Bias ply or Radial?

[ryan_289]

Im going to put some 10.50" wide tires on my Bronco. I am considering a 33" SuperSwamper TSL radial or a 34" LTB Super Swamper. The LTB is a bias ply tire. My bronco wont see a ton of miles, 3 to 4 thousand at the most. Would I be ok to go with the 34" bias tires? Im putting a 3.5" lift on and my bronco has the bigger cutouts. I think the 34 would look better. (not to mention its cheaper too)

Am I going to regret not getting radials?

 

[fordguy]

the 34 ltbs will be a better offroad performer. but it depends on a lot of things, 3.5 will be fine for 34s. You will here about flat spots on cold mornings and such. I plan on running a set of bias ply during the hunting season, and radials for off season. if you like daily driving the bias ply will not be fun. But I am not 100 percent on the bias ply

 

[JWMcCrary]

if you like daily driving the bias ply will not be fun.

X2 on that.

I have not run the tires you are asking about but I have run Buckshot mudders in both bias and radial in P(33") & Q(36") sizes. The bias ply were a lot better offroad but were horrible on the street and didn't last very long.

 

[sixtyniner]

I have been running 33inch tsl bias ply for the last three sets. Just 2wks ago I switched to the tsl radials. I want my bias swampers back!!

 

[00gyrhed]

I run the LTB 10.5X34X16. Noisy on the highway. I have 3000 miles on the no perceptable wear. Still can read SS on some of the lugs. Tire wear may be higher due to the compounds used but in all cases where I have experienced high wear the wheels, balancing, or alignment were not all they should have been.

Buy them if you want them. Throw about 8 oz of the airsoft BBs in them after they have been spin balanced and enjoy them. At 3000 miles per year they will probably age crack and rot before you wear them out. That has always been my problem.

Oh just so you are not surprised. I have never known or heard of anyone that bought hese tires that said they were the advertised height. Mine measure 33" exactly. Brand new on 7" X 16 wheels. I have heard that the 15s measure just under 33".

You don't need a lot of lift to run them. I think if you were carful with the cut outs you might even be able to run them with stock body and sring height.

 

[ryan_289]

Thats what im trying to figure out. The PO already put the large fiberglass cutouts on the front and rear. The rear cutouts go almost all the way to the taillight housing. I have 3.5" coils and springs im going to put on. I already have a set of 15x8 rims thats why the 10.50 tire. Is it going to look like a lot of lift and not enough tire?

 

[daddyg]

3.5 with 33s or 34s should look good. I plan on running 33s or 32s with 2.5 lift on my 76. My 74 is running 37s but has a 5.5 lift.

 

[00gyrhed]

10.50x34x16 Ss Ltb

It will look fine. Mine has about 2" of suspension and 2" of body. I want to lower the suspension so it is a little easier to get in. If you want to see what it would look like with 2" body lift and sagging worn out stck suspension. Here is a pick. Note the heavy plate bumpers. Betweeen the weight of the bumpers and winch, and the worn out suspension it bottomed out pretty easy, but with 1-1/4 spacers on each corner it only rubbed at full compression. I have included pic of the 2 inch suspension lift with the 2 inch body lift.

 

[ryan_289]

Throw about 8 oz of the airsoft BBs in them after they have been spin balanced and enjoy them.

What would that do?

 

[00gyrhed]

It has been my experience that no one can balance tires over 31 inches tall. I just do not hav any luck. The air soft pellets will even out the balance and make it ride nice. A well balanced tire will last longer becuase it wears less.

 

[fordguy]

hey oogyr would you mind giving us a height measurement on those ltbs, bet they do good in the mud.

 

[00gyrhed]

10.50x34x16 Ss Ltb

hey oogyr would you mind giving us a height measurement on those ltbs, bet they do good in the mud.

Fully aired up they were 33" exactly. Kind of a disappointment. I think they were listed at 33.5" I probably would have bought P255/85 GFGs if these were not so cheap at the time.

They ae the best mud tire I have ever run in the sticky stuff, but they will dig a ditch faster than you can burb the pedal if you get in just the right stuff.

 

[gjrock]

I had LTB's and they were great offroad and crappy on road. flat spots, noise and not good in the rain. Mine measured 30" and they were 31".

 

[Buldozer]

I have used both radials and bias SuperSwampers and by far the better tire off road, in my opinion, is the bias tire. They had deeper lugs and were better all around. They were noisy and out of round and so on like everyone has stated, but none of that mattered much to me off road, so I loved them! I made the mistake of taking my second set to a tire shop to have them trued up before I ran them and they had to cut about a half inch of rubber off of one side to get them round. But I will say that they ran about as good on the highway after that as radials, however, they did not last like the radials. It really just depends on what you plan to do with them. If you rig is a parking lot princess go with radials....

 

[bhoffmeister]

I am considering some bias ply. I have heard some people talking about air soft pellets or bb's to help balance the tires. Is this common knowledge or practice at tire sores or specialty 4x4 shops? Thanks for any insight.

 

[BroncoJAK]

Internal balancing pellets have been around forever in the trucking industry. Dynabeads is the most common. It works great. However the Dynabeads in my opinon are expensive. For a set of 35" tires your looking at a price of around $50. I run the airsoft pellets, have for a few years. Cost me around $15 for the high density pellets.

 

[00gyrhed]

I run the airsoft pellets too.

I can never get any one to balance a tall tire well enought to mak eme happy, so I let them take their best shot and then I dump the pellets in.

 

[BroncoJAK]

Since the pellets allow for constant adjustment of the balance any static weights added to the wheel are not necessary. Good thing too cause my rims take a beating on the rocks.