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DAY 6
EXTREME BUILDUP 2000 Project 1
RickRock's 1976 Scout II
Realizing that the axles are ready to get the new rubber…we decided to get our fannies to the local Discount Tire Company (or America’s Tire Company in California)
for the new 33x12.50 BFG Mud Terrain’s. We could have got the tires anywhere, but Discount Tire offers a couple of things that make them worth the extra effort.
First they offer “certificates” on all tires they sell. Otherwise known as road hazard warrantees, this costs an extra $17.00 per tire. What this means is that if you
blow a tire, rip a sidewall or anything else Discount Tire will replace that tire for free…and they don’t care if you busted the tire on or off road! This alone
makes the extra price worth it.
The second thing Discount Tire offers is what it commonly called “Siping”. Siping is another little trick you can use to increase your wet/mud/snow traction.
What they do is take your new tires and put thousands of horizontal slots through the tread. These slits are about ½” deep and gives your tire much more
edges. These edges in turn are able to grab better while in foul weather…or in our case, when we are playing in the mud or rocks! Siping costs roughly
$10.00 per tire, and most people who have it done, will swear by it for evermore.
Worried about the safety of “Siping”? Well never fear, the US government did a number of tests to insure that Siping was a safe practice. They found
that not only was it safe, but it dramatically improved traction on snow and ice, as well as improved tire life! Cool eh? Here are a couple of photos of
the actual sipping and a picture of a sample provided by our friends at Discount.
How much siping should you do? That depends on what type of driving you plan on. Normal tires only get the middle or the tread siped.
This helps on-road drivability and maintains comfort at higher speeds. If your rig will see nothing but trails, then you may want them to sipe
the entire tread block (from edge to edge), this will give you more grip off-road, but can compromise comfort during city driving. We opted to
sipe the middle and only the beginning of the outer tread blocks. This will yield well-rounded performance on and off road without
compromising one or the other too much.
Now that we are stocked with new tires, let get back to the rig!
Next thing on the list is to finalize our rear axle modifications. Time to hook up the Kicker Shocks. Kicker shocks are shocks that are mounted on
the rear axle pointing forward towards the forward spring mount. The shocks are commonly Rancho 9000’s. Although this is a fairly unconventional
fix, we use these shocks to control axle wrap. Most people use either the well-known traction bars or the equivalent to solve this problem, but these
systems can limit your springs natural flex and will compromise your rear axle articulation. We use the Rancho 9000 shocks because they are flexible
(which wont limit the spring’s flex) and they are 100% adjustable (from soft to firm) so you can dial them in to your own preference. How does this work?
The stiffer you adjust these shocks the more they act like the totally rigid traction bars…but if you want a little more wrap (hey, everyone has their own
preference) simply loosen them up a bit. So use a soft setting on the street, but then dial them up off-road till you no longer get wheel hop…Presto!
Wow…that was a long day…
PLANS
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| Day 4
| Day 5
| Day 6
| Day 7
| Day 8
| Day 9
| Day 10
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