Australian economy sucks sometimes....

[kelley]

I'd be happy to, unfortunately i just sent my last one to a long lost uncle who just happens to be an exiled Nigerian prince.

[Monkey Man]

Ah - so that guy really does have a living relative now?? Maybe he'll stop bugging us all about the 20 Million USD he so desparately wants to give away...
It's supposed to rain here tomorrow so I'll dig out the damaged rim I have, finish grinding the heads off thr rivets and remove the centers, if the wheel build is economically viable I'll go ahead with tubeless, if it is not I can either get the firestones (got the updated price, $440 plus freight, tube and flap each) or the somewhat more expensive alliance Nato Treads, I'll keep you all posted as to which way this project swings...

MM

[Brett]

MM
If the 315/75r16 would work for you, and are cheaper, why not go that route. Buy the tires(tyres) and mount them up yourself. Lots of people are running tubeless tires(tyres) on budd rims. Mounting them is not that hard. I guess maybe you guys have an upside down law aginst mounting your own.

Brett

[Monkey Man]

Yes Brett, simplicity is often the best way, the laws here are quite strict on such things but there may be a way around that, I'll get a price on the bare rims and how much to true and weld them, in the long run I would so prefer tubeless radial tyres so having dedicated wheels would be the best tactic, the steering (see other post) is the other item that needs sorting but that can wait as apart from a little road wander and being heavy it's quite safe and functional...

MM

[52 M-42]

Have you tried Superlugs? I've got Superlugs for my everyday tyres on the truck and trailer and will put the NDT's on for static displays. The NDT's tread will just disappear on asphalt in about six months (at least the front tyres) if you drive them all the time. The Superlugs are harder to muscle around (they are a much more square edged tyre) than the NDT's which are much rounder at the sidewall / tread interface.

The Superlugs were about $189 each last spring / early summer. Might be worth taking a look at.

BTW, I think you spell tyre correctly. You tire from working too hard.

52 M-42

[Monkey Man]

STA's may well be here, I just haven't found the supplier yet but I will keep looking, the alliance NDT's look good, then again, the firestones look ok too, not much choice for me here but at least once the tax return is in I can make a choice. Looks like the 20" tyres on the trailer aren't much chop but will do for now, they list a 750-20 in NDT, that would look better than 825's for ride height and origonality but I don't think they would be cheap either

MM

[Brigand]

Tony, quit your sulking and use that lump between your ears for something other than a hatrack Seriously though you need to look at it with new eyes. You have a former Soviet client state not to terribly far from you. For decades India bought most their military vehicles and small arms and artillery from the old USSR and China, neither of which have any great concern for concept of "patents" Since both started their post war inventory with American designs it follows that they sought mfg. capability in a sympathetic venue. India , ever the pragmatist has supplied a wierd metric version of both 9:00 and 11:00 16 tires. I've seen a number of them on Scandanavian Dodges and Volvos. Oddly we don't seem to be able to import them economically. Look up MRF or CEAT the latter being a Chinese corp. doing business in India. I was told that the GAZ 1.5 tonne transport used a tyre of equivalent size to our M37.
Oddly enough spelling the word as "tyre" may actually raise the price. The vendor would probably know that only the remnants of the British Empire spell it that way. And whether you hail from Oz, Kiwi land or Ol' Blighty you have likely become conditioned to being well and truly buggered on the price of anything made off shore.
I don't need to tell you that tyre prices are directly linked to crude oil prices but it seems I just have. It strikes me that while rises in the cost of crude correspond to higher tyre prices, dips in the price of crude lack a reciprocal funtion. The prevailing logic being that if the tyres were made with more expensive crude the maker will sell the tyres made with said crude at a higher price. Should the price of crude drop, the maker will then justify selling the remainder of his stock at the inflated price. Once the supply of tyres is exhausted the maker restocks with tyres made with cheaper crude and logic would dictate that the price would drop in proportion with the reduction in the cost of crude. Oddly this never really seems to occur. We have a similar problem in the U.S. in that when gas prices rise based on the price of foreign oil(Which isn't really used for fuel mfg. here) the price of a gallon of gas shoots up straight away. When the world crude market drops the price of gas takes several weeks to if not months to drop. Strangely it never drops to the original price even if the price of world crude drops to pre-rise levels.
Economists will tell us that there are complex reasons for this, but they tend to be in the employ of oil companies or media companies that depend on oil companies for their butter and jam. Fancy that.

[Monkey Man]

Arrrr, Nothing like Brigand to spit out the truth with as much tact as a good solid kick in the nuts and hand you a beer to smooth things out LOL
I have been aware of the buggers stealing from us for a long time Bob, I just can't accept the fact they tell us we have it good and 67 as the new retirement age before you can access your superannuation fund to actually achieve reirement yet the government and a good percentage can sign on for a few years, get taxpayer funded retirement and do so at less than 40 burns my ass then tax you a bit more on everything from tyres to toilet roll to subsidise imports instead of helping local productivity. We're being flushed down the toilet, but don't worry, we are also told it'll be a good thing for the economy.....they just don't tell you who's economy they mean

MM

[Brigand]

