Hingsing!! Good to hear from you too friend!!!
Hello all! I am back on the saddle (with a knee that makes a gritty noise every now and then lol) and wanting to let you in on my experience with my new 10.50x16 tires, after I drove about 100 miles on them.
a) The day I installed them, I parked the truck at the farm, and did not drive it for 3 weeks (due to knee). The morning I went to take it for a spin, the temperature was about 40 F. The tires, even though at 40 psi, they had turned squarish. It took about 10 miles driving at various speeds for the tires to warm up and become round again. I would experience this often with my previous bias plys, but this time, i thought my fillings would fly out of my teeth. However, after they warmed up, they turned round, and all the rest of the week they remained so.
b)no more noise than the ndcc tires I was running before. (I guess the tires would be the least noisy part on my truck).
c) It feels like I swapped a transmission. I caught my self using 1st/high twice. On uphill that I would have used a 2nd/high with the 9x16. I am quite positive that I could still use the 2nd/high just by applying more throttle, but it did not seem right.the 4th/high, seems to be cruising more smoothly (if such a thing could apply to an m37) but for the life of me I could not verify my speed through my cell phone gps. it was imposible to find out how to do that. And I am preety certain that the speddometer now reads wrong. Also, there is an 10% grade pass that leads to my town from the West. this pass is about 3 miles long. In the past, using 4th/high, I could run about 1/3 of the way before dropping to 3rd/high. Now, I only went about 1/5 of the way before dropping to 3rd/high. However!! The 3rd/ high now seems and sounds as a more proper gear for this situation! It seems to run with less noise at the same(undocumented) road speed as before. If I get actual speed postings, I will let you know if there is a mistake and by how much on my speedometer now.
d) The truck is taller. (duh) It will not fit my garage for tiny little bit. Also the spare will not fit the door carrier. I could modify the carrier, but naahhh... I wil just have an ancient Hankook 9x16 for a spare.
e) offroading? I covered a very small distance on gravel, dirt and mud. My opinion? If these tires dont get me through. then perhaps only some helicopter might. Nothing with wheels. The tread pattern is as authoritative as it gets. combined with the massive weight of the truck, these tires score the earth as if it was tracked armor!! Seriously! After one pass, the ground is ready for sowing corn and other grain! lololol!!! I will try to upload pictures.
f) No idea on the fuel consumption yet, and how it may have differentiated. I need a viable speed measurement before I make comparisons.
g)Behavior of the tires on wet pavement was far better than I expected. I did not feel that the vehicle was going anywhere other than where I wanted it to go.
h) And now, I will try to upload pictures of the tread marks. Notice, this truck/tire combination does not fall into the "tread lightly" category. It seriously ripps through the surface of the earth.
I will keep you posted on whatever else I may notice friends.
