Re: Flat Tire COnspiracy


Message posted by gary on July 22, 2001 at 10:50:17 PST:

Walmart sells tire repair kits that many off-roaders swear by. Fortunately, I've never had the opportunity to use one, but I do carry the kit and a foot operated tire pump. If you have the room or change your tire pressure a lot, the bicycle style tire pumps are better, or even a small electric pump. [The hard core off-road types will lower their tire air pressure for driving on soft surfaces like sand. There are rules regarding at air pressure X you can drive no faster than Y, etc.]

Note that if you are driving a car on these dirt road, car tires are not truck tires. A truck tire has a LT prefix, and generally is a bit tougher than a passenger car tire. If you look at the tire website, you will see that a BF Goodrich tire has more belts than a stardard tire to help with abrasion from driving over rocks. In ranking BFG TA is probably number 1, with the Yokohama off-road tires a close second. Yokohama puts nylon belts on the internal edges of their tires to help protect them.

When driving off-road, the wider tire tends to be the least likely to get damage. This is because the weight per surface area (contact patch) is reduced because a larger tire has a larger contact patch, while the overall weight remains a constant. Thus there is a reason why the monster truck guys have monster tires. OK, it looks cool too.

Anyway, if you are going to rent an off-road vehicle, I would make sure it has a low range. Many 4wd vehicles are just designed for driving in the snow, not off-road, and lack a low range since the transfer case is expensive. The only road in the standard Area 51 tour that needs low-range off-road capability would be Power Line Overlook. I wouldn't drive a rental into the really rugged areas of Tikaboo, but just quit early and walk a bit further.


In Reply to: Flat Tire COnspiracy posted by QuickJr on July 22, 2001 at 0:49:49 PST:

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