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thornbirds = good tires?

shimmy

shimmy

NAXJA Forum User
Location
seattle, WA
I thought of this idea! so, we all know that thornbirds suck ass! they wear terrible and clog with dirt on the trails... but they are fairly inexpensive, and come in countless sizes!

enough of the expo. i was thinking of getting some thornbirds and custom grooving them to a better tread pattern for the trails. i've heard they are strong, if and grooved properly, could be pretty effective on the trail.

brandon
PS, these would be used offroad only! with minor street driving, basically only during the summer.

let me know what ya'll think.
 
Personally I would start with somethign good and make them better. In my opinion you can only make a thornbird so good. Why not start with a TSL or a SX and groove them?
 
I'm looking for tough cheap tires too. I've got 8 ply 36" swampers now and while they have tons of deep cuts and missing tread lugs they are holding up good. Still over half tread after a year of sharp rocks one day a weekend and daily driving with a welded rear.

I too am intrigued by the thornbirds...supposed to be tough, but only see 6 ply for the most part...grooving sounds good...but are they tougher than 8 ply swampers? I'm looking for the cheapest toughest 35 or 36" tire ...
 
They might hold up to some grooving and off-road only use, but I doubt it. I commuted with a buddy who had 37" thorn-turds on his truck. The lugs were the size of bricks and literally started to tear off on two of the tires. He wondered why they were getting loud and took a look - they were nearly off of the body of the tire and were slapping the pavement. Kind of scary since a chunk of tire that size probably weighed a couple of pounds and if it flew off at highway speed, well, you get the picture...
 
i heard they were harder than usual, thats sucks! as for giant chunks flying off, i've never seen it, but now i've heard it. thats enough to make me want something else.

thanks for all the input
brandon
 
I'd probably think about it if I scored a really cheap set of 36" otherwise I'd probably just grab a set of MTR or IROK
 
cherokeekid said:
I'd probably think about it if I scored a really cheap set of 36" otherwise I'd probably just grab a set of MTR or IROK
Click to expand...

Please, do the world a favor and write to Interco, begging them to please discontinue making the thorn$@$# so that people will stop thinking they are worth anything.

Yeah, I bought some once because I didn't know any better... took me over a month to ditch them at a loss on ebay.
 
Thornbirds = sh*t.
 
Thanks for the input...wont see 'em on my xj then. I wonder if you can get 10 ply swampers in a 35 or 36? For my 36" swampers to have lasted this long I think they must be one of the toughest I could get. I know I'm not riding out west and do see alot of mud. Maybe I should just be happy with what I have, eh? Damn things are lumpy as hell in the morning. Funny my 4 year old daughter likes to make fun of the ride to preschool in the morning. Bounce bounce bounce shimmy shimmy bounce. Hey look its us in the morning :shiver: :shiver:
 
is it still the general consensus that these things suck @ss. just they always looked like they had a good pattern to me, just need a little more void
 
From what i've heard, Thornbirds are only good if you use them primarily on-road they are Super Swampers version of an All terrain. I've heard nothing good about their trail capability. Several guys i know have gotten good milege out of them, and like them because of their looks and quiet ride (compared to SSR's). However, they don't sound like the right tire for you.
 
theres nothing you can do to make these tires better. . . they were the worst ride. . .and in wet stuff the most scary ride I have ever experienced.. I would just pay a little more for something better, and even making those better
 
i have a set of these on my yota and they prefformed very well in deeep mudd ''brown'' but sucked in the snow and were load on the street but i didnt mind them
 
wow
thread was only 18 months old
dam it now I am replying to it
by the way thornturds=crap
 
hey all,

i have been running thornbirds on my rig for about 8 months, so i can vouch for their suckiness. it is true that they are pretty much a super swamper all terrain. i got them for a good deal, paid about 400 for the set of 33x10.50s so i took it.

on the road, they hold up pretty well. i have put many many highway and city miles on them with a locker in the rear. they are very hard rubber. they are very loud on the highway, the worst speed is right around 60mph, 80 they sound like those road cuts that are supposed to wake you up when you go off the road.

off road, they totally suck balls. in mud, the tires just spin and spin and spin. they clean themselves well, but only because they are spinning fast. the reason they dont "grab" offroad is beacause those lugs are shaped weird and point forwards instead of sideways.

i would NOT buy them again, but i decided to keep them for as long as they lasted until i replace them. live and learn, and dont buy thornbirds.

-tim
 
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