres over here in OZ. competitions such as winch challenges and cross country hilly terrain type of comps. They work well, are pretty bloody tuff and have heaps of traction.
madizell, I dont know how you think they do not grip well in mud?
They use the simex in the Malaysian rainforest challenge competition, and that is comletely full of deep gooey mud.
that being said, the Australian Tuff Truck competition competitors prefer to use various types of Swampers and TSL type tyres.
Its horses for courses, depending on what your doing.
The guys I know that have the simex centipedes fitted to their trucks all say that it throws the steering left to right all over the place when driving on bitumen roads.
yes, to the point of being dangerous, which is why many blokes run a normal mud terrain for daily use, and then change to a second set of simex when going out to a trail on the weekend.
The price is very steep here for the simex, I cant understand why, because they are cheap as chips in malaysia....someones making a big mark up profit on the prices.
swamper's are cheaper here in OZ than simex.
If the price of Swampers is now below Simex in Australia, then times have surely changed in the past 5 years. That would pretty much make up my mind if I were choosing a mud tire.
If Simex are not stable on the road, and I assume that they are not, then consider the Swamper on the road. While not a road tire per se, I have driven mine up to 95mph with total stability. Even my Boggers have been up to 95 without steering issues. I don't recommend the practice, but as it is a racing vehicle, I needed to know what would happen if I did, and how it would handle at that end of the spectrum.
My opinion regarding Simex as a mud tire is by side by side comparison. I have driven against those who use them, and we always got better traction in mud. We also got far better traction in sand. At Denian, we climbed the sand hill, which that year was a straight shot up 110 or so meters of sandstone sand at about 40 degrees of slope, maybe a bit more, with no run up at the bottom. Others sunk in the sand, some could not even winch to the top due to burying their tires. We drove to the top, for the record in 14 seconds, and for fun, in 9.2 seconds. The first time, for the record, we actually were pulling so hard at the top the front tires left the ground and I could not turn into the stop box, which cost us the extra 5 seconds backing up and pulling in. No one else that I ever saw got that kind of traction out of a Centipede. Maybe I missed it.
I have seen the Malaysian Rainforest Challenge in video, have driven against lots of guys who have raced there, and our team mate in 2003 came 10th overall in 2000 in the Rainforest Challenge. So, we do have some exposure to the race and the terrain. For that terrain, if I had to use a Simex, I would choose the old style Jungle Trekker, which is a superior tire in mud to the Centipede. If I could use any tire I wanted, I would probably use custom cut Boggers in Malaysia, and failing that, TSL's cut or not.
Anyway, I say that Centipedes don't perform as well as TSL's in mud because I have watched time after time, three years in a row, while guys with Centipedes struggled in mud I knew I could drive, and did drive on more than one occasion, with a lot less trouble. It's a matter of personal experience. I know a lot of folks use the Centipedes to compete. Some also use Baja Claws. Doesn't make the Claw a good mud tire.