[Kehyler]

Hey Guys,

I have a solid 1.5'' tear in the sidewall of my MTZ. It wasn't really fair on the tire, it tore on a big metal piece sticking out of the ground. I am wondering what the opinions on patching a hold that big in the sidewall, or possibly vulcanizing the tire to patch it. The tires have about 32xxx on them and I would like to get the rest of the life out of the others.

Thoughts?

-David

 

[warsw]

If it has cut through the ply it will never hold up. I would replace it.

 

[gregert12]

It is possible to repair a hole in the sidewall for a trail fix but it will never hold for DD. For a rip, you need to buy a new tire.

 

[Kehyler]

That is kinda what I have been gathering...I guess I need to start looking for a new MTZ. Does anybody know a good place to look for used tires outside the offroad community? I suppose I could also just find a 35x12.5x15 mudd terrain of a different brand and use that until all the tires need replacing. Is it ok to have a missmatched tire for probably 20,000 miles?

 

[JimmyB]

as long as the actual diameter of the used tire is the same as the existing tires it's fine. actually it's the same concept as to why you need to work your spare into the rotation so it's the same size. with normal street tires it's not that critical, but with the tread depth of mud tires you can get a drastic diameter difference between new and used.

 

[Stinger]

My 2 cents. I don't think you will ever match the feel, grip, handling characteristics, etc of a non matching fourth tire. I once had a tire blow on my pick up loaded with a slide in camper. Replace TWO ties on the rear and drove from Moab to Salt Lake City. Holy S*&^. The next morning I was at the dealer to get them off. Could hardly keep it on the road and they were the same size.

 

[Gustapo]

Buy one and keep it as a spare and run the other four down. Buy 4 more when the time comes and you have 5 new ones...

 

[Kehyler]

I had a thought. What about buying one new tire now, running it with my three worn down tires for probably the 20000 that they have the left in them. Then buy 4 new tires and have a spare with ~20,000. After I use the four new tires for 20000 I could switch to a five tire rotation and run down all five. That way I won't "waste" any tire. A question does remain for how to rotate the tires with one new and three worn down. I think that I would want to keep the new tire on the front to avoid having slightly mismatched tire diameters on the drive axle.

Thoughts?

 

[Gustapo]

The only thing I see as being a problem with that is the extra wear on your differential internals for the 20K you'll be running it that way.

The spider gears in the diff only turn when the axle shafts are turning at different speeds such as when you're turning a corner, or have miss-sized tires on either side... Otherwise they stay still. Even when mounted on the front, unless you've swapped out the unit bearing for selectable hubs, the differential spiders will still be spinning and slowly building up excess heat and wearing out the bearings and seals...

Not sure how significant this would be, but it's something to think about.

 

[Kehyler]

Hey,

Looked into getting a new MTZ. Apparently they are on nationwide back order...anybody know of places that I could look for used MTZs?

-David

 

[Eric]

Hey,

Looked into getting a new MTZ. Apparently they are on nationwide back order...anybody know of places that I could look for used MTZs?

-David

what size do you need?

 

[Kehyler]

35x12.5x15.

 

[Eric]

PM returned

 

[Kehyler]

I ended up buying a new one. Thanks again for the advice. Unless you hear back from me, I'm running that tire under the 4 tire turned 5 tire rotation described above.

-David