Review of some 38.5x14.50 Swamper SX's

[bowshtr]

After finishing my SAS i have now decided to order myself a set of trail tires. I was wanting a pretty tall tire, but not too overly tall. I was looking for tire characteristics that will hold up to the rocks, but yet also be able to root through the occassional mud pit. Most importantly i was looking for tuff tires with good sidewall tread that would grip to the rocks and pull through the ruts.

So i called up the good ol boys in wheeling, west by god virginia about gettin a set of 38.5x14.50 super swamper tsl sx's (bias ply)on 16.5x9.75 extreme alloy steel rockcrawlers or whatever they are. I placed my order with national tire and wheel on monday and my tires came in yesterday. The service was great and the tires look badass!

Last night i pulled my street tires off and mounted up the SX's and took them for a lil road test. It seems like they handle great, as any new tire would do. I know a few months from now im gonna be saying a different story about the bias ply sx's.

So today is gonna be the test day. I am heading over to a buddies farm to pretty much hit just about anything you can think of. Deep mud, ponds, ditches, deep creek crawls, rocks, wet rocks, steep wet creek banks, atv trails, and lastly, open fields for some cookies . I should be able to test the all around capability of these tires tonight so i ought to be able to pull off a pretty decent review. Check back sometime later this weekend for some pics and the second half the the review.

[bowshtr]

Shortly after i made my post yesterday i was off to my buddies 500 acre farm to hit up trails. After pulling in his driveway i aird down my tires to exactly 15 psi all around while they got their atvs together.

The first leg of the trails was all 2wd material and didnt even begin to slip. I noticed once i dropped down into the creek i needed a lower gear to creep through the 3 foot deep water. After crossing the creek there was a very steep verticle bank that the atvs were unable to climb. The swampers took to the bank like liquid nails on a 2x4. The deep lugs grabbed around the roots and just pulled itself right up. But one thing i did noticed is that i should have aird down to about 8lbs or so cause 15 was still a bit much, which caused me to slip some.

Now one thing i can say is that in the mud, these tires are absolutely incredible. I got hemmed up in a real bad spot in a deep mud hole against a root ball of a tree and the only thing i could do was attempt to go forward and possibly look at a roll over. As soon as i got the tires spinning enough to clean out they just dug right on out with ease.

After the mud escapades and bank crawling i decided to do a lil creek crawling and see where i could blaze a trail off the banks. About a mile down this large creek system i found a healthy set of rocks to play on. These tires did awsome on the rocks, even when wet she still kept goin!

Overall the place i got to wheel wasnt too increbliy difficult but, noone around was able to keep up with me and my truck. In comparison to these swampers and the other swampers i have ran, they seem to really do the trick. I give them a 2

[rockcrawlintoy]

just remember u cant air down past 15 with the 16.5 rims. if u do u WILL lose a bead.

[bowshtr]

Eh...whats a busted bead. I guess i got spoiled airing down these hummer wheels to about 4 psi or so.

[rockcrawlintoy]

the hummers are nice. the non beadlocks are what u have to watchout with. my buddy aird his tires down to like 7psi so he can work on his junk and lost the bead without even moving the truck

DRew

[bowshtr]

Damn, thats shitty. Was it a heavy truck?

[rockcrawlintoy]

1/2 ton chevy with some stuff

Drew