Mickey Thompson Tires "Suck"

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onig

I love driving my BBD
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Anybody else have problems with MT tires.
We had MT Sportsman, could not get them to seal properly to the wheel, kept on leaking past the bead and rim. The run-out of the tire was horrible. Sent them back received a new set, one sealed but the other did not. We put tubes in them to make them work. The bead on these sportsman were terrible. Just by looking at the bead we knew that they would leak again. Also to balance them took a ton of weight, outside over 5 ounces and just under 4 ounces for the inside. Tried flipping the tire, repositioning it but that was the best we got. The axial and radial run-out was terrible but at least they didn't leak with the tubes even though they were supposed to be tubeless.
Now we went to MT ET Street, the bias ply tires. Again a ton of weight was needed on one of the tires, like 7 and 4 ounces. These are tube type so obviously they don't leak. The other tire we can't get it to balance. Just insane. Spent hours flipping, repositioning but no luck. Will try again tomorrow. Oh the run-out is like 3/8" on the sidewall and about 1/4" on the tread. When its spinning on the tire balancer it looks bad... We checked the wheel for balance and it was perfect. The run-out was also perfect. Billet Specialty Wheels.
A friend has the ET street tires as well and he had to send them back for an other set. Again a ton of weight was needed to balance them.
Another friend has the MT drag radials and had similar problems.
I have the drag radials on my car, I guess I got lucky, the run-out was OK, but needed a ton of weight.

Anybody else have similar problems. I'd like to hear them.

I will be calling MT tomorrow to let them know of my issues. NO more MT tires for me.

onig
 
I have used Mickey T's for years and have had the same problems you are expressing. I found that pretty much all the different manufacturers have the same problem. Lotsa weight and the casing seems to move around a lot when you view it on the balancer. Drag radial and radial slicks dont have these same problems. I have never had a set of sticky bias ply tires seal at the bead.
 
I have MT ET and MT drag radials and had to add extra weight,but didn,t have any issues sealing without tubes.I figured I,d try some Hoosiers this time and just bought some 29-12-15 for the 66 Dart.I,ll let you know how they work out.
 
Sad to hear all that and sounds like you made every possible attempt to make em work, I think MTs sit around too long on the shelf and can even be dry rotted when you get em. I have bought close to two dozen sets of Goodyear slicks and only had a problem with one tire not balancing and we tried everything you mentioned, would rotate it 1/4 turn at a time trying to find a happy spot but if it was gonna require close to 20 ounces it wasnt goin on any car of mine.
 
I run a set of Sportman Pros and the DOT ET street tires and they were not to bad to balance. No seal problems because i run tubes for the track.
 
Been running m/t drag radials for about 5 years now,they do take a little weight,but with the way my car hooks thats not an issue to me.the problem is keeping the rubber on them,i go through 2 sets a year when racing regularly i've tried Hoosiers,bfg's and even slicks and for my money the m/t drag radial hooks better then all of them...
 
Well, I have ran 28x10.5 ET Streets and don't even attempt to balance them. The car does not vibrate or shake at all. I also don't balance my slicks. I run BOTH tubeless! Coat the inside carcass (not the bead!!) with a very strong solution of Dawn dishwashing liquid and water. Let it dry before you mount the tire. I lose maybe 2 psi a week this way.
 
I run the 28x10.5 ET with no tubes no problems. I did buy a set of Hoosiers rear street slicks that the sidewall started cracking in about 6 months that was very disappointing. They were stored indoors and not nearly as old as my MT tires.
 
M&H RACEMASTER. Nuff said.
 
I am hearing that a lot of bias ply tires have these issues with many manufacturers.
Yes the radials are a lot better.
I was talking to one tire dealer and he said that he sends a lot of MT back for these same reasons. He said that if you want MT tires cheap he knows a guy that sells these returned tires as blems/defective if you want to play with the balance and air loss issues.
We are thinking of trying the M&H tires next time around.

onig
 
I wish I would have read this thread before today. I went to work today and mounted my new P325/50R/15 MT ET Street radials on brand new Center Line wheels. We tried to balance them on our Hunter wheel balancer. The balancer was calling for over 300 grams of weight!! We tried playing with different positions but it made no difference.

I am still in the mock up process but am wondering whether I need to contact Summit or MT about returning these tires? One of the old guys said that since they are going on the back, I should just static (bubble) balance the tires and live with them. I paid $200 a piece for these tires and don't think I should have to compromise anything!!!

What do you guys think?
 
BrianT said:
I wish I would have read this thread before today. I went to work today and mounted my new P325/50R/15 MT ET Street radials on brand new Center Line wheels. We tried to balance them on our Hunter wheel balancer. The balancer was calling for over 300 grams of weight!! We tried playing with different positions but it made no difference.

I am still in the mock up process but am wondering whether I need to contact Summit or MT about returning these tires? One of the old guys said that since they are going on the back, I should just static (bubble) balance the tires and live with them. I paid $200 a piece for these tires and don't think I should have to compromise anything!!!

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Take the tire off and spin the wheel by itself. That will tell you what's up. 300 grams is like 2/3 of a pound... like 11 ounces.

I'd get a replacement tire if you have one that's that far out.
 
I have never had a problem with my M/T Drag Radials or my M/T E/T Streets but i do run a tube in my Streets my rear wheels are screw..
 
my buddy had this same problem. he returned them to summit and got another set that was crap. MT didnt seem to think it was a problem when he called them. so he went with M&H.
 
Ever see these?
 

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I've had sportsman pros, no tubed, good seal, no problem other than sucked in the rain.

I now have M/T SR radials, much better ride on the street and no more scary situations in the rain.

Have you thought about taking it to a shop that can actually shave the tires perfectly round?

I know a guy with a local speed shop that races road track cars such as Porsches and Ferrari's and he has one of those shavers that will true up your tires.
I don't know if that is something to use with drag race tires, but maybe someone else can chime in on that idea.
 
also running M/T SR radials and they didn't take much weight and have had zero problems with them....they're also wearing very well 8)

Rickster
 
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