OK… this will be fun. First let me quote myself from page 3 of this thread…
“
I'm sure someone who has never run a traction-lug bias tire will argue with me and tell me what great traction they get with their wonder-radials.”
I believe we have that “someone”.
So every time you gotten stuck, its been because of radial tires?
No… every time I’ve gotten stuck it was because I was asking the tires to do more than what they were designed to do.
Will a radial tire, same size, same tread pattern, same inflation pressure on the same vehicle, be significantly handicapped against a bias ply tire?
First of all, because of construction differences, you can’t use the same tread pattern on radial and bias tires.
Second, because of construction differences, the two can’t be the exact same size… assuming height is the same, the radial
must be wider than the bias, no way around it.
Third, even if you could make them the same size with the same tread pattern, because of construction differences, it would be impossible to run them at the same inflation pressures without destroying one or the other… it-is-what-it-is.
Your above comparison is an impossibility… a fantasy… the question can not be answered. You are trying to make an apple-to-apple comparison by using an apple and an orange for the example.
Will say momentum is also key for hill climbing. Even just a slip can be disastrous.
Speaking of, how about rock climbing? Would the softness of a radial be better than stiffness of a bias ply?
Hill climbing is a form of extreme competition where the whole idea is to push the machine (including the tires) to the brink of failure… that’s not anything near what we’re talking about here.
A bias tire has a “stiffer” sidewall than a radial, but the outer rubber (the tread) of a bias ply tire is typically softer and “stickier” than that of a radial. Rock climbing takes tire abuse to the extreme, well past the sidewall limits of most radial tires… bias ply tires are the choice of serious rock climbers.
As for the backing in the snow, I have backed downhill in the snow and never slipped a tire. The tires would NOT stay in the tracks I had made going up the hill, they dug themselves out of the ruts and into the deep stuff.
That wasn't a factor of the tire, but of the weight distribution of the pickup.
No… that was a factor of the tire you’re running.
When you drove up the hill your tires did not make tracks
in the snow, they made tracks
on the snow. Rather than cut down through the snow they rode up on top and packed it down… basically making a raised hard-pack. When you tried backing down the hill on (not in) those tracks your tires were simply sliding off the raised areas you had created. A good traction-lug bias ply would have cut through to solid ground on the way up, and would have almost followed those tracks without you steering when you backed down them.
…following along in the tracks that others had made. Unfortunately, they had been made with full size pickups and were wider than the Ranger. I was all over the freaking road…
Same reason as above… your radial A/T street tires were
sliding sideways off the raised hard-pack.
As said, I would run bias ply tires if it is a significant improvement over the same radial tire. But is it really THAT much different?
Yes… there really is THAT much difference. But in your case you wouldn’t need to go to a bias ply to gain a ton of improvement… just swapping those radial A/T street tires for a radial off-road tire, like an M/T or even M/S would make so much difference you’d be wondering why you ever bought A/T’s in the first place.
The AT's above do a pretty good job for what they are. Seem to be a good alternative to a full on mud tire. They ride pretty well on the hardtop and do well off-road and in the snow.
Radial A/T’s ain’t an alternative…. most ain’t even a compromise. They are not an off-road tire, and they were never intended as an off-road tire… they ain’t even advertised as an off-road tire. They are designed to handle difficult
road conditions and look “cool” on Cowboy Cadillac’s and fancy SUV’s.
Like I said, I have a set of A/T’s for my truck that I run during mid-summer… they’re my summer street tire.
