Tires backwards??

I got an M35A3 the other day and right away noticed that the all of the tires on one side are on backwards. Is there a reason for this?

To encourage even wear?

Who ever put the tires on the rims had OCD and made sure they all faced the same way when they were laying on the ground....

I read on here that it may also serve as a tactical purpose, so when looking at the tire tracks you cant tell which direction the truck was going

Bing Bing, Derrick gets the gold star. At one time it was a tactical issue, but later it became obvious that the tires were just put on the way the were mounted.

Dirt

It's nice to think that someone paid enough attention to consider the tactical issue, and I haven't been around the Army as long as A3s have, but since I first encountered them in 2003 not once has the direction of the tires been a tactical concern. That goes for any vehicle. When I was a company XO/motor officer and had A3's the only consideration in regards to direction was tire wear. They are directional tires and rather than breaking them off the rim they were just put on "backwards" whenever they were moved around or replaced. We tried to minimize breaking tires from rims.

However, I'd bet that in Cold War days tire direction was a consideration. That was before my time in the Army, but from what I understand we were better at field craft, noise discipline, light discipline, radio discipline, and deception. We've kind of thrown most of that to the wind as the common view of the enemy is that they're not sophisticated enough for those things to matter , but I digress....

RANDYDIRT said:

Bing Bing, Derrick gets the gold star. At one time it was a tactical issue, but later it became obvious that the tires were just put on the way the were mounted.

Dirt

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Tire direction won't always prevent you from finding out which way a vehicle was going, you can tell by the way the dirt or sand has been thrown.

I don't have the evidence, but I read somewhere on this site where someone had dug up info about testing the tires, and finding that the performance of the vehicles was not enhanced or impeded by having the tires "right" or "wrong", and that SOP at many points (although maybe not all) was to install them all in one particular direction. They are heavy trucks, of moderate speed at best, and the tires are large enough that the "V" concept in the directional tread can not really be utilized. The blocks work as blocks, and there's not enough spacing for the "V" to work like a chevron "tractor tire" sort of a way when churning at low speeds. So even though there is without a doubt a technical difference in the tire's performance from one direction to another, it just doesn't matter in terms of these vehicles.

I kinda like the all one way look, where half are backwards. A3's are where you see it the most, but I especially like it in the smaller size/dual applications. Very out of the ordinary. That's pure opinion though, I could sure see where other's opinions could vary from that. And of course I'm having to make an assumption about the more popular tires here, where the tread is directional but not the carcass. I don't know of any specifically, it's more of a performance tire thing, but if you do find a tire this large with a directional carcass... Then my opinion would change and I'd say they outta be done the way the tire manufacturer states without regards to what the US military does. In their case, sometimes product reliability and longevity can be mroe easily sacrificed in terms of specific needs, including the cost of labor, inventory, and simplicity of field service.

I almost forgot to add- Very near to where I work, there are a TON of brand new looking military vehicles being hauled in. Little to big, tracked, wheeled, and miscellaneous other stuff to keep me distracted while I should be driving the car... Lots of HEMMT stuff. Cargo, tractors, wreckers... They're getting prepped to ship out I believe. Dunno for sure. What I do notice is this- They go into the base, and all the wheels/tires are a lot more likely to be mounted the same way (backwards on one side). When they come out all gone through, they either have non-directional tires, or the tires are all mounted in the correct direction (facing forward in the installed position). The majority though are getting non-directional tread patterns. I have yet to see a truck with one or two wheels different. It' all mounted the same, or all mounted correctly. No mix-matching on any given vehicle. Makes me think it might be a mid level decision as to what SOP is going to be.

check the mounting of the chassis - make sure it is not all installed backwards - and the tires actually installed in the forward position.

Not sure if the handling could be throw off but I do know on my small troybilt tiller it would pull the tiller off to one side. I looked at it and noticed the tires treads on one side were backwards and it came from the factory this way. I turned it around and it stopped pulling to one side. I know its not the same vehicle or anywhere close but it would make me wonder.

If they are xls, xmls etc Michelin states that they are not directional tires and it doesn't matter which way the tread pattern rotates.

Lance

My money is on the motor pool guys put them on however they wanted to when the got the truck ready to go to auction. Any A3s that I have seen in active service (to include on on Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan a month ago) have the tires on correctly. Someone just got lazy...

There is no reason at all other than when changing tires they were not going to remount em just to get em facing the right way period, fact. it is like that in all units from time to time, and as trucks see service it happens more and more, , as for traction a directional tire has more traction in one direction, fact changing half one way and another the other means nothing and just makes having a directional a waste of time, ALSO I will state that is in a few TMs that to correctly run directionals they must be facing the right way on trucks.. except for trailers that have directionlals to run em backwards,so the trailers directionals will have extended life because a directional has less traction that way and will last longer, but on trucks they all start out the right way period. fact. as for to confuse the enemy that is a very old wives tale for sure. and no one is going to change the tires on a convoy to do that, never happened and never will and it is not lazyness it is just a waste of time to try to get all tires the same way after time in service, and most units do not ,I mean are not allowed to change tires off rims in alot of units because of safety, tires mostly come mounted here for along time now because of this,

anytire that have a chevron style tread is a directional.

I always thought it was because directional tires had better traction going one way, if foreward progress stopped they would have just as much traction backing out.

On farm equipment chevrons forward for driven wheels and backwards for non-driven. Look on the bright side you can backout of the mud better than you went in.

If they were all laying the same way on the floor after being put on the wheel, then one side would be forward and one side backward. Change them side to side and you'll have them the correct way.

Oh, and a tractor company told me that you'll see some of the big combines with the drive tires on the wrong direction for going forward...so they'll clean and work better backing out of mud they drive into.

spicergear said:

If they were all laying the same way on the floor after being put on the wheel, then one side would be forward and one side backward. Change them side to side and you'll have them the correct way.

Oh, and a tractor company told me that you'll see some of the big combines with the drive tires on the wrong direction for going forward...so they'll clean and work better backing out of mud they drive into.

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No, they would still be one side forward and one side back. If they ALL where the same way on the flooor then, no matter how much you swap, you would still end up in the same configuration.

In my army days, standard procedure was to mount the front tires backwards to get better traction backing out of trouble. Still have my tires on the Puppy the same way.

Thats a safety issue, its made to keep blondes from knowing if you are coming or going.lol
My wife will really smack me tonight cause shes blonde. lol

Almost everying new the military has now is running non-directional treads, so it's just those few vehicles out there there that still have the directional patterns. Of course, I think it will be some time before anything 'new' from the military hits the surplus market.