Wanted: tires; 11:00-16

[Jack Innes]

The original tires on the Ram amphibian have sipes cut into the ND tread. This was done as part of the prototype development for better control on wet pavement. Probably in desperation when they found that the truck will go 70 mph!
You see some truck tires marked "regroovable" which would indicate the process is still done. I have not tried it but perhaps a router would do the job.

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Jack

Those tires were cut with a hot grooving tool. Something like the old fashion electric soldering iron with a very thin U shaped blade..... it would stink like hell but it moved through rubber like the proverbial hot knove in butter. There was a guide plate that allowed adjustment/control over the depth of the cut.

The sipe cuts.... not even sure fi that is the wirte spelling.... was done by mounting tires in a special jig and the cutters were a gang of very thin rotating blades arcing around the tires at some 45 degrees.... it would make about 6 to eight cuts per pass...... much like the Michelin ice tires they now sell...... the cutters were guided over the whole diameter of the tire.

I believe there was a recapping facility in Ottawa in the 70s that had such a sipe cutting machine..... I know they also regrooved recapped tires for buses at one time.



Cheers

[rob love]

Pretty much every unit and every base maintenance got the re-grooving tool some 15 years back. It cam about when the HLVW LCMMs checked into their tire useage to see that 90% of the tires that had been replaced were still serviceable. On many of them, the stabilizer bars were being mistaken for wear bars. With a bit of time cutting, the tires could have a bit of life extension.

That said, I never saw one used. Too many jobs and not enough mechanics.

[Bob Carriere]

So Bob is still looking for 11:00 x 16 tires.

Best bet now is with private individuals reselling Michelin.

Have you tried the Power Wagon Forum as they were very popular with the restorers of flat fender PW of 1946-57.
Cheers

[rob love]

The 11.00s have been out of the military system for a while now, replaced by the 325-85R16, as Bob linked to back in the second post.

[Robin Craig]

Rob,

In the UK, in that former life before the WPP relocated me here , I had a side job working for the local tyre shop doing re-grooving using the tool Bob described.

They had made up a jig that enabled you to mount a tyre onto it and stand and push the tool through the pathways of the grooves, as you ran out of tyre one stepped on the pedal and that would release the brake and allowed the tyre to rotate a ways and voila fresh tyre to work with.

It was a mindless smelly job best done with a fan behind you off to the side a bit.

I did it while saving for airfare to Ibiza, that den of vulgarity in the Med.

A good entry level job for the youth of today.

R

[Bob Phillips]

Hi All: I have found a US source of NOS 1100x16 tires. They are not cheap, but my interest was to get as large a diameter 16 inch tire as I could in order to pick up the road speed a bit. The use of a 16.5 inch tire sounds interesting but...I always thought one of the issues with 16cmp rims/tires was the style of bead. It is essentially square in profile like a 20 inch tire. The US military 16 inch tires were like this although they had a 5 degree bead where it slipped over the rim so it helped to turn a 16th of an inch off the rims to smooth them and allow the tapered ( for want of a better word) bead. So what about the 16.5 inch wheels? Do they have a straight/square bead profile like a 20 inch tire or a tapered bead like a modern truck tire? Anybody know??...BP