Tires with tough sidewalls, 2 ply??

[4wdchico]

Seems it is hard to find tires tires for small cars that have 2 ply sidewalls. I found that the Cooper Trendsetter SE, Pep Boys 2000 LTE, and the Big O Euro Tour have 2 ply sidewalls. Anyone have any experience with those tires?

Or should I be looking for some tires with stiff 1 ply sidewalls, like a sporty tire? I drive on some pretty nasty Forest Service roads and have damaged the LT rated tires on my big Bronco before and am a bit concerned about sidewall damage.

[4wdchico]

An update:

Just scored some really nice factory Enki/Mazda Miata rims in 14" x 5.5" off Craigslist for $75! They are the ones that look like Rota wheels. 12.4#/ wheel, not the lightest wheel out there, but a whole bunch better than 19# for a steel Corolla 14" wheel. They have steel inserts for the standard steel wheel lug nuts to engage upon, nice. The center caps say Mazda but that does not bother me, as most folks are confused by the 4wd tercs anyway, and I don't mind adding to their confusion.

I have decided to go with the Cooper CS4 in 185/65 x 14 in H rated. See here: http://www.coopertire.com/html/products ... touring_hv

They have two ply sidewalls and I'm hoping that by going with the H rated versus the T rated tire I'll pick up some additional sidewall toughness as well. Handling & grip are rated higher on the H tires also.

[83Red4WD]

Great idea! Among the Miata faithful they're known as daisy wheels. example;

A few guys have painted them and also polished the lip. they've removed the stock MAZDA center caps and made center caps using various things like medicine bottle caps and pvc pipe caps. example;

new_tires.jpg

You might give that a shot. Anyway, we want to see pictures when you're done!

Cheers................Todd

[4wdchico]

Daisy wheels, I can sure see why they call them that. They look really strong with all the compound curves in the spokes.

[83toybeater]

go to tirerack and get some winterforce, they are the best tires for the money for off road on these cars. i have a set on both my t4wds. both 195 75 14s. great for rock crawlin to rallying(sliding around corners that would be hard to walk on due to sharp rocky roads.)

i work at a tire shop and these WINTERFORCES are the most agressive strongest tires in a small size that are CHEAP.

[Petros]

I do not know what the current Coopers are like, but 30 years ago they were aggressively pursuing the nitch of the light car/heavy duty user. They sponsored a lot of off road events, ralleys and other events where there were a lot of imported cars being used in off-pavement type contests.

I like those kinds of competition, I went to quite a few and even entered my old Volvo 122S in a few. I bought a used set of Coopers to put on my car, to look like one of the sponsored competitors. I found they were the worst radial tire I have ever driven on, that is true to this day 30 years later. I should hope they have improved their tires by now, but I would sure see what the latest tire comparisons are with it before I bought any.

Tires by Continental and Michelin were also used, and from my experience performed well and appear to be just as durable.

[tercelboy]

my dad has a miata would those 14" rims take 14"quad tires