11.00R-16 Michelin XZLs

[Croatan_Kid]

Yes, I finally got myself a set of them. Brand new, no less I'll take pictures later, I'm too tired to do it now.....it was a long trip. Left at 4 this morning and got back at 6:30, much longer than it should have taken, but I got lost two or three times

Thanks to AJMBlazer for telling me about them to start with and an even bigger thanks to Tony who runs Bull Gear for waiting on me

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Schweet! You'll love them man! Now go find some 00+ aluminum 16" wheels so they aren't the back breakers mine are!

Oh yeah, and at least 50 ounces of airsoft BB's to balance them with.

 

[Crazy_Matt]

Re: RE: 11.00R-16 Michelin XZLs

Oh yeah, and at least 50 ounces of airsoft BB's to balance them with.

Mmmm should try that with my zml's

 

[tsmall07]

RE: Re: RE: 11.00R-16 Michelin XZLs

Where did you get them? I can't find any.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

A guy on here that frequents the M715 forums had bought like three sets of them and decided to sell one set, so I went and got them ASAP. It took me forever to find these for sale too, so I definitely know how you feel.

I looked on Innovative Balancing's website and then read up on the subject of balancing them from other people's experiences and I'm going to try 10 oz per tire to start with. I'm going to try to use fairly dense BBs, say .2 or .25 gram and I'm going to make sure they're the seamless ones. I've heard that Michelin makes these tires pretty true and somewhat balanced to start with, so hopefully they won't be too hard to balance.

Oh, yeah, I should get aluminum rims but I already have a set of ProComp rock crawlers I bought.......

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Airsoft BB's work great. Several members over on CK5 are doing it, myself included.

Don't use metal BB's.

I like Innovative's stuff, run them in my Tracker and the wife's XL7...but man it's pricey.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

Coincidently, I went to Wal-Mart tonight and picked up a bucket of .12 gram Ultrasonic Airsoft BBs. They have the best shooting accuracy in its category and increase velocity by 10%!!!!!! Nice, huh? Anyway, there's 10,000 of them in there so:

10,000x.12 = 1,200.
28.34 grams per ounce
1,200/28.34 = 42.34 ounces of BBs

That gives me 10.585 ounces I can use per tire. Innovative Balancing's website recommends 10 ounces for 11.00R-16 XLs, so I figure it should be the same for XZLs, too. With .12gram BBs, it would take about 2370 per tire for 10 ounces. 10,000 split four ways would be 2500. I'll try 10.5 ounces per tire and see how that works out. I read about some people using 11 ounces in 35s! Of course, they were Interco tires......

Photobucket is much easier than trying to post 1/2 a dozen pictures on here....

http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t115/Croatan_Kid/New Tires/

 

[spicergear]

They didn't happen to be LAV tires did they? Just wondering-

 

[Croatan_Kid]

Not sure.....I don't know if they ran XZLs on the LAVs, I know they ran XLs on them though. That's what I was originally looking for, but I settled for these because they'll work just fine.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Yes, the 11.00R16 size was from the USMC and Canada's LAV's and also some Swiss "family members".

Nice score. I just got out my wife's cooking scale, zeroed it with a large measuring cup on it, and dumped in BB's until I had 10oz or so. Honestly I think we need less than 10 but for what these things go for, why not?

 

[sermis]

I put some on my M725 about 2+ years ago on stock rims. No real balance issues.

 

[spicergear]

I remember when you did that-

 

[sermis]

I remember when you did that-

Yep, you backed out on selling me your tires and rims and I had to scrounge elsewhere. .

 

[Bobert]

I don't know about theses tires, but Most new tires have the heavy spot marked with a dot.

If you match that up with the valve stem, (usually the wheels low spot) It may get you close when you try to balance them.

Just a theory, I've never balanced a tire without a machine but I worked at a tire place for a while.

