Now that Truckdog has steered me straight as to alternatives for the widowmakers for my 51 F5 (I'm looking for 22.5x6.25's), what are my tire options? I've looked at commercial truck tire offerings from michelin, yokohama and bridgestone but I don't see on/off road tires categorized the same as the smaller 4x4 trucks. I'm looking for excellent on/off road, all season traction (winter can be 6-8 months long up here) which in a 3/4 ton tire is lots of siping, moderately aggressive tread and all the tires matching. I'm not seeing that with the big truck tires. Anyone have any experiences they can share with me? Anybody out there actually 4 wheel their Marmon Herrington? Why do dually rears have less traction than singles? I really want to 4 wheel in this truck. Any suggestions?

 

Military tires? Like those on old duece and a halfs?

 

No, those old military tires are not good year round tires. I'd like something more modern with a tread pattern more like Bridgestone Dueler A/T's.

 

First, it's 22.5 x 6.75.

I'm not familiar with the tire you mentioned, but a quick look at the Yokohama catalog shows some that look fairly aggressive to me. Go to page 48 and 49.

Link - http://www.yokohamatire.com/tires_co...usRefGuide.pdf

Going with bias ply 20s would work too. Here's the Denman catalog showing their traction 20".

Link - http://www.denmantire.com/catalog/Catalog.pdf

I'll agree that the old NDT military tread pattern aren't that good in the winter. That said, that could be what came on your truck new. Whether there are new military designs that would be better I can't say. Stu

 

I was looking for a less aggressive tread with lots of siping. I still can't post inline images but I've posted the Bridgestone in my gallery. Those tires you mention are labelled as drive axle tires. Will they work okay on the front end? And the SY190 is called an on road tire. It certainly is aggressive. So what makes a big truck tire on/off road?

 

I'm outta my league talking tire applications, but you've obviously got two drive axles. I can't believe the manufacturers would design a tire that would only work on the rear of a truck, but maybe so. This might be where you have to call or go to your local truck tire dealer and have a long talk. Then let us know what you learn.

I never answered your last question above about why dually rears have less traction than singles in bad conditions. I'm pretty sure it's because of the ability of a single to dig deeper to find solid footing. A dually would pack mud/snow in between the tires and tend to float rather than dig in. The old MH SnoGos were all single rear wheel. Stu

 

Anybody have an opinion on the super singles? Converting to a single high capacity tire instead of running dualllies? Anyone know of a 5 on 8" rim wide enough to replace the widow makers??

 

Going with a super single would be a custom made wheel to retain that bolt pattern. The widest 22.5" I find record of was the 6.75" made by both Budd and Accuride in the late 70s and early 1980s. Do you have a functional reason to go with a single rather than stay with a DRW? Our member that goes by the name "locomotivebreath", to my recall, did super singles for the rear of his Mack. You might look him up and do him a PM to see who did his wheels for him. Stu

 

Rab - Here's the Mack with the super singles on the rear. Our member Locomotivebreath is the owner. He had Dayton's widened rather than Budds. Stu

http://rides.webshots.com/album/570342857bZBBnT

 

you can only post inline images IF you are a paid supporter. (using FTE attachments).
you CAN post inline images loaded to other sites (photobucket for example)..

you get the URL of the picture on the other site (FTE calls this 'forum codes' when looking at your gallery pics), and the bracket the URL text with [img]...[/img] tags.
(photobucket can create that whole text string for you onto the clipboard to paste in)

Sam

 

That is a neat 51 MH I like to see that.

 

check out the pics of my 42 in gallery. goodyear's--7.50x20-- same tire on all 4. been on there for 18 years!! (yes, there is a little dryrot on sidewalls, won't hurt a thing!) i have NEVER got this old girl stuck. they sing a bit going down road, but, so does the truck. you won't like military, you will get stuck! you say you want to "four wheel" ? what do you expect a 1.5 ton to do off road? too much suspension for anything more than crawling. not enough flex to do too much gully and/or mountain climbing. be careful, she can break.

 

Sweet ride Petey Shoes, I just want my ride to get me from point A to point B. I like spending my time deep in the back country. I've got a Toyota HJ61turbo diesel station wagon, Toyota FJ40 with an L82, a 76 Scout II and a 69 Ford F250 Crew Cab for any serious playing I want to do. I'll treat the old boy good. It's too valuable a rig to risk breaking. And Sam I figured out the inline posting, there was a problem with my account for a week or so where I couldn't post anything. They've got that cleared up now. Here are the tires I'd like to go with. Yokohama SY767's, $500 a pop. Big trucks aren't cheap!

 

Nice looking tire, but not as aggressive as I'd have figured. And is it an old design, or real new? It's not in their on-line catalog. What size are you looking at? Is this for the super single idea, or have you moved on from that?

 

It's a new tire, http://www.yokohamatire.com/tires_commercial/sy767.aspx
I was looking at the super single as perhaps a way to save a few bucks (2 fewer rims, 2 fewer tires) but the price of super singles kind of evens everything out. I love the look of that single rear tired Mack though. It looks like either way I'll have to go with custom built rims. Even these yokohama's need a 7.5 - 8.25" rim. I hadn't planned on spending $5000+ on rims and rubber but I guess you have to pay to play!

An aggressive tread doesn't really cut it up here Truckdog. They are great for mudding but lousy for winter driving. My wife totalled her Scout several winters ago because of the Mud Terrains she was running. On ice they are like driving on ball bearings. Hard rubber and not enough contact points with the road.

Petey Shoes, your rig was originally a dually? If an F3 is a one ton and an F5 a ton & a half, what does that make the F4? And it looks like the same metal artist that made your box made my deck as well. I love the curves!