• Notice for iPhone users: DO NOT use the image size reduction option when uploading photos to the forum. This causes portrait images to post as landscape. We have added a warning to the image insert pop-up as well.

Randyzzz Scrambler Restification Thread!

Randyzzz

Randyzzz

Blown Budget
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Redmond
State
OR
Long time with no update. Decided it was time for some new shoes for Copper. I loved the 35" BFG KM's, but on ice they were more like ice skates than tires. Having about 40% tread left didn't help. I was leaning towards BFG KO2's, but the conservative tread pattern didn't fit the overall look of the build. Also in the running were General X3 Grabbers, but even with siping I doubt they would have been much better than the KM2's. So, I bit the bullet and went with what I think is one of the best ice and snow tires out- the Goodyear Duratrac. To get a 35" tire in the Goodyear you have to go with 16" tires, so that necessitated new wheels too. I found some that I liked at the local Discount Tire, and here are the results:

IMG_6103.jpg

It wasn't as easy as that...as I attempted to pull out, I heard a horrible grinding. Turns out that most 15" wheels are about -20 offset, while 16" wheels are 0 offset. This means that the tie rod interferes with the 16" wheel. I never even thought about that, especially with a larger diameter wheel. The right side was BAD, actually removing material from the wheel. The left side just ripped off the weights and left a scratch. (I have no idea why the difference, maybe different tie rod ends or different knuckles...) Anyways, Discount got me another wheel for free, let me keep the damaged one, and moved my 1.25" spacers from the rear to the front. That looked funky, so I got a set of 2" spacers for the rear. Everything clears and the ride and traction are great! I'm not super warm/fuzzy about having spacers at all 4 corners, so I'm going to research how to fix it, short of replacing the new wheels I just bought. The rear is easy, a different axle would solve several issues including eliminating the spacers. The front will take a little more research, I'm considering having some hub-centric spacers machined up and using some special studs to give the setup more strength than the stock 7/16" studs. I'll post up once I have that figured out.

Last but not least, the wheels came with closed caps. So, they ordered me some open ones. Well, the open caps were ugly, just some straight wall plastic bolt on sleeves. So I took the two extra closed caps, chucked a 3 3/8" hole saw up in the drill press, and made some custom front caps.

Ugly sleeves-

IMG_6105.jpg

Much better!

IMG_6104.jpg
 
Last edited:
Randyzzz

Randyzzz

Blown Budget
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Redmond
State
OR
By the way, I will be selling the 5 Centerline HTII wheels and BFG's down the road. I'll post up in the for sale section once I get around to taking pictures.
 
IAFFCJ

IAFFCJ

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Manassas
State
VA
You should like those tires. We run them on our utilities we tow our emergency response boats with. They get used all the time during winter storms also to shuttle folks around and do great I’m many conditions.
 
bigwalton

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
Looks good Randy.

I'll repeat the same story from when I got the DuraTracs on my LJ at the GoodYear shop. The manager was a Jeep guy and saw the LJ in the bay, so he came to talk to the owner. He mentioned to me that all of the snowplow trucks were coming in to get the DuraTracs because they were just that good on the snow. :thumbsup:
 
Randyzzz

Randyzzz

Blown Budget
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Redmond
State
OR
Thanks for the compliments! I've run the Duratracs on a Tahoe in 265/75/16, they were the best snow and ice tires ever. Hoping for the same in the larger size- 315/75/16. It was rainy/sleeting today, and they stuck like glue. The BFG's on a wet road were spin city at the stop lights- not the Duratracs!
 
bigwalton

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
Randyzzz said:
Thanks for the compliments! I've run the Duratracs on a Tahoe in 265/75/16, they were the best snow and ice tires ever. Hoping for the same in the larger size- 315/75/16. It was rainy/sleeting today, and they stuck like glue. The BFG's on a wet road were spin city at the stop lights- not the Duratracs!
Click to expand...

That's exactly the size I had on the LJ :thumbsup:
 
zr10054

zr10054

Car and Gun Junkie
Lifetime Member
City
Gonzales
State
La
Looks good but I have a question. What is this snow you guys have been talking about. We've got Crawfish, is snow something like that?
 
Randyzzz

Randyzzz

Blown Budget
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Redmond
State
OR
zr10054 said:
Looks good but I have a question. What is this snow you guys have been talking about. We've got Crawfish, is snow something like that?
Click to expand...

Um...only if they cover the road a foot deep!:eek:
 
Belizeit

Belizeit

CJ-8 Member
Gold Member
City
River Ridge
State
La
Crawfish can make a real mess on the road, but I've never seen them stack up more than 6 inches
 
zr10054

zr10054

Car and Gun Junkie
Lifetime Member
City
Gonzales
State
La
When Crawfish cross a road like that it's usually to leave some bad water and find better water to live in.
 
Randyzzz

Randyzzz

Blown Budget
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Redmond
State
OR
Well, I think I’ve dropped enough hints that this would happen sooner or later, and the time has come. Copper officially sold today. The new owner is from MI and I think he might know Big Walton. Hopefully he posts up here. I got a lot less than I put into it but I think the price was fair. I never really advertised, this all came from a random post on Facebook.
So I guess this ends the saga of Copper. On to the build of Red.
 
barrys

barrys

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
City
East Norriton
State
PA
Wow. Curious to what it sold for. Understand if you don't want to post it. Wondering what something like your would be advertised around anyway.
 
Randyzzz

Randyzzz

Blown Budget
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Redmond
State
OR
Have to post this for closure. This thread is officially ended. I never thought I would see this day, but I just watched Copper get loaded on a trailer and drive off into the sunset. (Ok, fog.) Had a tear in my eye, like losing a good friend. Goodbye, Copper!

34225FC4-3985-4268-8BE7-587851063E6A.jpeg
 
designerRob

designerRob

CJ-8 Member
Silver Member
City
Allen Park
State
MI
Randyzzz said:
Have to post this for closure. This thread is officially ended. I never thought I would see this day, but I just watched Copper get loaded on a trailer and drive off into the sunset. (Ok, fog.) Had a tear in my eye, like losing a good friend. Goodbye, Copper!

View attachment 78465
Click to expand...
I had the same feeling when someone drove away in my Jeep last year. As the only owner and enjoying it immensely for 20 years it was such a strange feeling seeing it leave with someone else.

But when it's time it's time. :cheers: On to new adventures.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top