[matt91112011]

Hi guys,

My lift is on order, so it's time to start thinking about tyres. The tyres will be used for Offroad use only so I'm not worried about wear. I'm looking into the simex centipedes at the moment.

Has anyone got these? How would people rate them? What other tyres are people running?

Cheers

Matty

[TryHard]

all Depends what u want to do with them ? ...

ATM im running Maxxis Bighorns and love them to bits great on anything

[tanshi]

great in mud,

not much chop for any thing else. Just my opinion but there are much better tyres out there.

I have bfg km2's and love them

[shep]

bighorns are a AT tyre in comparison to the centerpieds

[TryHard]

shep wrote:

bighorns are a AT tyre in comparison to the centerpieds

thats why i asked what hes planing on driving

[alien]

tanshi wrote:

great in mud,

not much chop for any thing else. Just my opinion but there are much better tyres out there.

I have bfg km2's and love them

what he said.

simex are fantastic in the slop. they suck on side-slopes and rocks.

to get the most out of them under a zuk you'd need to run beadlocks to be able to safely let enough air out of them to work properly (theyre very stiff).

i also found the beads very prone to get dirt/gravel/sand in them and create a slow leak. fixed that by putting tubes in.

[Fatzook]

Matt I think you will find the Simex suit Vic conditions quite well.

Run them on narrow rims and let the pressure down quite low and they should be fine.

KM2's would be packed full of mud in 2 seconds in VIC. Shitty place to wheel if you ask me

[alien]

Fatzook wrote:

Run them on narrow rims and let the pressure down quite low and they should be fine.

i ran mine on 15x7s and still couldnt go lower than 6psi without it looking like it was about to break the bead. i tested them in the driveway and they didnt properly bag out until around 2-3psi, then suddenly at like 1.5psi the sidewall just slumps and the rim touches the ground.

even in realllly loose mud i found the ass end slid sideways alot on a cross-slope, i even had a few brown moments where the whole car slid sideways across the slope i was driving before landing in a rut.

just something to be aware of, once i knew how they behaved i'd drive the side slopes diagonally or under more power to try stop it sliding away on me.

[IN2DEP]

Fatzook wrote:

Matt I think you will find the Simex suit Vic conditions quite well.

Run them on narrow rims and let the pressure down quite low and they should be fine.

KM2's would be packed full of mud in 2 seconds in VIC. Shitty place to wheel if you ask me

Victoria, the place to be FOR MUD FUN WOW, thats the shit,


I was thinking baja claws bit on the $$$ side but again good for us down south

[jonno_racing]

IN2DEP wrote:

Fatzook wrote:

Matt I think you will find the Simex suit Vic conditions quite well.

Run them on narrow rims and let the pressure down quite low and they should be fine.

KM2's would be packed full of mud in 2 seconds in VIC. Shitty place to wheel if you ask me

Victoria, the place to be FOR MUD FUN WOW, thats the shit,


I was thinking baja claws bit on the $$$ side but again good for us down south

swampers ftw. hell i even have some i would sell since i have found my new tires!

[Bruce]

Your question is "Are simex centipedes good"
My answer is YES. I love them for my Comp Sierra.

[steve]

I have them also, have had two different sets different sizes, 31s and 32s, they measure 1 size bigger than they say.

I've found them to be pretty good, it's a very hard rubber so last forever. I only use them on dry rocks and dirt and they work pretty well. They suck on wet rocks, but i'd guess there's not many tyres that are good on wet rocks.

They're a pretty loose fit on the rims so tend to pop off or break the bead a bit if you let them down to 0.

[ajsr]

simex centipedes are pretty much the perfect tyre for victorian winter mud.
they will go through the real goop better than swampers.
their down side is muddy rock and there are better tyres in the dry.
but they are pretty hard to go past really in vic

[smiffkid]

simex are a great tire, not much good in the sand but couldn really fault them any where else, such a robust tire

[matt91112011]

Thanks for all the responses.

So basically the positives for the Simex's are:

Strong
Longevity
Good mud tyre

Negatives:

Poor traction on wet rocks
Poor traction going sideways along hills


Why do you guys run your tyre pressures so low? I crossed the Simpson in a GU Patrol on BFG AT's at 20psi and had no problems.

I did see the Swampers, and the Micky Thompsons. Whats a tyre that has good across hill grip?

Thanks

Matty

[Red89]

steve wrote:

I have them also, have had two different sets different sizes, 31s and 32s, they measure 1 size bigger than they say.

I've found them to be pretty good, it's a very hard rubber so last forever. I only use them on dry rocks and dirt and they work pretty well. They suck on wet rocks, but i'd guess there's not many tyres that are good on wet rocks.

They're a pretty loose fit on the rims so tend to pop off or break the bead a bit if you let them down to 0.

X2 My 32's served me well


www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfNWs4YicBA

[boostedbrick]

matt91112011 wrote:

Thanks for all the responses.

