Demisting in old vehicles!

He seems OK at answering the phone and getting back to me, must be some crafty use of message drops there. It seems he gets the tyres delivered to me straight from Greenway so quite possible that he's doing the whole thing on his tea break!

A valid point, but have you ever been close to a tank with the engine running? Take the Sherman for instance, IIRC one common engine option was an aircooled Pratt and Whitney radial petrol engine, converted from an aero engine, complete with large cooling fan and rudimentary silencing. being close to one even at tickover is bedlam - sleep neigh on impossible and a far cry from the gentle sound of a truck engine on tickover.

Julian.

On or around Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:47:21 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

ooh, they have the "Macho" ones in the size I want for the 4x4 transit project...

Mind you, I'd like it to handle on-road, so perhaps not.

Hehe, yes corners are likely to be fun. Mine have arrived this morning, I'm having them fitted in batches, if the signal to noise ratio on this group improves then you know I didn't make the bend!

:)

I have anacondas on the 109. They are very scary until they have worn in. A few days after fitting them I had cause to brake moderately on very steep piece of (private) tarmac and everything locked up. I stood on the brakes to see how far I'd go, it did eventually stop but It wouldn't have been much fun on the public road TBH. 2 years later though and I've still got them on and I've done at least one 100 mile run on the black stuff with them. In the dirt they are absolutely marvellous, I had plans to fit a diff lock but I don't think I need one because of the tyres. BTW; done 3000 miles so far and I reckon they're half worn now. About

60% tarmac 40% dirt. I don't do much recreational in it anymore but it had towed 2 1/2 tons of scaffolding in a 4 wheel trailer across a bog :)

Yep, I'm expecting them to be like slippers on ice for the first few weeks, I suppose I've got another excuse to take the pinz out for several drives every day again ;-) ISTR tyres being covered in s**te that's put there to help them come out the moulds, didn't notice if there was a "wash before use" sticker on like on grapes...

One thing that concerns me is that at the join between the tread and the sidewall there is a double line of raised rubber, this raised rubber does not describe much of a circle around the sidewall, it's distorted noticeably, as if I was looking at the tyres through some water. This is on all 3 tyres that have been fitted to the rims so far, I don't know if they're all like that or not. The tyre monkey inflated them to 40PSI, despite it reading "MAX 34 PSI" on the sidewall. I'm not convinced 6 PSI would make much of a difference but I let them down to the correct pressure. I've taken some pictures and sent them to the vendor.

I had planned to fit a winch, the hope is that with 6 anacondas and diff locks, I won't need one. What's the bets I'll drive the blasted thing into a ditch on my first trip off-road....

Good stuff, they cost me £54 each inc vat so they look like good value, provided that the ones I have are OK and not knackered. I also have some doubts about the rims, they're tube rims so don't have an inner retaining lip, but given that I've had 5 tyre deflations and one blowout due to having tubes inside tubeless tyres, it's probably less of a risk than putting tubes in there. Pinzers in the US use tubeless tyres on these rims without problems as long as they don't air them down below about 20PSI so they should be OK. Some fit beadlocks then air down to go rock crawling.

Yes but what's the betting that you'll drive it straight out again.

Martin

Having had to recover other vehicles from ditches, probably not that high!

In message , Ian Rawlings writes

I worried about that as well. It has been airborne on a certain mid Wales farm a couple of times and has hauled numerous very heavy loads about and the tyres have not developed any wierd bulges so I think they are OK.

:)

Well I had them on standard rims at first with tubes and a tube did go. They have since been swapped onto some manky chrome mangels tubeless and I've had no problems after.

On Sun, 26 Nov 2006 18:47:54 GMT, "Julian" scribbled the following nonsense:

the use of the aero engine is what made the Sherman sit so high compared to any other WW2 tank. ISTR the Germans nicknamed it the Tommy cooker because it was relatively to hit and set on fire, and relatively difficult to escape from...

I took some pics and emailed them to the vendor, then had them fitted anyway as I was pretty sure they were OK, I got confirmation of that later.

Sure but those are tubeless rims, mine are tubed rims with tubeless tyres on it so there's a chance that the tyres might get pushed off the wheels towards the centre, especially on the four rears which get scrubbed sideways when cornering. If that happens (and I'm not that worried as others are doing it with the same rims) then I'll get some inflatable beadlocks, which can also act as run-flat protection to help keep the truck under control if I ever get a blowout. They're quite neat, a small diameter inner tube that fits into the tyre and locks the bead, but keeps away from the inside of the tyre so doesn't risk heating up from tyre movement. Scorpion Racing sell them.

In message , Ian Rawlings writes

So many things...................... :)

On or around Fri, 24 Nov 2006 12:57:01 -0000, "Lee_D" enlightened us thusly:

arse. ordered one; out of stock 'til January.

I bought a can of this stuff:

.=2E.on Tuesday, arrived this morning. =A31.50 including postage. Just applied it to my Landy (inside and out - you know it's cold in the car when the condensation's on the *outside*) this morning, and haven't seen any fogging since. The real test will be when I get in tomorrow, so we'll see. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, it comes out as a sort of foam, and a little goes a *very* long way - I stood there for ages trying to work it all in, so don't squidge on too much.

Andrew

e:

Well, it's been on for a week or so now, and I'm very impressed. It does the job, although I think a second coat might be in order.

I wonder if a coat of rain-ex might do as well? It's supposed to stop the water from spreading out over the glass, I might have to try a small spot on the window somewhere. Mind you since emptying out the water from the heat exchanger output pipes (flooded passenger-side footwell) my old beast has demisted like a champ, more so than my Defender in fact.

Rain-X do a bloody good anti-fog product for the inside of windows.