I am pondering cutting the small lugs out of my boggers but before I do this I would like to know what will be the con's?
I know that cutting these tires this way will increase traction (duh) but what about floatation, will the cut tires help keep me on top of the mud? or are they going to dig a shortcut to china?
I will almost definately cut the rears, but as most of you can tell my truck is a little nose heavy, & gut instinct is telling me the little lugs are going to help keep the frontend afloat,
Monster, I know you have experiance with comparing cut & uncut tires, In your oppinion did you feel a cut tire helped or hindered floatation on the front? (when it is on the ground I mean)
and what is the general oppinion of everyone else, (what is your gut feeling)?

 

ok ill respond since no one else is. I have no experience with cutting tires, but gut instinct tells me that keeping the fronts uncut would, for the most part, provide better flotation. However this seems like it may transfer some of the load (NOT weight load, work load) to the rear because the front wont be pulling as hard due to the void filling up quicker than the rear. If that is the case wouldnt it cause the rear to cut in quicker. What I just said is easily misinterpretted, so hear me now, I am not talking about anything that has anything to do with gravity or weight displacement. Think of it like this: A two wheel drive truck is a lot easier to peel out in because it only has traction at two wheels. Similarly, the front wheels will be extremely easy for your engine to turn and will therefore create the feeling that they are useless (not really, but when compaired to cut rear tires sort of). That will mean that the rear tires will dig faster.

Ive always heard that one of the better ways to keep the front afloat other than wide tires is by installing slightly higher gears up front. I've never heard of what is a good ratio difference, nor have I ever spoken to someone who has done that. Its a big to me. Kinda one of those things that everyone swears is great and works wonders, but no one has ever done or used it.

 

Monster runs his front and rear gears offset. I don't know what his current setup is though. You want the front to be slightly faster so that it will outrun the rear a little which yes keeps it up a bit. This is why our trucks come 3.54/3.55, or 4.09/4.10, or 4.29/4.30. The factory expects 4WD to be used on slick streets where it can even run into dry patches with 100% traction, so it limits it only to the .01 difference in gears. You don't want TOO MUCH because this will rip up your T-case as well as wear on other suspension items. In the mud, you can get away with it moreso. I'm not sure if you could get away with 3.73/4.10 splits with same size tires, but if you were running say a 31" tire in front and 33" tire in the rear, using the tire sizes to make up for the difference and find a "medium in there where effectively it were like having a 4.00/4.10 split. Make any sense?

Bah, I'm going to bed. I'm sure Rob will post up later to give his input on this.

 

oh i didnt know he hd that set up... thats interesting.

 

He used to have 4.88 gears front 5.00 rear with 34x9.50 Super Swampers on the front and 35x10.50 Boggers. Since then he's stepped up to 39" boggers on the back, can't remember what tires he's running on the front currently. Just know he was taking names with those 39's. Also, he's rebuilding the rear axle as we speak, so I don't know if he's going to be putting in new gears to go with all the bling he's been buying.

 

I'm already set for gears, 5.13:1 in both ends, I wanted to get 5.38:1 for the rear but could not find them for the dana 70, and the next jump was to big IMO,

I've seen the gear split you are speaking of in the unlimited class rails, it looks to me like they are using the gear split not only to compesate for larger rear tires but to have the front pulling harder the help keep them strait,

Raw, I understand what you are saying, it goes along with the picture in my head, & if it indeed works like we are thinking then that would be optimal for my situation,

I can always cut the rears & run it, (most likely will), But I would hate to cut the fronts just to find out they worked better uncut, then have to buy 2 new tires to get back where I started,

Maybe I'll just cut the rears, then swap the cut's to the front & uncut's the the rear & see what difference it makes,

 

So, you're not planning on running the truck on the street? I was under the impression that cut tires were not legal for street use.

 

Everywhere I go I see rears cut never the front.

 

Have you seen his truck??? im betting it wont see much pavement..

 

I've followed the build. I just figured he would want to enjoy it some on a drive around town. I know I would. Scare the locals a bit.

 

yeah, i guess id want to "test" it out on the streets too...

 

It's one of those things..it'd REALLY suck to get a cop that actually knows the vehicle laws and somebody pee'd in his cherio's that morning, and here he sees something so nice he has no comprehension of it - and decides he's going to seriously write it up.

 

Generally speaking, cut tires don't help with "floatation", if anything they bite and dig. Now, this of course depends on several factors; width, shape of the cut tread, and medium in which the tire is being used.

Now, in real world use cut tires are the bomb if you have the horsepower to make them work. Better traction, better cleaning, less weight, etc. Hp is critical because once momentum is lost, they tend to dig straight down, especially in thick mud. For your application you have so much horsepower its a non-issue. Especially, since in mud drags the slop isn't usually that deep anyways. With your weight to horsepower ration you should fly across the mud. Cut 'em

 

Ok just seen this, I am running cuts front and rear current gears are 4.63 rear with 39.5s front is 4.09 with 35" tires to be exact I needed 4.54 rear gears so almost a .1 split, and it's not enough I should have gone with 4.73-4.78 and I am thinking about going with 3.73 frt and 4.33 rear. The idea of split ratio is to keep you straight in the pit and it really does help a lot.
As far as floatation that started this I didn't notice my fronts sinking any when I cut them, plus they stay cleaned out better and on the 39s I dropped 16lbs per tire just by cutting those lugs so thats a weight loss which is a good thing. The only time I see a problem with cutting them is if you are spinning and not moving forward then yes the cut tires are going to sink you to china faster cause they will dig more but if your sitting and spinning your screwed anyway so thats not much of an issue. and cutting the lugs doesn't reduce the cross section of the tire which is what keeps you on top anyway not the lugs cause the lugs don't actually float.

 

another thought that crossed my feeble little mind on this issue look at ag floatation tires, expecially the types used on things like sprayers those things have lugs that are farther apart than if you cut all the lugs except the biggest ones and they still float on top just fine thankyou, and same thing on combine "rice tires" those are made to go across wet soggy ground during harvest and those lugs are a good 8-10" apart.