So basically the positives for the Simex's are:

Strong
Longevity
Good mud tyre

Negatives:

Poor traction on wet rocks
Poor traction going sideways along hills


Why do you guys run your tyre pressures so low? I crossed the Simpson in a GU Patrol on BFG AT's at 20psi and had no problems.

I did see the Swampers, and the Micky Thompsons. Whats a tyre that has good across hill grip?

Thanks

Matty

23PSI is my road pressure... Gotta remember there isnt much weight on them

[steve]

matt91112011 wrote:

Why do you guys run your tyre pressures so low? I crossed the Simpson in a GU Patrol on BFG AT's at 20psi and had no problems.

Because they are a hard tyre, you have to run very low pressure to get them to bag out. I usually run between 5 and 0 psi.
(This is offroad ONLY)


I find my tyres have good grip sideways on hills. If it's dry.

[smiffkid]

u have to let tires on a suzuki low so they can bulge, expecially if its a mud terrain or a light truck tire,
i used to run my baja claws at 6 in the sand and around 12 on the rock, i found them great all round tires,

[shep]

my troopie has 20psi and my sierra has 7 psi in the tyres.

my troopie weighs around 2500 kg and the sierra is around 900kg

[matt91112011]

Makes sense, now I see its a weight thing, so I obviously need to buy beadlocks then, how much are they? Where can i source them?

[steve]

I guess we forgot to ask,

What kind of driving do you do?
Do you need these tyres?
Do you have diff locks?

There's no point getting crazy stuff if you don't need it.

[matt91112011]

I do all kinds of driving. I try to avoid rocks as much as possible, but I like playing in the mud a lot. I want to do a few long trips in it, but I will buy AT's for that. I don't have diff locks but I am planning on getting them after a few other things have gone in first. Il ike having crazy stuff lol.

[ajsr]

another virtually identical but cheaper option to simex is the silverstone exteames. they run a little small size wise though, but are quite a bit cheaper

[remydog05]

See is you can get some second hand tyers and see if you like them.

Ive used 32 Simex on my Zook in Vic in many different conditions and I find them great, but Ive seen KM2's working well on zooks so I will prob 35's in the next year or so.

[Gwagensteve]

matt91112011 wrote:

I do all kinds of driving. I try to avoid rocks as much as possible

Golly, why on earth would you want to avoid rock?

Anyway, speaking from experience in Victoria, the only real advantage centipedes have over most other tyres is on slick clay climbs without any ruts. That's the kind of track where it's hard to maintain directional control. In these conditions, I've seen centipedes hook up better than any other tyre. That's a product of their narrow overall width and high ground pressure.

You're not running lockers though, so you're not getting onto those kind of tracks in any case. This isn't dismissive, it just means you're putting the cart before the horse. you can have a 56" tractor tyre, but if it's not being driven it can't get help.

Most guys running 'pedes have gone from a 10.5 or 12.5 radial mud tyre like a BFG or MTR or similar. Compared to these, a simex is awesome offroad. compared to a swamper, a silverstone, or a Krawler, they're not outstanding (except for on that one kind of track)

It's a shame that simex's have such a rubbish compound and carcass. If these were better, they really would be excellent tyres, but for the money, excellent performance on one type of track, and only fair performance everywhere else, doesn't make them a very appealing tyre.

The Silverstones look to be every bit as good for less money, and they look like they might have a softer carcass too.

The problem with Vic isn't deep mud - that's just boring -it's horsepower and big tyres. It's the transition from a deeply rutted climb, to a slick climb, to rocks, so blacksoil, to tree roots and back to clay.... all in one track. The simex might own the slick climb but in the ruts, it's all about diameter and width, and on the rocks and tree roots it's all about the flexibility of the carcass.

Simex's were designed by Chris Hummer as a competition tyre, (Winch challenge) and that's where they work. High horsepower, high speed, heavy car, one shot. that's as far from the way we drive sierras as you can get.

Personally, I'd run some very aggressive 7.50 16's like these -

They're cheap, easy on the car easy to fit, nice and tall, and let you save money for the lockers and gears you're going to need to make any big tyre work.

Across the vic club, we have quite few sets of Mongrels and silverstones at the 31-32" sizing, and swampers and Krawlers once we go above 32" but we also have a few guys running 7.50's too.

Oh, and http://vic.suzuki4wd.com/forum/index.php

[Red89]

The carcass on mine seem to flex well enough.

[Gwagensteve]

I don't believe that's a functional pressure you've posted there Red89 (i.e you'd drive the car like that). Note how the inner bead is coming away from the rim at the fold. That's going to fall off if driven far.

There's a big difference between posting a photo of a car with a flat tyre and the dynamic flexibility of a carcass when being driven on. I can't comment for everywhere, but we often combine very low tyre pressure with plenty of wheelspeed and bumping roots and rocks in ruts. Simex's fall off rims under these circumstances, and it's due to the rigidity of the carcass, which won't let the tread move far without loading up the bead.

Steve.

[smiffkid]

there built with a hard carcass, simply for added strength and durability,

[smiffkid]

oh and chris designed the centipede for the malaysion rainforest challenge