I'm still kicking myself for not getting that set of humvee tires out of the junk tire pile.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

AJMBLAZER, I need your opinion on this. I'm gunna lift the truck but I don't know how much I should. 4 inches or 6? If I do 4, I'll run 4 inch front springs and a 2.5 shackle flip rear with a Zero Rate for 3.5 inches. If I do 6... 6 inch springs, 4 inch flip and Zero Rate for 5 inches. Crossover steering and a box brace are going on as well along with SS braided lines and rear disc brakes. I'm going to try and fit the 11.00Rs on a set of 16x8 Rock Crawlers I bought, but I'm sorta skeptical as to whether they'll fit. I hope they will because it will give me a little more backspacing and make the tires look a little wider, plus the rims are sweet.

Anyway, whatcha think I oughta do?

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Well, you're opening a bit of a can of worms.

Part of the reason I'm able to run 38's with (realistically) not much trimming is that I have 1 ton springs. They don't flex much. Now put some aftermarket springs on and they'll probably flex more than these. Tuff Country has HD springs and a few others do but I've heard varying reports on them.
So it's sorta Pandora's Box that you're opening. You're 4-6" taller but now the springs flex better so the tires can get into the fenders more.

Me personally:
3" Tuff Country HD springs up front with ORD 1" zero rates pushing the front axle forwards at least an inch.
2.5" rear shackle flip and the ORD 1" zero rates
New front shackles and shackle hangars.
SS lines and new/lengthened driveshafts.
Perhaps an ORD 1" body lift and poly bushings.
Cut the fenders.
Crossover.

I didn't go with a lift right now because my truck wouldn't fit into the garage if I did make it any higher than it is now.


As far as the rims go...these things were meant for narrow rims. I REALLY don't want to go any wider. 16x7's would be about it for me. After these things wear down (which with the way I drive will be about 2025 or so) the plan is some 16x9's or 16x8's and some of the 325/85R16's.
Form follows function so I'm willing to deal with the pizza cutter look for now.

I figure after I grove/sipe the tires no one will be asking about the width.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

Do you know the spring rate on the stock front springs? The rate on Tuff Country HDs is 495, that's fairly stiff. I want to lift it a little, but keep it within to workable range and within height to retain stock drivelines. 4 inches should clear the tires and not make the truck too awfully tall. Also, I did forget to mention new front and rear shackles and a front upper shackle hanger. Trimming is a must, I know, but I want to keep it within reason. A body lift would be a pain, so I'd like to stick to suspension right now. This is going to be a long, drawn out process so I guess I'll start with mounting the tires on some rims, test fitting, and seeing what I need to do from there. The only reason I want to lift it is to make room for crossover.

 

[spicergear]

I remember when you did that-

Yep, you backed out on selling me your tires and rims and I had to scrounge elsewhere. .

Now's a better time to buy them anyway...YOU CAN GET A WHOLE TRUCK WITH THEM!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jeep...004QQitemZ140185051537QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

 

[AJMBLAZER]

I doubt that the front driveshaft will make it to 4" of lift. At least mine sure doesn't look that it will.

The reason I want to push my front axle an inch forward is to get the tires off of the wheel well liners. If I could have done that with the stock driveshaft I wouldn't have had to trim much more or at all in the rear of the front fenders.

The body lift isn't a necessity but the 1" body lift and new poly body mounts are supposed to be the cats ass and make a lot of under body work very easy from what I hear on CK5. It's on my list but right now I don't have the clearance for both. 20+ years does bad things to the body mount rubber so I bet even the poly mounts alone would raise your body a bit.

Put the ORD steering brace on and then run a Jeep XJ steering shaft and you'll be surprised how much better the truck steers. Half the slop now is from that dumb rag joint in the steering shaft. Working on finding the correct Cherokee steering shaft now.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

I'm fairly certain they'll make it to 4 inches, 6 is pushing it but some people run them like that and you have to grind on the CV joint to make it flex enough. I understand about pushing the axle forward to get it out of the fender because as it flexes upwards it also gets pushed backwards and thus into the fender, the same thing applies to moving the rear axle backwards and inch when you do a shackle flip. I'm not against doing the poly body mounts, and I might in the future if it needs to be done, but like you said....it'd be a pain. I don't have any restrictions on height, I know it won't fit in my shop but the new one will have a 10 foot tall door. I've never heard about the XJ shaft swap, but it sounds cool. Getting rid of the rag joint it an improvement any way you look at it.

Thanks for all the info.