Used Tires and a Quadratrac

[BIGYELLOW78J10]

Hey again, more pondering over my tires. I am in the process of putting 33X12.5" tires on my J-10. I know with the Qtrac the tires must be very close in size, as they should be on any rigs. My worry and problem is that I have now picked up 6 33's for about $200. I have 2 that are essentially new with 1/2" of tread, 3 with about 1/8 to 3/16, and one with about 3/8" left. Which tires should I run?
I am planning on running the ones with 1/2" on the front with the logic they will wear faster under the heavier load, and they are the least aggressive style, and I am front a town of two wheel drive trucks with big bad tires in the rear, and whatever up front. I originally planned to run the 1/2" in the back and the 3/8" and a 1/8" in the front, but then I picked up another matched set with the 1/8" of tread left. My thoughts were the matched tread would be less taxing on the diff and Qtrac.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks,

Daniel

Btw, did cherokees in the early 70's come with 7" rims, or were they 8"? I bought my spare off an old cherokee, and the cut outs on the steel were the exact same as the ones on my J-10 rims? I'm not with my truck, so I can't measure, but I will likely be back in the junkyard before I see my jeep again, and i may pick up another rim for 2 spares. Thanks

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78 J-10 Rumblin Wreck (http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte644i/TRUCK.jpg)
2v 360 V-8
Stock down to the rust
Highway speed in about an Hour

[Matt W]

matched tread is good, matched tire radius is better! find the closest tires to each other in size, put them on, find a flat hard surface, concrete is excelent, drive your vehicle on to it and pressure up your tires so that the measurement from the ground to the center of all four of your hubs is the same. I am convinced this is the only way to keep your qt in good order, your weight distribution front to rear is offset to the front quite alot. so your front pressure shold be the highest. usually there will be 8 - 12 psi difference fr/rr in a full length pickup. my j20 is that way anyway...by the way, 8" spokers were on the j10s and cheifs...chances are, they are the same. they used the same bolt patterns anyway. hope this helped.

[BobBarry]

Besides getting the tires as close in size as possible (I'm assuming these are six tires of different makes? the tire-size designations are nominal) when they are off the truck, you can adjust the effective rolling-radius by adjusting tire-pressure to try and get each rim an equal-distance from the road-surface. You can't make up *major* differences in tire-size, and it's not optimal, but it might help your QT live a longer and healthier life.

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Bob Barry<UL TYPE=SQUARE>* '78 Cherokee 4-door
* '88 Grand Wagoneer[/list]http://studentweb.providence.edu/~rbarry/wheels/

[Narnian]

Worry about matching the pairs. In other words, the front pair should be the same, and the rear pair should be the same. There is enough play designed into the system that you should be OK. Normally, your front wheel go a lot further than your rear wheels do anyway, so the engineers have to design that much slack into the system. Getting all four as close as possible in circumference is optimal, but everytime you turn a corner the front wheels go three or four feet further than the rears, so a few centimeters of difference in tire size shouldn't hurt anything.

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360 w/Holley Fuel Injection, Edelbrock manifold, NP219, 3.31, 33's, no fuzzy dice (yet)
AND an 86 Corvette

[BIGYELLOW78J10]

Thanks so very much!

Incidently, Two of the tires are cooper discoverer radial lt's, Two are Cooper Discoverer SST's and two are Mickey Thompson MTX's. The Radial LT's are matched at +-1/2" and the MTX's Are matched at +-1/8" but pass the penny test with plenty to spare. The SST's are the unbalanced two, with one @ 3/8" eventually my spare, and the other @1/8". I think I'll sell/give it to one of my friends with no 33" spare. Thanks again for your thoughts and help. If anybody needs any used tires, I'm a tire huntin' fool. I can easily but my hands on a good pair of 35x12.5r15 Baja Claws and a pair of Thordbirds of the same size. Email me. Thanks alot.

Daniel

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78 J-10 Rumblin Wreck (http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte644i/TRUCK.jpg)
2v 360 V-8
Stock down to the rust
Highway speed in about an Hour

[Matt W]

hey, i got 4 305/70 /16 goodyear mts, not the mtrs, these are the dirctional tread. the have 14/32" of tread left and i got 12 to 14000 miles on em...i didn't likem cuz they hop. on the road they are bouncey, off the road in mud and snow they're ok iguess. Lemme know. I'm askin 300.00 for em, are they worth half price for 13/16 tread? they had 17/32" tread new...i think.

[BIGYELLOW78J10]

I'd say they are definitely worth half. I would probably start them at $85 a piece. Then work down to $300 if you have to. That's what everyone's done me. I paid $80 total for the Coopers-all 4 for $80 http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/smile.gif but paid 65 a piece for The MTX's with barely any center tread. But I could have had 35" Baja Claws for $15-20 more, so you should be able to get at least the $300 out of yours. Good Luck.

Daniel

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78 J-10 Rumblin Wreck (http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte644i/TRUCK.jpg)
2v 360 V-8
Stock down to the rust
Highway speed in about an Hour