31" V-Tread Tractor Tires on a Stock Ranger 4x4

link to original thread about this.
http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122174

finally got to the mudhole last night to do some playing with the v-treads i bought for a pretty good deal. truck/tires did AMAZING. i started out in 2wd to see how it did since i was leery about useing the front axle with my weak mile marker hubs. i was forced to go out early due tomy cousin getting stuck and needing some assistance. i was able to get to him and backed up to him, all in the sloppy stuff, all in 2wd. i did go ahead and lock it in 4x4 when i went to pull him out so i didnt dig down and get us both stuck. all-in-all i am throughly impressed, as was everyone else after they got done laughing.

2WD Review:
even with the 4.0, 3.73 gears, and a manual tranny i didnt have the power to go to 2nd gear (except for in 4lo with the hubs unlocked/broke). in 2wd high it would hold at about 4200-4500rpm, and in 2wd low it hold stay at 5k and bounced off the 5200 rev limiter in the slippery stuff. while playing around and while they are spinning you can actually feel what they are grabbing, be-it soft mud, slippery ground, or hard bottom, all hav a different vibration that you can feel on the "butt-o-meter". WHEN I GOT STUCK IN 2WD I WAS STUCK, 4WD JUST BURIED THE FRONT END DOWN WITH THE REAR AND REVERSE IS USELESS. most of the times that i got stuck it was because of being in 2wd first.

4WD Review:
this is where they really shined. i guess the best way to describe it is they just GO. i didnt try 4 high but 4lo 2nd gear is just about the same as 1st in 4high. the only times i got stuck in 4wd was because i just simply ran out of ground clearance and bottomed out before the tires had a chance to claw theyre way through. every time i got stuck i was IMMEDIATELY framed out and upon getting pulled out my truck rose straight up about 8inches before moving backwards.

now for the bad news...
as i expected the front end did not hold up all night. i cannot tell exactely when it stopped pulling in the front as i didnt hear anything pop or grind or anything, but non-the-less its not pulling. i havnt gotted around to seeing whats broke but my money is on the mile marker hubs having stripped out splines. the rear performed flawlessly and the posi had both rears turning all night.

crappy pic from my friend's phone



cant really tell but it id dirtyer than it looks and 95% of the mud is caked underneith.


more pics to come and a video i think, that yall will definaltly enjoy, soon as i get them off my gf's and sisters's cameras.

That is F'n AWESOME!

I dare say though, "This thread is worthless without VIDEO"

Well maybe not quite, I want a set now regardless of video.

Forgot to update this thread with the broken parts. MILE MARKER HUBS WILL NOT HANDLE THESE TIRES. even though they are only 31" tall I reeded up breaking the right front hub, stripped out something inside.

Thanx

that is cool as shit

i bet DDing it would suck, but i'd trailer it somewhere to play with it. where'd you get them?

believe it or not they are actually quite sooth on the road when you get over 10mph, under 10mph itll feel like the truck is going to vibrate apart and reverse is worse.

i got them off another forum from a member close by. i sent him a low-ball offer that he ended up accepting, forcing me into putting them on my truck.

just got this pic. another crappy cell phone pic. i normally couldve gone thru this, but wiht the front hub broke the front tires where just plowing thru. you can see the mound of mud in front.

Should have more pics and a video of getting pulled out tonight when my gf gets here with her camera.

some more pics and hopefully of better quality. both are stuck pics which seems to be all that anyone took.

this was stuck in 2wd then just dug down by putting in 4wd.


and as you can tell it was broke here, the front end wasnt pulling.

just an update. after i got a set of WARN hubs for the front end after the mile markers broke i took it to the same mudhole again. i decided to swap the rotation of the front tires and turn them around backwards so maybe it wouldnt dig down so fast causing the front diff to drag, bottoming me out. truck seemed to like that MUCH better and seemed to go thru alot more before getting stock and i caould actually back out after getting stuck. i beat on the truck pretty hard and nothing broke so WARN is the way to go.

I have seen one end run forwards and one end ran backwards on everything from farm equipment to RC trucks for that reason... so you are not totally helpless trying to back out.

That's hilarious! Good for you! Hope you had fun.

I cannot imagine what 60 MPH would be like on those tires.

Actually, don't try it, they're probably not rated for more than 30 MPH anyhow.

Tractors ain't that fast.

they definatly pull harder turned the right way but with the limited ground clearance on these front ends (about 8in at the pumpkin) it doesnt give them a chance to dig down and pull before it bottoms out and acts liek a bulldozer.

believe it or not i had these up to 45mph down an asphault side road by our shop and they are surprisingly smooth. above 15mph i would compare them to a bogger of the same size in noise and smoothness, below 15mph they feel like, well, a tractor tire. now i havnt gone around town with them to see how they do around corners, but i would assume they would not do well and be down right dangerous in the rain.

forgot to mention my last trip out with them fliped around i actually got ballsy and pulled out my buddies f150 on 1tons and 38 mudgrapplers. i was actually messing with him and pulled him all the way out of the pit backwards. some buddys we went with said he had locked up the brakes and i was dragging him out.

i also pulled out an 88 bronco on 35s or 36s. i was about to go pull out a chevy on 40s but noticed that my rear bumper was bent out at the bottom and "V-d" across the face so i thought against it even tho i REALLY wanted to. im going to have a reese hitch before my next adventure.

Where is this video that was mentioned? Also careful with the reese hitch find out what class it is, as most only have a class 1 or 2 which are only rated for 2k and 3500 lbs and could easily break when pulling a stuck vehicle depending on what you are using to tow like chain or rope. I had a 90 toyota with a reese hitch and after pulling my brothers 3/4 ton blazer buried to the frame, I looked at my hitch after I got him out and it bent it down a good 2 inches and could see stress cracks. Probably wouldn't have held up to a few more yanks.

I havnt been back out playing with them in a while so no video yet. Next time out I'll try my best to get somebody there to take a vid.

i lloovvee those tires but i need them 33'' tall