K58

[Gareth]

Has anybody used K58 tyres on a GAZ66 ? The tread pattern looks like it would give a longer life or any recommondations on a long lasting tyre?

[zoltan]

If you can get new tyres, the T5 Stomil is really good, it doesn't have the aggressive looks of the K70 but it has a good tread pattern which works well enough offroad and it is lovely and smooth on road and will last well on tarmac.

Drawback is making sure what you are being sold is brand new because there is a world of difference in fitting an unused tyre that was made 20 years ago and stored horizontally in a stack and a genuinely new tyre made in the last year. As soon as you fit the old tyre and air it up all the horrors come in to view

Pretty much most of the 'new' tyres you see for sale are all really old NOS and are ex surplus. The only way to get new new tyres is buy direct from the Stomil factory. We looked into this a few years back and they wanted us to sign documents saying the tyres wouldn't be put to military use etc and the prices were pretty horrendous. Grommit was on the point of pushing the button and then found K70s much more sensibly priced and went for those instead

I'm not sure what the K58 looks like

[Gareth]

I bought a new set of K70s and have done 10,000km on them but they are getting a little low. I was thinking of some thing a little longer lasting for my next jaunt

[Grommet1]

Search my name and k58 for my bad experience with so called part worn ones.
Even if you find a decent set of new ones beware you might need 13 inch tubes as the 12 inch ones i used were overinflated and it ripped holes by the valves when inflated. Maybe you can get 18x12 in k58s.
Also my set was a seriously tight fit on the rim even though labelled 18 and tons of rubber grease as soap didn't work.
They're a larger rolling radius and for the brief journey before they exploded the effect on 'acceleration' was noticeably worse.
Shame as I liked the profile too
Regards
John
Edit. Just checked. Mine are labelled 13.00 18 340-457

[Grommet1]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JRhPLojtqp2AfFh57
Not sure if that'll work. Let me know if you can't see the picture of the exploded tyre.

[OJMaxwell]

Has anybody used K58 tyres on a GAZ66 ? The tread pattern looks like it would give a longer life or any recommondations on a long lasting tyre?

Sorry - a bit late to the party - K58 is very popular here on G66s for the sole reason that it gets surplussed from the military for low prices. Those tyres are not in production currently, so anything you can lay your hands on would be in some stage of aging and decay.
I actually got my truck with those tyres on - they do not really want to squish under an empty/living box car because they are a bit stiffer than the stocks. I decided to take them off and swap for some stock K70s. Another point is that K58s are an absolute headache to squeeze onto and take off the rims.
As for the driving experience, they are fine, some say that they slide sideways a bit more on clay soils, but I don't have a lot of experience with them. I know they don't allow to use the tyre pressure system effectively, so I went for proper bed locking rims with stock tyres - nothing like letting the air out to 0.4atm in half a meter of snow and then just ride around like you're on a local mall parking lot