I went back over some old notes I would keep. The Yokohama Super Digger 3 tire I showed weighed mid 36 lbs. I also had specs on the Mickey Thompson Baja Pro weighing 37 lbs. The Yokohama Traction Service front tire was a 7.00-15 (31 inches) and weighed 33 lbs, but after shaving the edge knobbies the tire was 30-31 lbs. We ran the Centerline spun aluminum wheel, the rears were 15x6 (11 lbs) and the fronts 15x3.5 (10 lbs).
Those 33" Yokohamas just look like they belong on a ute. I know their sidewalls couldn't be near as durable as the 8 ply rated sidewalls of the itp's that Marc's been running. We would race on used tires with the itp's because the new ones provided too much traction, and Marc couldn't slide the car how he wanted to at high speeds, and they seemed to be harder on the belts when new. 200-300 mile old tires at 18-20 psi was the ticket for us on 30" black waters.
In all my years running the Super Digger, sidewalls were never an issue, sure we had some flats, but the sidewalls were never torn open, plus running a tube means you are not depending on the tire to keep you inflated. I wish I had some old pictures to show how folded over and bent up we have had some wheels, yet the tire never went flat and stayed on the wheel. One time in the rock garden I got a flat and had to drive threw it with no place to pull over. the wheel was so bent all the way around I almost could not get one of the lugs off! In most cases we could send the wheels to Eddco/U.S Wheel or Ramerio's and we could get the wheel straitened and polished and run that wheel over & over. Only a few times was a wheel scrapped, unlike a cast wheel, where 1 bend or crack it was junk.
Also the idea of Marc running worn tires makes perfect sense. When racing class 10 we ran the BFG Baja TA and we would take brand new tires over to Parkhouse Tire to have them shave 1/2 the tread off and buff the edges to round the tire and to reduce side bite. Wheel spin in many cases is a huge advantage, as it reduces shock load to the drivetrain as you skip over the tops of the bumps, lightens the tire and reduces engine bog in sand,silt and just allowed the engine to stay in the power band better. This is another reason why the Yokohama is such a good tire in the limited buggy classes. We had to alter the BFG to do what the Yokohama was doing right off the shelf.
Reid do you remember the 35" Super Digger 3? That was such an awesome tire. It was a shame when Yokohama stopped producing that tire. It was heaver and ran a harder compound, but it was designed for higher HP buggy's & trucks. Remember when Ivan ran the Yoko's on the PPI TT? A few years back some guys went searching for the molds as they were willing and had the funds to buy them from Yokohama. It was later found that Yokohama scrapped those tire molds and destroyed the docs that had all the rubber compound formula's.
I believe the 30" Ultracross weighs about 34 lbs. Theres a Utube vid of Yoko Super Digger 33" that's not impressive at all for a long Baja Race.
George I could show you video's or pictures of every tire out there that does not look impressive after a race. At the Mint the TT guys would change rear tires on every lap when they fueled. Did you see how bad those tires looked? You cant take one video, and say this tire was not impressive. How many miles were on the tire? What HP did the vehicle have? What air pressure did they run? You yourself learned about low air pressure on the Tensor's and those tires should be able to handle low pressure, being that they are steal belted and with how stiff & heavy they are.
I know guys who could race 500 miles on a Yoko and finish with 1/3 tread left and then there were others who could not do 500 miles on any brand of tire. Also you want a tire that wears, if not you are running to hard of a compound and are actually losing traction and gaining weight in most cases. My teams strategy was to put new rear tires on at the driver change, so a fresh driver started with fresh rear rubber. Also any time we pitted and saw potential issues with the wheel or tire, it was change. You should be able to change two rear tires in about the same time as it takes to fill your fuel cell. So their is no down time to changing a questionable tire.
We raced the Baja 1000 on two sets of rear Super Diggers, each driver got a fresh set. Both sets still had plenty of tread left after there run.
BTW in the past I have got paid consulting fee's for what I'm giving some of you for free. LOL!
