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Posted by mannyc [173.77.206.116] on Thursday, July 07, 2011 at 21:13:35 :
In Reply to: Re: I was going diesel so figured i needed higher gears. posted by Paul(in NY) [12.64.108.78] on Thursday, July 07, 2011 at 19:42:49 :
in general i agree, but the 10.50 new production chevrons do not weigh appreciably more than the 900s, are not appreciably bigger than the 9.00-16s and are a good alternative to crappy no traction smaller ndts. the chevrons and the michelins were designed to go on our budd rims. You are correct about unsprung mass, but what would impact wear and ride characteristics more - crappy smaller tires, or well balanced non lumpy radials and modern production tires?
If i had to do my command car over, i would have skipped the 489s and gone with the slightly larger chevrons. they offer superior performance, a bit more speed and can be balanced and made to run true. i have had 2 trucks with 489s - one stock and one with a 360. in my opinion, you need more engine to take advantage of the 489s...
radial michelins and chevrons look right on a military dodge while the stas, yokohamas or others that work on ffpws do not. if you are going to do 489s, you lose a lot of the benefit of higher speed if you don't upgrade the lumpy stock tires. nothing like adding 20% road speed to amplify the faults in poor tires... if you go to disc brakes, reasonable tires and lose the drums, you are likely even weight-wise with a truck equipped with ndts and drums. i am all for updated gearing, brakes and tires, but on a stock command car or power wagon with a 230 any set of good tires is wise investment. as far as the engineering goes from dodge, the 489s came in trucks with 700-16 tires and were optional on trucks with 900-16s. since i drive my command car on roads only and will never off road it, i am content to run the correct ndts for looks, 489s and 4 corner discs.
if you buy set of tires without a new spare or 2, you will likely run into trouble somewhere down the line. unless you rotate your spare into the mix, you will have a tread depth issue. we run a fleet of modern tractor trailers. the tread patterns change so often now we often have to have an entire axle recapped when one tire goes bad.
the discussion is good in that there are a lot of options. you can choose what works best for you and you can always change midstream or after some personal experience. charles talbert swears by the tires he uses. i am happy for him, but would not use those tires. paul gets good performance with his diesel upgrades and tire pairing and i believe that my experience has merit too. best bet is to buy a couple of trucks and set them up differently.
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