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Michelin XL's

shootiniron

New member
487
13
0
Location
Escalante,Utah
Thanks! I have a chance at buying a truck that came from the military singled out in the rear with Goodyear 1100-20's street tread.I agree with the school of thought that they just look better dueled,but the trucks got air assist steering and very low miles,so I was considering doing something tire wise to "toughen up" the look.
 

dburt

Member
329
4
18
Location
NE Oregon & SW Idaho
Go to www.idahomotorpool.com and you can see what Alex and his son do when they make the custom bobbed deuces. There should be some pics of them on the site with the big single tires, they really look nice, and are much better on snowy roads then the ND stock tires.
 

Pawnshop

Active member
1,798
20
38
Location
Austin/Cedar Park Texas
The only advantage I know of to run duals would be a higher payload capacity. The singles give better traction, narrower track, less hassle. The Army went to singles for a reason...
 

LanceRobson

Well-known member
1,638
206
63
Location
Pinnacle, Stokes County, NC
The only advantage I know of to run duals would be a higher payload capacity.
I don't believe weight carrying capacity had anything to do with the selection of duals. AI think a deuce with singled 9.00-20s will still carry more than it's rated weight.

One of the advantages claimed by the Army for a dual wheeled truck was the ability to sustain 5 flats (if the spare is included) during operations and remaining "mission capable" with no more than a tire position change.

The other claimed advantage was reduced overall height and reduced cargo deck height.

50 years ago, before the advent of roll on-roll off (RO-RO) ships, the Army was far more concerned with the height of equipment than it is now. As recently as the early 90s we still had to plan for deployments by reducing the height of vehicle to the lowest possible height. For planning purposes we were expected to remove everything higher than the steering wheel (cab, ring mounts, cargo racks etc) That's the figure we used to compute the total volume of hold space needed to ship the unit overseas.

All that said, and back to the original question:

I have an M35A2 that came from GL with singled 11.00R20 XLs and flipped hubs.

My other deuce is an M35A2C with 10 GI 9.00-20s.

The singled out truck goes better in snow and when lightly loaded; it doesn't spin the tires as much. The dual tired truck will carry more weight in soft ground without miring, due to better flotation (which works against it in snow)

The dual truck can carry around 6-7 face cord of 20" firewood in muddy contitions where the singled truck would mire with that load.

During the winter, when it's snowy, I leave about 1-1/2 face cord in the singled truck for traction and use it around the farm.

Lance
 

DanMartin

New member
1,276
16
0
Location
Hillsboro, Oregon (USA)
Just FYI: The 14.50R20 Michelin XLs are rated at over 7165lbs/tire at 80psi. I actually picked up overall (tire) capacity by singling it out to 14.50s over the dual 9.00x20 bias plys (of course that does not increase the payload of the truck, but you get my point here). I definitely picked up some GVWR by shaving off a bunch of weight from the wheel/tire combo (single weighs less than a dual).

On the down side...the 14.50s are rated at 56mph max.

Here's a link to the datasheet for the XLs:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PDFs/Michelin%20XL.pdf
 

DanMartin

New member
1,276
16
0
Location
Hillsboro, Oregon (USA)
You are correct Pawnshop...ha, I'm not properly caffeinated yet. :)

Shootiniron, the 14.50s I think are perfect for the M35s. They are the stock tire for the M35A3. I got mine from Berg tire for $125 per + ride last year, and they are all at least 90% tread. They claimed to have a lot back then (not sure what their supply is now, check with them).
 
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