Dear me, I failed to sign my last post with love and kisses
As I see it you have two options with a possible third that is a bit dodgy so we'll save it for last. You could pursue the Indian manufacturers for a suitable and probably cheaper tyre and if posssible form a group of other interested parties to get a group rate. The 406.2mm or 16" size is well represented by one mfg. and somewhat less so by the Taiwanese outfit that mfg's in India.
Second you can go with custom tubeless rims as you have suggested. If you do this I would pass on the recommendation of the man who did my last set, which was to use 18" rims or 457.2mm . The reasoning for this was that manufacturers are phasing out the 16" tyre size except as a specialty (read as expensive) product. Tyres in the 38" diameter range are readily available from any number of mainstream manufacturers. Radial tyres in 16" will continue to be available do to the ubiquitous nature of SUV's and Pick-ups in the U.S. although the selection of models will diminish. It also requires less trimming of the wheel centers .
The third and more dubious approach is to avoid import tariffs,VAT and other taxes and bribes or bakshish by getting the mfg. to send you a set for "Evaluation" nudge nudge aye? The Mfg. may send you correspondence to the effect that they were considering your market, and would greatly welcome your opinion of their product and would you please accept a full set of tyres in your particular size for the purposes of writing a review. This is the Ideal response but it is also extremely unlikely, In any event save the letterhead. It is more likely that you will receive a missive politely thanking you for your interest, but as they already have a fully accredited testing program..blather..etc...well you get the drift.The response will likely be in the tone of a long suffering shop keeper declining the offer of a petulant child who has just volunteered to taste test his stock of candies. Again save the letterhead, it's value should be quite obvious without my having to spell it out for you and thereby meeting the definition for conspiracy.
As I said this is the dodgy bit and shouldn't be attempted if you can't lie in a reasonably convincing fashion. In your favor, you have been married to the same woman now for quite a few years. We all know this cannot be acheived in the harsh light of absolute truth. In addition you're Australian, I've never met an Aussie who couldn't tell a pretty convincing yarn so you are probably safe there.
Bureaucrats are the same the world over , They like to see paperwork. They do not however, necessarily want to read it. A few convincing paragraphs of doubletalk on the mfg's letterhead and a slightly pompous attitude and they'll stamp your chit and away you go. A bureaucrat will almost never make more work for himself and verifying paperwork is in fact "work" in the strictest sense of the word. Timing is everything of course and you'll want to wait until it is very nearly lunch time. Doug Adams wrote "Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so" This is not a concept widely entertained in bureaucratic circles, however you don't want to wait so late that they can tell you to come back after lunch. As the theoretical lunchtime draws near the bureaucrat is much more likely give only prefunctory attention to said paperwork while the rest of his faculties are focused on the Tandoori chicken he's planning for his midday repast. If you couple the foregoing with a convivial line of patter to limit his ability to concentrate on the facts, you'll be home and dry in no time at all.

Disclaimer: The foregoing is hypothetical speculation and no suggestion of conspiracy to circumvent the Customs or Tax departments of any country is intended. wink wink.

[Juan]

Go with the rim modification and modern radial tubeless rubber, you'll never regret it, Tony. I've used for years bias ply 900-16 on the oem rims, and the whole driving experience improved a lot when I switched to modern 315-75-16 rubber.
BF Goodrichs a/t in my case but Yokohamas are really good tires, and I'm sure you'll find a lot of readily available rubber in those sizes in Australia. Remember a lot of Land Cruiser owners use that same size rubber when they want to upgrade it's offroad capabilities.

[Monkey Man]

Thanks Juan, I am still deciding on tyres, the rear diff has me busy at present so until I have that sorted I have no budget to speak of but will report back on whatever I go with.

Bob, I can tell a good yarn but the customs, duty and imports guys here are not stupid, they are aussies too, what's the saying? - Never bullsh.. a bullsh..ter, they will catch you out every time

Best Regards - MM

[Brigand]

A friend named Rourke from Melbourne told me that no true Australian would work for the "Guvmint" . Not being in my right mind at the time I asked him if he thought "Australian Government Employee" was an oxymoron. Then he punched me in the head for calling him names. I got even though, I gave his name to a pomme football coach, and he spent four years playing for the Hammers.

[Wayne64]

To jump in with a question. Now that my ride is road ready I'm sure the NDTs are going to need replacing in the near future. Does anyone have a link to the DIY conversion of the centers to a steel tubeless rim?
Back in the old bye gone days hot rodders cut apart rims to create "reverse rims".
Thanks much
Wayne

[Joe]

Hey MM,

Have you tried getting tires from the Philipines? Rommel from MD Juan (makers of most of the Jeep replacement tubs and body panels) has been very active on several of the Jeep forums recently and he says that there are still LOTs of old Jeep in the PI. I expect that they have a lot of M37s and the related WW II Dodges as well and I'm sure that they have a lot of local manufacturers making parts for them.

If I were you, I'd join one of the Jeep forums such as earlycj5.com and contact Rommel through it and see what he can tell you about locally manufactured tires or if he can put you in touch with them. He's also an exporter (of Jeep body parts) so he may be able to give you some help with getting tires shipped to you. I would think VietNam may well still have stocks of tires that the US left behind. I know there is a guy on E-bay selling M37 parts and shipping them from VN.

[Monkey Man]

I have looked into that a bit but nothing found on tyres yet, I'll keep looking, Thanks Joe...

MM