Category: Vehicles

Hello, I’ve been enjoying reading your blog for several weeks now and wanted to add a bit on truck tire ratings from the perspective of somebody who used to own a small tire shop in truck country (rural Alaska). The whole thing with rating a tire by the number of plies dates back to the days of bias ply tires when the tires actually were load rated according to the number of plies. That system has been obsolete for years with the advent of radial tires, which are not constructed the same way to achieve the same strength. The letter …

Jim, For the reader wanting 8 Ply tires, get a floatation light truck tire with D, (8 ply) E (10ply) or F (12 ply) load rating. Get a BF Goodrich All Terrain KO (that’s what I have on my 4WD Xterra) for all around 4WD use. For more rocks and mountains he may go to a BFG Mud Terrain. Mickey Thompsons for bigger budgets. But the BF Goodrich tires are great tires. Go to an off-road shop instead of Wal-Mart for the tires and talk to somebody knowledgeable. – Tim Mr. Rawles: The issue of course is better side walls, …

Jim: Reading up on the article/manual “Aids to Survival“, (Western Australia Police Academy, 1998, 86 Page Word Doc once unzipped.) from the site referenced on your blog. Regarding tires .. or tyres….. they recommended 8 ply. Gosharooty, my HMMWV tires are only 6 ply. (No, they aren’t on a HMMWV, military Hummers leak, are cold in the winter and hot in the summer and they make my butt hurt.) Anyway, how about some info on the 8 ply tire?. That just doesn’t ring a bell with me as being common in CONUS. What’s the story here? My requirement are: 32×11.50-15, …

As with many survival related expedient repairs some of these fixes could present a fire or mechanical danger. As always work/learn with a responsible experienced mechanic, one who specializes in off road racing will often have good experience in how to squeeze a few more miles out of a damaged vehicle. Diesel Engine Glow Plugs: if the glow plug control system goes down try running a parallel power wire from the plugs straight into the cab off of the fuse panel or cigarette lighter, try to determine amperage draw ahead of time for proper switches and wiring. Power the plugs …

James, When I was in high school (in the early 1980s) I had no money and would find tires for my car by the side of the road. If it said E78-14 on the side and had more tread than the worst tire on the car, it came home. I could change a tire by breaking the bead using the bumper jack on my Sister’s Dodge Dart. Flip it over, break the other side. Remove from the rim with a pair of tire spoons that my Father had, then repeat in reverse to get the new tire on the rim. …

Hi, I am no tire expert, but I always have a tire repair kit on hand with self vulcanizing plugs. I have put these in my radial tires and driven thousands of miles with them. They work with any tubeless tire (even small tractors, etc) and I have never had one fail on me yet. They work for punctures such as nails, thorns, etc. For tears or rips it’s either a new tire or a larger internal patch. These plugs will work on the side wall too, but tend to fail after a while. It is better to replace that …

Hi Jim, At the ranch last Saturday, our cousin who is a mechanic got under the hood and fixed the old ranch truck. He took it for a spin and came back and said that he would have to park it because it got a flat tire. He would have to take the tire to town and get it fixed but wouldn’t be able to do it until Tuesday because of the holiday on Monday. I asked my husband “Why can’t he fix it himself? People didn’t have to take tires to a shop to get them fixed in the …

I’ve been touting the advantages of E85 Ethanol-compatible “flexible fuel” vehicles for many months. I recently put my money where my mouth is, and bought a flexible fuel 2003 Ford Explorer 4WD for us here at the ranch. The Explorer replaced our not-so-gracefully aging 1989 Suburban. (It had 205,000 miles on the clock, lots of non-functional subsystems, and it was starting to lose compression on the grades.) Assuming that you buy a Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV), where do you find fuel? If you live in Brazil or Sweden, no sweat. E85 is found at the majority of gas stations. But …

Jim, One of my long term goals is to own a diesel pickup. A mechanic friend of mine down in California, a true Ford guy all the way thru would say that the time tested and proven International engine used in the the Ford pickups was the most reliable–with the Cummins running a very close second (It should be noted Ford owns a controlling interest in Cummins and Ford does/has used Cummins in several of their industrial projects, including farm equipment and heavy duty trucks). I don’t know all the details but I will say that from my own experience …