I did a quick search but didn't seem to find anything recently. I will be in the market for new tires this coming spring and thought I had decided to go with BFG's but I hadn't ruled out the new Trxus tires due to their very high load rating specs. I think I like the Trxus tire a little better but don't know much about the craftmanship or reliability of the Interco company. You can't go wrong with the reputation of BFG. Of course if you are buying new tires new rims only seem logical! But I found a great site about converting the 8 lug to 10 lug to except Alcoa big rims and tires. Very intersting site and man do the rims and tires look COOL!!! I had seen this done on dually's but not on SRW but they even can do it on SRW. The site talked about the big rig tires handling heavy loads better, letting the PSD be in the sweet spot 1800-2000 rpm range due to much bigger size of the tire at hwy cruising speed (aka better fuel mileage/less engine wear), tires wearing alot LOT longer, etc. So, any comments on doing this or have done this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have you priced out the bigger tires? $$$!!!
If you want to drop the engine rpm consider an overdrive unit like (for example) Gear Vendors. With buying rims and stuff for this conversion I would guess that the cost would be pretty close to the same. And then you also don't have to be concerned with the strength of the adapter plates. (Which I have never trusted!)

 

I have a dually ...so I am not doing the mod you speak of ...but I am interested in tires and new developements. ...I have 10 ply E Load rated tires now 235/85R/16 ....and the load rating is what I am looking for ... in any brand as far as that goes , I heard 3 things... 1) Name brand , Cooper ,BfG, firestone , Michelin...blah, blah ,blah ..2) open shoulder or closed one is better for hi-way (closed)and open for mud & snow. 3) rubber compounds for longevity and mileage
Basically any input for my next purchase would be helpful and any links to a site for reading
Thx

 

Yeah Kwik I know it is going to be alot of $$$'s but they are different and do seem to get alot for your money. You bring up a good concern about the adapter plates that is why I made the post to see what all you experts think! You can never get to much good advice. Cphill, Interco tires got my attention because of the extreme load rating specs. The company was setup because before them there just wasn't any BIG 4x4 tires with a heavy load rating. Unfortuantly, I have yet to find many real life recommendations on them so I'm hesitant to buy them. With BFG I know what I'm going to get!

 

I wouldn't dream of running adapters. I was also thinking about trying the trxus but ended up buying BFGs because if I destroy one almost anyone in Canada will have a mud terrain on the self but I'd have to order the trxus.

 

the tires can handle a heavy load but can the adapters???????? i would just go with what you know...............or really spend the money and put a rockwell under there if they have 10 lugs (not sure)????????

 

Well the adapters are stress tested to 10tons come with a 5 year warrenty and are rated at 7000# for the front axle and 14,000# for the rear axle, far over Ford specs.

O.K. it looks like it was only a sunday afternoon dream so what info does anyone have on an additional overdrive and 1997F350, what did you mean by "rockwell"?

 

Rockwell is a heavy axle used commonly in Military vehicles and the folks that are serious about mud, rocks, and pulling Redwoods out.

 

One thing you mentioned SemperFi was how long the big rig tires would last on a light truck like a F350. Well there apparently is a downside to this, I learned while talking to some guys on TDS about this topic. Our trucks put so little weight on these type of tires that they can get a little loose on wet or snowy roads. Just something to consider, but yeah they do look sweet, especailly the floatation type tires on SRW trucks.

 

psdpower, that would diffently not be good. Can't imagine doing 360's on the hwy in a rain storm! Just was thinking that this might be a good way to get some extra lift, lower rpm's, new tires/rims that can handle heavy loads and look totally sweet. But I guess there might be some good reasons why more people don't do it. Kwik, I will be looking into gear vendors.

 

Whats the website that shows this being done and what do you mean by flotation tires on single rear wheel trucks?

 

You'll absolutly love it. Your empty mileage will go WAY up and your towing that big load up the pass will also get a lot easier.

 

Boss300, check out http://www.chromewheel.com/ . The customers trucks in the middle of the page should give you a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about.

 

I worked in the waste buisness for a few years and the maintenance manager would take the large front tires and rims off the Macks as soon as they came in. He said that the added width would tear up the front end much quicker than the standard tires. I hope I am thinking of the same thing and if not then call me an idiot....my wife does it all the time so I am used to it by now.

 

Seems like a lot of money to spend to try out, and have you thought of the extra width that it will add? Even a small amount would seem bad to me just because of the extra spray from the road. I would think that there has to be a rim made for the tire you would want in the 8 lug. Besides that I can tell you from moving up from my F350 with 16 inch tires to my F450 with 19.5's that the ride quality was definatly Better with the 16 inchers, True that I can have more weight on the 19.5's, But how much do you actually need?