Australian economy sucks sometimes....

[Monkey Man]

OK, I am quietly pissed off with the price of things here, I have to do something about tyres, making rims and putting modern rubber is still on the cards but pricewise I got a shock, standard Firestone 900-16 NDT's were $350 each NOT including tube and flap but that was 12 months ago and I am awaiting a more current price, another supplier had the Nato NDT's for $575 each!!!, Holy Crap, do these things have a good wear rate and should I be concerned about using my truck at all once I got a set??? These are the only 2 active suppliers of 900-16's I have been able to find in Australia, I suspect other countries do not pay any where near that per tyre and for that sort of money I am seriously tempted to import some tyres or go with the new wheel and radial tyre plan as $2,875 for 4 tyres plus the spare in the Nato NDT (NOT including fitting, balancing or tubes if required) seems a tad f@#ked up to me and if I have to spend that sort of dollars I might as well end up with tubeless wheels and radial tyres....
Ideas anyone?

MM

[Tuko]

It's spelled tire

[w30bob]

MM,

I'm constantly bitching about the price of NDTs here in the States. But after reading your post I'll shut up now. Wow.

Tuko.....poking fun at the guy while he's down.....my, my, my.
But it did make me chuckle....so I'm as guilty as you.

[Monkey Man]

No, tire means you have had a long day and you are tired, Time for bed
One day you guys will learn to drive on the correct side of the road too

MM

[T. Highway]

MM,

It's only money, you can make more almost every day.

I know my wife flipped when she saw the invoice for 5 Mich XLs.

Bert

[Monkey Man]

I just have to bite the bullet, save up and buy them....
Hopefully they wear well as I intend on using the truck more now I have done the work to it and once I have tyres on that I can be confident in it'll be good to put some miles on the odometer and take My Family all over the place in it, I have been planning a 2 week trip around the state for some time with short jumps to different places so driving the M37 dosen't take up the whole trip, just becomes a fun part of it but on the present set of tyres I would not contemplate it at all..

MM

[chris olson]

MM, does Simex make any 900-16 comparable tyres ?
One would think that with Australia's close proximity to Indonesia that Rubber would be cheaper...

[ShoeStringFiftyThree]

Yeah,
Tire prices are tough in America these days as well.

6 or 8 years ago, when the price of oil went through the roof,
tire prices doubled over the course of a couple years.
Then when specialty tire manufacturer Denman went under,
specialty tires were hard to find even at twice the price

I figured in oz,
you'd be able to get Simex tires,
or even cheap Chinese knock offs that aren't available here.

Either way, good luck

[DJ]

Maybe 900-16 tires, would be cheaper than 900-16 tyres?

[m-37Bruce]

Maybe 900-16 tires, would be cheaper than 900-16 tyres?

Now that's funny.....

[Monkey Man]

Maybe 900-16 tires, would be cheaper than 900-16 tyres?

Now that's funny.....

You Yanks think you have a sense of humour Eh...
Pretty good logic actually, if I was where tyres are called tires then they would indeed be cheaper but the cost of moving to the US might negate any savings, would be good to be able to visit memebers of the forum though
Simex is out of the question, also VERY expensive here but 325/80 R16's are about the same $500 dollar each price but I would still need to get tubeless rims made, 315/75 R16's are suitable and a bit cheaper but no-one here will fit them to a Budd rim so once again tubeless rims would be a requirement. I appreciate all the suggestions, any more suggestions VERY welcome, maybe I need to get Tom at Snake river to send a set of adapters and 2 full sets of Gama goat TIRES on rims (only joking Tom, by the time they got freighted here it's be a seriously scary price...)

MM

[kelley]

MM,
Did you try Universal tire in Hershy, Pa.? Thats where i got mine.

[Monkey Man]

I did have a look there after you suggested it, looks good but getting them from there to here is a problem costwise, the 10.50/16's looked good though but tubeless rims required, an easy overdrive for anyone suitably equipped to have them on their rig though....

MM

[kelley]

How about those 12x16.5" Humvee tires? They seem to be all over the place really cheap. It would require Buying some 10 or12x16.5" rims and combining them with your m37 centers. I have a set of both, just need the time.

[Monkey Man]

Yet another avenue but no, HMMWV tyres are not prevalent here, if you have a spare HMMWV to send me thought I would definently look into it more seriously

MM