Interco builds Super Swamper tires, which the winners of the two ARCA events held this year had mounted on their 4x4's. Not a company to sit on its laurels, they are working on a new rock crawling tire that will have the same tough construction Super Swampers are known for, a new, high-tech tread design and a super sticky compound. They also plan to build them without belts, which will allow the bias ply tires to wrap around the rocks like radials and will keep the tires quite lightweight.
They recently molded four Bogger tires with this experimental compound and sent them to us. Remember, the new tires are going to have a completely different tread design. The Boggers were used as those were the tires being molded at the time of the compound test.
We'd like to report that the compound is really something. The tires feel a little like gummy erasers, which made us think that the lugs would tear off the minute we hooked them on a rock. Not so. The tires | hooked up unbelievably well and the lugs stayed attached to the carcass. In fact, there has been no tread separation, tearing, or even chunking so far in our testing. The drag racing compound (yes, that's what it is) allows the tires to really grip the rocks. They work fantastic in the sand, too. We expected the tires to wear right out, too. While they seem to wear a bit faster than the current tires, it looks, at this point in our testing, as if you will be able to at least get in a season of hard core rock crawling per set.
With both Interco and Mickey Thompson working on super-sticky rock crawling tires, the outlook for consumers is rosy. We don't believe you'll be seeing many other brands of tires on extreme 4x4's once these tires become available. Competitors will HAVE to run them if they want to have a chance at winning and the rest of us, who want to traverse the toughest terrain, will need them, too.
We'll keep you posted. |
